How to Clean Out Old Emails In Bulk From Your Gmail Account

May 14, 2022

If you have been getting notified of your account storage space recently, and your Gmail looks something like this, then take this as a sign to clean up your old emails.

google services

If you’ve been running out of space in your google account, you have two options to fix it. First, you can start paying for more space and have them archived, and second, you can clean out your Gmail account. That is to say, get rid of all the junk files or old emails that are of no use to you anymore. And while the process may sound time-consuming, it is pretty simple in reality.

While you can always pay for more user space, getting rid of the unwanted files is the way to go. And it makes sense why because if you have been emailing services for a while, chances are you have emails that you have never opened that are just collecting dust in your storage space. There are a lot of ways that you can delete your old emails. However, you would only need to learn one and stick with it for a long time. So let us jump in to discuss how you can declutter your Gmail storage space by deleting emails in bulk.

So, keep on reading as we run through the following aspects,

TLDR

  • With Google not renewing the allocated space for your user's account, people require storage space for their emails or files.
  • And often, old emails take up unnecessary space in our storage, creating clutter and making it difficult to keep everything organized.
  • We need to keep our Gmail accounts free of clutter by deleting the dusty files in the back that are no longer of use to us.
  • And while the process may sound tiresome since you would have to keep deleting files consistently, some services help you automate the process.

Why Do I Need to Delete My Old Emails?

When it comes to old emails, to archive or delete is the question at hand. Because people often do not know whether to delete mail or keep it for future references. But whatever the case might be, clearing up the ones that use up unnecessary space is always a good idea. Why? Because there is only a limited amount of storage space that comes with Google mail.

Although with 15 gigabytes of storage space, it will take someone years to use up their storage space completely, if you have been using Gmail since 2014 or so, there are chances that you are already on the verge of the cliff. Because ever since Google stopped offering unlimited space in 2013 for Google accounts across its platform, be it Drive or Document, it has become increasingly challenging to maintain free space. Today, it only takes up to a few 1080p movies before you run out of space for you to store your emails or essential attachments.

delete emails

And although we are encouraged to archive emails sometimes instead of deleting them so as to maintain the company's allegiance to Sarbanes Oxley Act, it is not always the best decision. Especially if you are involved with email marketing, you need to maintain storage space at all times to avoid clutter and keep your files organized. Because it only works in their favor if you archive your emails instead of decluttering them. Since the more you pay for storage, the more they make a profit off of you.

Where Can I Find My Old Emails?

In order to make matters worse, Gmail keeps your old emails within your recent files section, so there is a higher risk of having a cluttered mess. Result? To not being able to find your required file in time. So, in order to find them and keep them in a separate file, you need to go to your search bar and click the downward arrow. From here, select your email, spam, and trash section and search-relevant keywords of your old email. And this will hopefully show you your required missing file.

How to Delete Old Emails in Gmail: The Step By Step Process

The following is a step-by-step process as to how you can delete old emails without having to delete the new ones instead.

Build Your Search Quest

First, start by creating a search quest for the emails that you want to delete. And the process is simple because all you have to do is search up shared criteria of your email. In such a case, the search bar in Gmail is a lot handier than it might seem. So, you can either search by the name of the sender, date, subject, and much more.

For instance, if you want to search for an email sent by a specific sender dated back to 2018 or prior to that, then all you have to do is search by

the sender: ____, older_than:____.

Select All the Search Results

Once you have narrowed down your search list, you can move on to selecting the emails by filtering out the unwanted files from the important ones.

search results

So, start by clicking the boxes next to the files you want to move to the trash section. And if all the results are perfectly filtered out, select all of them.

Start Deleting Your Selected Emails

Once you have filtered out all the files and selected and deselected them, you can start deleting them. So, next, click the delete button, and all the selected files will get transferred to the trash section, where the files will stay for at least 30 days unless you double delete them instantly.

However, it is advised not to go through double deletion as some recent lawsuits see it as an act to cover illicit company activities. That said, if you are in immediate need of storage space, then deleting old personal emails should be okay.

Remember to cross-check your trash folder so as to avoid deleting any important files or attachments. And if you are scared of deleting company receipts, you can relax because companies tend to use different email accounts for transactional purposes.

And it does not end there. Be mindful of unsubscribing from services that you no longer use because these are the ones sending emails that you never end up opening.

Final Takeaways

While it may sound tiresome to keep your account updated and declutter every now and then, there are services that offer you automation.

From VerifyBee

Applications or services like VerifyBee allow come with great quality UI/UX and powerful verification programs that help you get accurate results and delete old and unnecessary emails in bulk at great prices. So, subscribe today and get started with one of the best API-based verification tools you can find.

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