How to Select Multiple Emails in Gmail

Gmail is one of the most widely used email clients in the world, with over a billion users. In order to simplify email management, they recently introduced keyboard shortcuts that help you delete, label or move your emails with just a few clicks.

If you're wondering how to use shortcuts in the best possible way, keep reading. In this article, we will show you many ways to select multiple emails and organize your Gmail quickly and efficiently.

How to Select Multiple Emails in Gmail

Selecting multiple emails is a simple action in Gmail, and you can do it in different ways. Since each email has a small square to its left, you can use your cursor to mark the emails you want and then decide how you want to handle them. Here's how:

1. Open your Gmail inbox.
   
2. Click the checkbox in front of the first message in your inbox.
   
3. Hold down the Shift key.
   
4. Now click on the last message and all others will be selected.
   
5. Release Shift and decide what you want to do with the emails.

Another way to do this is to enter a name or email address in the search bar and then select the emails you want to delete. This way, you'll avoid endlessly scrolling through your inbox and finding exactly what you need. If all the emails you want to view are from the same email address, you can select all of them and then add a label, move or delete them from your inbox. This is how it works:

1. Type a name or email address in the search box.
   
2. When you see all emails listed, you can decide how to handle them.
   
3. Once you're done, click "Inbox" and repeat the process.
   

If you want to declutter your inbox, you will need to select many emails based on a specific criteria. This approach might just do the trick:

1. Open your Gmail account.
   
2. Open a label or any other folder containing emails.
   
3. Click the down arrow next to the main checkbox and choose the category you want to select. You can choose "Select All" or a specific type like "Unread" or "Selected".
   
4. Decide what you want to do with the selected emails.

How to Select Multiple Emails in Gmail on Mac

Gmail is one of the most commonly used email services. However, it doesn't come with a desktop email client, and that's why you can only use it through your browser. Using a Mail app for macOS, you can connect your Gmail account and then access it from your desktop. Here's what you need to do:

1. Open the Mail app and click "Add Account".
   
2. Go to "Choose an email account provider" and select "Google" from the menu.
   
3. Click "Continue" and "Open Safari".
   
4. Go to your Gmail account and log in with your credentials.
   
5. When asked for permissions, click "Allow".
   
6. If you wish, you can choose to synchronize your notes, contacts and a calendar.
   
7. At the end, you will see Gmail in the sidebar of your Mail app.
   

Now that you know how to use Gmail on your desktop, you can select multiple emails the same way you would on any other device. You can select messages based on message criteria, search filters, or use manual methods to manage emails. Depending on the number of emails you need to organize, you can choose one of these approaches.

How to Select Multiple Emails in Gmail on Windows 10

If you decide to use Gmail through the Windows Mail desktop app, you'll first need to make sure they're synced. Once the process is complete, you can then start taking care of your emails and organizing them in the best possible way according to your needs. Here's how to connect your Google account to Windows Mail:

1. Open the Windows Mail app.
   
2. Click "Add Account" and select "Google" from the list of accounts.
   
3. Enter your Gmail address, your password and click "Next".
   
4. Click "Allow" to give Windows access to your Google account.
   
5. Write the name you want to use in your emails.
   
6. Click on "Done".
   

Selecting emails is very easy when it comes to Windows Mail. You just need to hold down the "Ctrl" key and click on the messages you want to select.

How to Select Multiple Emails in Gmail on Chromebook

Chromebook users are usually big fans of Google services and have multiple Google Accounts. That's why Gmail is their go-to email service. Since Chromebook is the product of Google, they decided to allow all users to use the Gmail app offline. Here is a step-by-step guide on setting up your offline Gmail account:

1. Tap your "Gmail icon".
   
2. When you open it, tap the gear icon in the upper right corner.
   
3. Tap "Offline".
   
4. The only option you will see is "Enable offline messaging".
   
5. Tap "Keep offline data on my computer" and tap "Save changes".
   
6. Confirm by pressing the "Understood" button
   

You can easily select emails by clicking the boxes on the left, or you can hold "Shift" and click your inbox until you choose them all.

How to Select Multiple Emails in Gmail on iPhone and iPad

The Gmail app offers the same amount of functionality on your phone, tablet, or computer. Unfortunately, when selecting multiple emails, there is only one way to select all your emails. You will have to press each one and then decide on your further actions.

However, if you access your Gmail through the Mail app for iPhone and iPad, there is a faster way to select your emails. Here's what you need to do:

1. Open the Mail app.
   
2. Select a folder.
   
3. Click on the "Edit" button located in the upper right corner.
   
4. Start selecting emails by tapping the circle on the left.
   
5. Once you have selected all your emails, decide if you want to archive, delete or mark as read/unread.

How to Select Multiple Emails in Gmail on Android

When your inbox is cluttered with emails, it's time to commit to a harsh deletion process. However, if you decide to delete them on your Android phone, you will have to delete them one by one which will take a lot of time. Fortunately, there is a way to delete your emails in bulk. Here's what you need to do:

1. Open the folder containing the emails you want to delete.
   
2. Tap the email icons to select emails.
   
3. Once you have selected all your emails, decide if you want to archive, delete or mark as read/unread.
   

If you want to save more time, access your Gmail using a browser, and there you will find more ways to empty your inbox.

How to Select Multiple Emails in Gmail to Delete

When it comes time to delete lots of emails from your inbox and other folders, here is the fastest way to select multiple emails:

1. Open your Gmail inbox.
   
2. Click the checkbox in front of the first message in your inbox.
   
3. Hold down the Shift key.
   
4. Now click on the last message and all intermediate emails will be selected.
   
5. Release Shift and click the Delete button.
   

This way, you can delete an abundance of emails that have been sitting in your inbox for too long. If you have multiple pages, you will need to repeat this process on each one. Once you're done, you can rearrange your folders and tags to be more efficient.

How to export emails from Gmail

Google allows you to export all your emails in several formats, such as PST, MBOX, MSG, and EML. Moreover, it also offers a free tool to help you with this extraction process. Google Takeout is a specialized program that archives and exports emails to your computer or external hard drive. This is how it works:

1. Log in to Google Takeout by entering your username and password.
   
2. You see all your data listed and decide what you want to export.
   
3. If you decide to export all your emails from Gmail, click "Select All".
   
4. You can decide which labels you want to export by clicking the checkbox.
   
5. Once everything is ready, select “Next step”.
   
6. Decide on the file format.
   
7. Choose the delivery method and choose between Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or email.
   
8. Click on “Create export”.
   
9. Once you have the email with your data, click on "Upload your files" and you will have everything on your computer.
   

When deciding where you want to import your emails, rest assured that many email clients support all four file types, which will ensure easy downloading.

Additional FAQ

How to delete multiple emails in Gmail at once?

When it comes time to delete lots of emails from your inbox and other folders, here is the fastest way to select multiple emails:

• Open your Gmail inbox.

• Click the checkbox in front of the first message in your inbox.

• Hold down the Shift key.

• Now click on the last message and all intermediate emails will be selected.

• Release Shift and click on the Delete button.

This way, you can delete an abundance of emails that have been sitting in your inbox for too long. If you have multiple pages, you will need to repeat this process on each page until you delete all unnecessary emails.

There is another useful way you can use to clean up your inbox and that is to use the search bar and delete emails from specific addresses. This is a useful way to remove most of your newsletters, promotional emails or notification emails. All you need to do is:

• Type the person's name or email address in the search box.

• Once you have seen all their emails, use the main checkbox to “Select All” and click the delete icon.

• Repeat it several times if there is more than one page of emails.

How to Delete All Emails from Gmail Smartly?

The first important thing is to use your browser to do this as this will not be possible on a phone or tablet. The process is simple, but you will have to repeat it several times. Here's how to delete all your emails:

• Open Gmail.

• Tap the main checkbox to select all emails on this page and click the delete icon.

• Repeat the process until there are no more emails in your inbox.

• Now open other folders and repeat the same process.

Conclusion

Deleting emails from your Gmail account is far from complicated. With a few simple tricks like using “Shift” or a main checkbox, you can effectively delete old messages. Even if it is necessary to delete the entire inbox, it will not take much time.

Now that you know all about deleting emails across different platforms and devices, you can start cleaning up your inbox. Moreover, you can even export all your data and use it on a new platform. How often do you purge your inbox? Have you had any problems doing this before?

Tell us more in the comments section.