The Importance of a Clean Mailbox
Unless you practice good email hygiene, your mailbox has probably been overrun by messages that are irrelevant, stale, or both. Outlook.com offers users nearly 15 GB of free storage. If you’re a heavy email user, you are probably near your storage limit if you don’t delete old emails or irrelevant messages.
However, storage isn’t the only reason having a clean inbox is important. A clean mailbox boosts productivity and improves response time. Whereas a cluttered inbox will hide important messages, and you’ll have to dig through hundreds of emails to find one that is important.
How to Delete Multiple Emails on Outlook
Unlike many other service providers, Outlook offers a variety of options to clean up emails. Check out this video to find out how to delete Outlook emails in bulk and rejuvenate your cluttered mailbox.
Keep reading to find several ways to delete Outlook email, both for the Outlook desktop app and the mobile app. We’ll show you how deleting multiple emails in Outlook can quickly clear out unwanted and unnecessary messages in your inbox.
Get the guide for your Outlook app:
- On Desktop
- On the Web
- On Mobile
For a more efficient solution, use Clean Email to overcome the limitations of Outlook’s web and mobile apps. Connect your Outlook.com account to easily find and delete emails in bulk across all platforms, including web, Mac, and mobile (Android and iOS).
How to Delete Multiple Emails in the Outlook Desktop Client
Knowing how to mass delete Outlook emails can make it simple to clean up your mailbox and ensure important messages don’t get lost in the clutter. There are several ways you can get this job done.
Delete emails using the Outlook Clean Up tool
Outlook provides a built-in email cleaner that lets you automatically delete emails in Outlook when you find redundant messages in a conversation or folder.
📌 This tool is only available in the desktop version of Outlook: Outlook for Microsoft 365, Classic Outlook for Windows, Outlook 2021, Outlook 2019, Outlook 2016, Office for business, Office 365 Small Business, and Microsoft 365 admin.
Here’s how to bulk delete emails in Outlook with the Clean Up tool:
- Select the conversation thread or folder that you’d like to clean up.
- Go to the Home tab and select the Clean Up drop-down arrow.
- Choose to either Clean Up Conversation, Clean Up Folder, or Clean Up Folders & Subfolders.
- If prompted, select Clean Up or Clean Up Folder to confirm.
The messages are then moved to the Deleted Items folder where you can permanently remove them if you like.
Delete all emails in a single folder
📌 Supported on all desktop versions of Outlook
Outlook, like Gmail, allows you to delete all emails in a single folder. This is convenient if you use a folder to hold emails for a short-term project, special occasion, or travel planning. When those messages are no longer needed, you can just remove them all.
In Outlook on your desktop (supported on all desktop versions of Outlook), follow these steps to remove all the messages in a folder:
- Open the Folder Pane on the left to select the folder.
- Right-click the folder and choose Delete All.
- Pick Yes to confirm and move the messages to the Deleted Items folder.
If you prefer to use keyboard shortcuts to delete all messages in a folder, press Ctrl + A (Windows) or Command + A (Mac) to select the emails. Then, press the Delete key.
💡 Hint: If you are a Mac user, follow our guide on how to delete multiple emails on Mac.
Clean up consecutive and nonconsecutive emails
📌 Supported on all desktop versions of Outlook
Here’s how to delete multiple emails from Outlook when you want to remove just a few messages, but not all.
- For consecutive messages: Select the first email in the list, press and hold Shift, select the last message in the group you want to remove, and press Delete.
- For nonconsecutive messages: Select the first email, press and hold Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac), select the other messages you want to remove, and press Delete.
Delete multiple emails by date, sender, or size
📌 Supported on all desktop versions of Outlook
You may have specific messages in your inbox or a folder that you want to remove in bulk. These could be old messages, those from a particular sender, or emails above a certain size. You can remove these easily by grouping and then deleting emails in Outlook.
- Open the Folder Pane and choose your Inbox or the folder containing the emails.
- Go to the View tab, open the Arrange By drop-down menu, and choose Show in Groups.
- You can then select an option below according to the messages you want to remove.
- Choose Date to group by timeframe.
- Choose From to group by sender.
- Choose Size to group by size.
📌 Tip: You can also use the drop-down box on the top right of the message list to choose an arrangement above.
- You’ll then see the email list grouped by your chosen arrangement and can use the arrow on the left of the group header to expand or collapse the group.
- Right-click the header for the group of emails you want to remove and select Delete. As examples, you can remove old messages using the Older group header or sizable emails using the Large (1 – 5 MB) header.
- Choose OK to confirm.
Remember, if you accidentally remove an email you need, head to the Deleted Items folder and move the message back to your Inbox or its folder.
How to Delete Multiple Emails in the Outlook Web App
If you manage your messages on the web instead of your desktop, you can bulk delete Outlook emails there as well. However, the options for choosing the messages you want to remove are a bit more limited. Let’s look at a few common methods.
💡 Note: All messages you delete on Outlook.com also go to the Deleted Items folder. To free up space immediately, you need to empty this folder.
Delete all messages in a single folder
Maybe you have a folder of emails you only need for a short time. When time’s up, you can remove them in one fell swoop.
- Display the Navigation Pane on the left using the menu icon (three lines) on the top left.
- Select the folder containing the emails you want to delete.
- On the top right of the message list, click Select. This then places a checkbox on the left side allowing you to select all emails in the list.
- Check that box and choose Empty Folder in the top toolbar or bottom of the list.
- Click OK to confirm.
You can also right-click the folder you want to empty and choose Empty Folder from the options.
Clean up consecutive and nonconsecutive emails
You can delete consecutive or nonconsecutive emails in Outlook on the web the same way as in the desktop application.
- For consecutive messages: Select the first email in the group, hold Shift, select the last email, and press Delete.
- For nonconsecutive messages: Select the first email, hold Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac), select the other emails, and press Delete.
Delete unread emails
Another way to clean up items on Outlook.com is to remove unread emails. This is especially handy if you have many unread messages in a folder that you have no intention to read or need.
- Display the Navigation Pane and select your Inbox or a different folder. Notice that you’ll see the number of unread conversations to the right of the Inbox or folder.
- On the top right of the message list, select Filter and choose Unread. This then displays only the unread emails.
- Also on the top right, click Select to display the checkbox on the left and then mark the box to select all emails.
- Choose Empty Folder in the top toolbar or bottom of the list.
- Click OK to confirm.
💡 Hint: You can then remove the filter by clicking Unread on the top right.
How to Delete Multiple Emails in the Outlook Mobile App
Using the Outlook mobile app to delete emails in bulk is also limited, but more so than Outlook on the web. You can; however, remove all messages in a folder along with consecutive and nonconsecutive emails.
Delete all messages in a single folder
If you want to get rid of all messages in a folder, you can do this easily in the Outlook mobile app.
- Open the menu using your profile icon on the top left and then choose a folder.
- Long-press (tap and hold) a message in the list to display the Select All option on the top left.
- Mark Select All and tap the Delete icon (trash can) at the bottom.
- Choose Delete to confirm.
Delete consecutive and nonconsecutive emails
You can delete consecutive or nonconsecutive emails in the Outlook mobile app similar to removing all messages as described directly above.
Start by long-pressing a message in the list, then do one of the following:
- For consecutive messages: Slide your finger down the left side of the message list to mark adjacent emails and choose Delete at the bottom.
- For nonconsecutive messages: Tap to mark each email and choose Delete at the bottom.
💡 Hint: Follow our guides on how to delete all emails at once on Android and how to delete all emails on iPhone.
Delete all messages in your Inbox at once
If you're looking to clear out all your Outlook emails using the mobile app, the process is similar to deleting all emails in a single folder. However, it requires extra steps when dealing with a large number of emails.
⚠️ Note: No matter the reason for wanting to delete all emails, we highly recommend backing up any important conversations before proceeding. Deleting everything at once may result in the loss of valuable emails that can’t be recovered.
- Open the left-side menu and go to your Inbox.
- Long-press a message to select it.
- Tap Select All in the top left corner. Keep in mind that this will only select the first 60 emails.
- Scroll to the bottom of your Inbox and press Load more conversations.
- Once more messages load, tap Select All again. Make sure all emails are selected.
- Tap the Delete icon (trash can) at the bottom and confirm the action.
If this process seems cumbersome, especially for users with large inboxes, we suggest using the Clean Email app. Clean Email offers a convenient Select All button, which works seamlessly on both desktop and mobile, allowing you to delete all emails in one go without extra steps.
Quickly Delete Multiple Outlook Emails with Clean Email
Because of the limitations of deleting multiple emails in Outlook using the web and mobile apps, an effective alternative is to use Clean Email. By connecting your Outlook.com account, you can use Clean Email’s robust features to easily find and delete emails in bulk across all platforms, including the web app, Mac app, and mobile (Android and iOS).
What’s nice about this option is that you can use the same features in Clean Email on the web and in the mobile app. So, you’re not limited to what you can do depending on where you use Clean Email to delete multiple Outlook emails.
Here are a couple of examples of how to delete emails in Outlook in bulk using Clean Email on mobile.
Clean up Emails by Date, Size, or Unread Status
If you like the option to remove multiple messages based on date, size, or unread status that you see in Outlook’s versions, you can do the same in Clean Email but withouta bunch of steps.
- Head to your Inbox or All Mail using the left-hand pane.
- At the top of your Inbox, you’ll see options for Unread, Old Mail, and Large Mail. Select the one you want. If you pick Old Mail, you can choose the timeframe and for Large Mail, you can choose the size.
- You’ll then see all messages that apply to your filter. To remove them all, pick Select at the bottom.
- Choose Select All and then click Delete or Trash at the bottom. Confirm your action.
📌 Note: The Delete action permanently removes emails, while Trash moves them to the Trash folder, allowing for recovery later if needed.
Delete Emails with Cleaning Suggestions
Another handy way to delete multiple email in Outlook with Clean Email is using the Cleaning Suggestions. This feature automatically groups messages for you based on factors like sender, subject line, or attachment size. You can then take action on an entire group at once.
- Select Suggestions in the left-hand menu pane.
- You’ll then see emails grouped and the number of messages within each group.
- Check out the recommendations such as sending emails to the Trash or Archive and then use a suggestion by clicking the button to the right.
- You can also use the drop-down menu for the Trash or Archive button to pick another action. You can choose Delete to permanently remove the emails or Keep Newest to only retain the latest message from a sender.
💡 Note: There is an Outlook email service provider (if your email address ends in @outlook.com or @hotmail.com, etc.) and an Outlook desktop client (you can connect it to any mail provider, including Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, and more). With Clean Email, each email address you use needs to be connected individually, as the app doesn't automatically import all accounts from your Outlook desktop app.
How Clean Email Can Further Simplify Email Management
Along with the simple and effective ways mentioned above to delete Outlook emails in bulk, you can take advantage of Clean Email’s other features to manage your emails.
While Outlook may offer some similar options, the following features provide more control and flexibility and are available in both the web and mobile Clean Email apps.
Unsubscriber
Put an end to newsletters, promotional messages, and marketing emails you no longer want with Unsubscriber. Simply select Unsubscriber in the menu and hit the Unsubscribe button. You can also pause subscription emails for a short time instead of unsubscribing completely.
Auto Clean
Set up rules to handle incoming messages without lifting another finger. You can send emails to a folder or to Trash, add or remove a flag, or mark emails as spam. This is ideal if you want to delete all emails from one sender or those with a certain word in the subject line.
Smart Folders
Check out the premade Smart Folders that Clean Email creates for you. You can then move, mark, or delete emails like Seasonal Sales, Online Shopping, or Travel-related messages in bulk.
With these Clean Email features and more, you can better manage your Outlook inbox, stay on top of important messages, and reduce the clutter—all while ensuring a safe and secure mailbox.
Conclusion
It is crucial to know how to delete multiple emails in Outlook and how to delete old emails to keep your mailbox clean and organized without running out of storage. While you can do this manually, using an app like Clean Email will help save you time and keep your inbox in order.
How to Delete Multiple Emails in Outlook – FAQs
How do I delete multiple emails in Outlook?
You can delete them by selecting and deleting emails in groups. Shortcut keys such as Ctrl + A on Windows and Command + A on Mac can be used to highlight an entire email folder. Once messages are selected, you can proceed to click the Delete button on your keyboard or on the app.
How do I mass delete emails in Outlook by date?
On the Outlook desktop app, you can sort and delete messages by date, size, and subject. To mass delete emails by date, follow these steps. Launch the Desktop app → select Sort by date on the ribbon → highlight messages by date → select Delete.
How to delete multiple emails in Outlook mobile app?
On the Outlook mobile app, open the folder or Inbox, long-press on an email to enter selection mode, then tap on other emails you want to remove. You can tap Select All to choose up to 60 emails at once. If there are more than 60, scroll down and tap Load More Conversations, then tap Select All again until all emails are selected. Once done, tap the delete icon.
Is there an app to mass delete Outlook emails?
You can use third-party apps for better email management, control, and to mass delete emails. With an app like Clean Email, you can set up rules and filters to automatically remove incoming messages matching the rule. It also has a Smart Folders feature that combines similar messages into easy-to-review bundles allowing you to delete multiple messages in a few clicks.
How do you select multiple emails in Outlook?
To select multiple emails in Outlook, hold down the Ctrl key (Windows) or Command key (Mac) while clicking on individual messages. For a range, click the first email, hold Shift, and click the last email in the group.
