How to...Find and delete all archived messages in Gmail

Find and delete all archived messages in Gmail

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How do I find and delete all the emails that have been archived in my Gmail account? Is there a way to filter out what has been archived and what hasn't so that it would make deleting these easier? gmail archive shareimprove this question edited Jun 3 '11 at 15:58 Eight Days of Malaise 7,16042145 asked Jun 3 '11 at 10:01 Pacerier 1,12311033

1 How do you define simplest? I don't think there's a one-click command for that. – R.K. Jun 3 '11 at 11:03 5 Padding out your question with words complaining about the quality standards that SE impose does NOT make your question any better. Asking quality questions will improve the site as a whole and improve your chances of getting a quality answer. – Barry♦ Jun 3 '11 at 11:21 Out of curiosity, why would you ever want to do that? – Lohoris Jan 20 '12 at 11:30 @Barry, yes edited. – Pacerier Mar 2 at 3:47 @Lohoris, to clear archived emails at regular intervals. – Pacerier Mar 2 at 3:51 show 7 more comments

2 Answers

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In the Gmail search box, type -label:inbox -label:sent -label:drafts -label:notes and press enter. That should give you all your archived messages. Once there, select All and then clickSelect all conversations that match this search to ensure that all messages are selected. ClickDelete. They'd still go the the Trash though so you'd have to empty the Trash as a final step.