Remove or Archive All Messages in a Specific Folder/Label
To apply any action to all messages in a specific Folder/Label:
📌 Note: In Google mail accounts such as those using Gmail or Google Workspace (GSuite), messages can be categorized by applying labels (or ‘moving’ messages to a label). In other email services, messages are grouped into various folders.
The terms “label” and “folder” have similar meanings for the purposes of this article.
Also, please note that in Google mail accounts, applying a label means adding the selected label to any existing labels that are already on the message(s) (not replacing the labels). By contrast, moving a message to a label clears all other labels and applies the new one only.
Some labels (such as sent) cannot be applied or have messages moved to them.
In the left-hand navigation menu, select the All Mail folder.
Click the Filter button, and then in the drop-down menu, click the Labeled As drop-down.
From the Labeled as drop-down, choose the label or folder to which you want to apply an action.
Alternatively, you can perform actions on all messages that do not have one or more specific labels by clicking the Not Labeled drop-down and choosing the labels that will not be affected by your actions.
After choosing the label where you want to perform an action, click Select… just below the All Mail heading at the top of the page.
Then, click Select All.
All messages in the selected folder or label are selected.
An action bar appears at the bottom of the page.
Click any action to perform it on all selected messages–in this case, on all messages in the folder or label.
⚠️ Caution: Please use caution when applying an action to all messages in a folder or label. Some actions are permanent and cannot be undone. It is important to review which messages are selected before taking an action on all of them.
For example:
- To move all selected messages to the trash, click Trash.
- To archive all selected messages–meaning to remove the Inbox label or move them out of the Inbox folder–-click Archive.
- To permanently delete all selected messages, click Delete.
- To move to the trash all except the single most recent message, click Keep Newest.
When you click a button on the action bar, a dialog appears to confirm that you want to take the action on all selected messages. The number of messages that will be affected is shown.
By default, the Do not ask for confirmation again toggle is disabled, as illustrated above. If you click to enable the toggle, it turns green and the button moves to the right. You will not be prompted to confirm this specific action when you perform it in the future.
Click Confirm to complete the action.
⚠️ Important: CLEAN EMAIL DOES NOT RECOMMEND CREATING AUTO CLEAN RULES FOR AN ENTIRE FOLDER OR LABEL. Please read this article to find out more about what can happen if you create Auto Clean rules that are too broad.
If you change your mind, click the X at the top right-hand corner of the action bar to close the action bar and unselect all messages.
In case you start a cleaning action by mistake, the Quick Cancel feature can give you a chance to cancel the action before it begins.
For more information, please see Canceling an Accidental Action with Quick Clean.
Please contact us and we will be happy to help.
