How to Sort Gmail by Date, Name, or Subject (What Actually Works)

Key Takeaways

• Gmail does not currently offer traditional sorting features for date, sender, or subject, and does not support sorting alphabetically.
• You can use the Most Recent rather than the Most Relevant sort order if you search to find the desired emails first.
• You can quickly skip to the last page of your viewable messages to see the oldest ones by choosing Oldest in the email counter drop-down box.
• You can sort Gmail on your mobile device with the search options, or consider a better alternative like Clean Email that has advanced sorting features.

Can You Sort in Gmail?

When you want to see emails in chronological or alphabetical order, it’s natural to sort your inbox. But Gmail is unlike many other email service providers that allow you to use columns for sorting. This is because Gmail is built to manage large volumes of emails through searches rather than sorting.

What’s even more unfortunate about this is that it’s not obvious. Gmail offers several Inbox Types including Important First and Priority Inbox, but none of the options let you sort your emails. And there are no settings available to enable sorting.

That said, you are able to sort search results in Gmail which can be helpful in some scenarios. Plus, there are hacks that other users have tried to bypass Gmail’s limitations. We’ll look at these options for the most common situations along with better solutions to accomplish sorting in Gmail.

How to Sort Gmail by Date

One of the most desirable sorting scenarios is by date. And while Gmail’s default sorting shows your most recent emails first, you might want the opposite. Maybe you want to sort Gmail from oldest to newest to find messages from last week or those from a particular month.

Workaround: A workaround for this is to search Gmail by date. You can look for messages within a day, week, or month from a certain date using the search options and then sort the results by Most Recent.

The limitation with this workaround is that you must know (to some extent) when you received the email.

Also try: If you prefer to sort without using the search options, there is a hack that some users have tried. In your Inbox, All Mail, or a label, click the email counter on the top right and pick Oldest from the drop-down box.

The limitation with this option is that it simply takes you to the last page of your emails. While this may help you find what you need, it doesn’t provide any value if your emails all fit on one page. And it’s ineffective if you have pages upon pages of emails and the one you need falls somewhere in the middle.

How to Sort Gmail by Name

While you can use tricks to sort Gmail in chronological order, things get stickier when you want to sort by sender name. This is something you might want if you know the sender’s name starts with a particular letter.

For example, you might remember that the sender’s name starts with a C, but you can’t recall if it’s Cary, Chris, or Courtney. By sorting, you can scan through until you recognize the name. Unfortunately, you cannot sort alphabetically in Gmail.

Workaround: A workaround for this is to search for the sender. As you begin typing their name in the Search Options box, you’ll see suggestions and can hopefully spot the correct one.

The limitation here is that searching works well if you know the sender’s name, but not if you only know the first letter or two. Those suggestions show the letter(s) in a variety of combinations that also include the email address.

Also try: Another trick some have used is to right-click an email from the sender and pick Find emails from [sender name].

The limitation in this case is that you must know the sender’s name which is likely why you prefer to sort by sender rather than search by sender in the first place.

How to Sort Gmail by Subject

One more way you might want to sort in Gmail is by subject. This is helpful if you know that the subject starts with a specific letter, number, or character or if you don’t use Conversation View and want to see all replies to a thread in order.

Workaround: A workaround here is just like the sort options above – search by subject. You can use the Gmail search operator subject: or enter a term in the search options box and see all emails with it.

A limitation with the workaround is that you may receive many more results than you expect. Depending on the size of your inbox, you could easily wind up with hundreds or thousands of results.

Also try: While there’s no true trick that works for sorting by subject, one thing that users do is to enter multiple criteria for the search. For instance, you might include the size or date range along with the search term to better narrow the results

A limitation here is that you must know one of the criteria you choose. If all you know is a word or letter in the subject, then this option is impractical.

As mentioned, tools like Clean Email can help solve your Gmail sorting dilemma. Just group messages by Subject and then sort them alphabetically or in reverse. You can then review or even act on groups of emails in bulk if you like.

Conclusion

If you’ve been wondering how to sort Gmail by oldest first or alphabetically by sender or subject, you now know your options. While these workarounds and hacks are limited and mostly involve searching, they can still help you find the emails you need.

And when you tire of using tricks rather than Gmail's built-in features, consider trying Clean Email for free to use its time-saving sorting tools. Clean Email is safe to use, available on desktop and mobile, and supports all IMAP service providers.