Select and Delete More Than 50 Conversations in Gmail
By default, Gmail lets you mass-select fifty messages with a single click. While this is useful, it’s not always helpful—especially when there are a lot of unwanted conversations you want to get rid of. It’s also restrictive if you want to clear your inbox and keep it more organized.
Fortunately, there’s also a quick way to select all messages and delete them in one go.
Using a Laptop or Tablet
In this video, we'll show you the quickest and easiest way to select all your emails with just a few clicks.
- Open your Inbox or a custom folder.
- Click the checkbox above the messages. This will select 50 conversations on the page.
- Click the option to select all the remaining messages in your Inbox.
- Click the Delete (trash can) icon.
- Press Ok to confirm the bulk action.
Using the Gmail Mobile App
- Open the Gmail App on an iPhone or Android phone.
- Go to your Inbox.
- Tap the circular sender icon to select one message.
- Tap Select All. This selects the first 50 messages at once.
- Scroll down until you see unselected messages, press Select All, and another 50 messages will be selected.
- Otherwise, scroll down to the bottom to reach the earliest messages, and press Select All again to select all messages in the folder at once.
- Keep scrolling until you’ve selected all the emails you want to quickly delete.
- Tap the Trash icon.
Easily Select and Delete Emails in Bulk with Clean Email
As you can see, Gmail provides a convenient Select all messages button on desktop but lacks this feature on mobile, making it challenging to delete more than 50 messages at a time. However, don't be discouraged. The Clean Email app, available for both iOS and Android, makes selecting Gmail emails in bulk on mobile a breeze and allows you to quickly delete them.
- Download the app and sign up for free with your email address.
- Open the left-hand menu and scroll down to the Mailbox section.
- Select All Mail. Here you will see messages bundled by sender, so you can select all messages each sender has sent you in one click.
- Tap Select below.
- Tap the circles next to message bundles to select multiple messages.
- Tap Trash below to send the unwanted messages to the Trash folder. Or, you can even prevent the messages from going to the Trash folder by clicking Delete to permanently remove them.
If you want to select ALL messages in your inbox, you can easily do it in Clean Email too:
- Go to the All Mail folder as described in the previous guide.
- Tap the Select button below or the circular icon next to any sender to select one message bundle.
- Tap the Select All button below.
- Tap Trash and confirm your choice. Alternatively, click … More and choose Delete to permanently remove your emails.
How to Delete More Than 50 Messages Using the Safari Web Browser
If you are an iPhone user and need to delete more than 50 messages at once in Gmail, consider using the Safari browser. While the Gmail mobile app lacks a Select all feature, Safari's desktop mode allows you to select all messages at once in the same way as on the desktop. Here’s how:
- Open iPhone or iPad Settings.
- Scroll to the apps list and tap Safari.
- Scroll down and tap Request Desktop Website.
- Turn on All Websites.
- Go back to the Home Screen.
- Open the Safari browser.
- Go to gmail.com and log in.
- Just like on the desktop version of Gmail, tap the checkbox above the messages to select all 50 conversations on the page.
- Tap the option Select all… to select all the remaining messages.
- Tap the Trash icon.
- Tap Ok to confirm the bulk action.
Using Safari in desktop mode on an iPhone can be cumbersome and time-consuming due to multiple steps and a smaller screen size. For a more user-friendly experience, we recommend using the Clean Email mobile app to easily manage and delete emails in bulk.
Mass Delete Unimportant Gmail Emails Older Than 6 Months
Old conversations occupy space, and one way to clean your Gmail inbox is to erase unnecessary old messages.
How to Delete More Than 50 Unstarred Emails Older Than 6 Months
- Open your Gmail Inbox and go to the Search bar.
- Type the Google Search Operator older_than:6m to find emails older than 6 months.
- To exclude starred messages, add another operator -label:starred.
- Hit Enter.
- Click the checkbox to select all of the messages matching the criteria.
- Click the Trash icon.
💡 Hint: Use d (day), m (month), and y (year) with the search operator to refine your search.
In Clean Email, whether you're on a desktop or mobile device, you can delete specific messages in bulk even easier by using the wide range of filtering options to find specific messages, such as unstarred unread social media notifications older than three months.
How to Delete All Emails by Category Very Fast
While you can mass delete emails in the Gmail app, there are still limitations especially when you want to precisely select the conversations to erase.
Clean Email helps clear your inbox faster using Smart Folders. It automatically categorizes your messages so you can quickly select unwanted emails under Seasonal Sales, Social Notifications, Newspapers and Magazines, and more. While Gmail also has preset filters, Clean Email offers a more detailed and precise sorting way to solve the problem.
You can track all changes made in the Action History tab and undo any accidental deletions. You can also opt to permanently delete old emails in Gmail instead of moving them to the Trash folder where they continue to occupy storage space.
For regular cleanups, you can take advantage of the Auto Clean feature to auto-delete emails in Gmail. All you have to do is create a rule and save it so that every message that meets the rule becomes deleted. This feature is conveniently available on the mobile app as well as on the desktop.
Delete More Than 50 Emails Marked by Gmail as Promotions, Social Notifications, or Updates
Using Gmail on a web browser
- Navigate to the folder of the messages you want to delete (such as Promotions).
- Click the checkbox on the top left corner to select all messages.
- Click Select all [number] conversations in [folder].
- Tap the Trash icon.
Using the Clean Email Web App
- Sign in to your Clean Email account.
- Open the left-hand menu and expand the Smart Folders. Choose a folder such as Online Shopping, Seasonal sales, Social Notifications, or Misc notifications.
- Mass select the unwanted mail:
- To delete all messages, click Select → Select All.
- To delete only certain message bundles, click Select and mark the empty checkboxes to the left of these email groups.
- Delete the selected emails:
- Click Trash to send conversations to the Trash folder. If you accidentally delete some messages, you can go to the Trash folder, select them, and click Restore.
- To permanently erase the messages, click Delete. Note that after doing so, you won’t be able to restore them.
Using the Clean Email Mobile App
You can use the same steps on the mobile app as on the desktop to delete emails grouped into Smart Folders.
However, there is an even quicker way to mass delete emails, which you can also try on a desktop.
- Install the app on your iOS or Android device.
- Connect your Gmail account.
- Tap the Suggestions tool in the left-hand menu.
- Apply an action to each email group, such as Trash (temporarily move to the Trash folder before deletion) or Delete (permanently erase the emails).
You can also choose to Keep Newest messages only so you can reduce the clutter and focus only on the newest ones.
Easy Delete More Than 50 Unread Emails in Gmail
To delete multiple new or unread messages in Gmail in bulk, follow these steps:
- Go to the Search bar.
- Type is:unread and hit Enter.
- Select the checkbox to choose all the displayed messages.
- Click Select all conversations that match this search to choose more than 50 conversations.
- Click the Trash can icon.
Find and Delete More Than 50 Archived Emails
Gmail doesn’t have a dedicated Archive folder, but you can find archived emails in the All Mail folder, which contains all the conversations you’ve received in your Gmail account, or by using a search operator as described below:
- Go to the Search bar.
- Type in:archive and press Enter.
- Review the search results.
- Click the checkbox to select 50 messages on the page.
- Click the Trash icon.
⚠️ Note: Unlike other search queries, there’s no option to select all other conversations that match the archived email criteria. You have to move through each page of the search result to choose a maximum of 50 emails contained per page.
Locating and deleting archived emails in Gmail can be a tedious process, but Clean Email makes it much easier. With Clean Email, you can access all your archived emails from a dedicated folder and delete them with just a few clicks. Here’s how:
- Go to https://app.clean.email, or download and open the mobile app, and sign in with your account.
- Expand the Mailbox section in the left-hand menu and choose Archive.
- Here you’ll find all of your archived Gmail emails.
- To mass-select archived messages, click Select or the circular icon next to any sender to select one message.
- Click Select All.
- Choose Trash to move the messages to the Trash folder, or Delete for permanent and irreversible deletion.
- Confirm your choice to proceed.
Wrapping Up
Gmail offers a robust method to select and delete more than 50 emails from various folders. However, the feature is still limited—especially when you want to remove conversations under precise categories.
The Clean Email app can solve the issue better by helping you delete only the most relevant emails to the given criteria and by enabling auto-deletion capabilities using automated rules. This improves inbox management and ensures you have an organized Gmail inbox.
Furthermore, Clean Email can help you unsubscribe from junk mail so you can reduce the number of unwanted and unopened emails.
