Archive Email

If you don't want to delete a potentially active or important email that's cluttering up your inbox, you can archive it! Archiving email removes old or irrelevant emails from your Inbox without having to manually re-categorize them or delete them from your account; this way, you can still access the later if you need to. You can archive email on any major email provider--mobile or otherwise--including Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo!

Steps

Using Gmail (Desktop)

  1. Open your Gmail account. If you aren't already logged into Gmail, you'll first need to enter your email address and the pertinent password to access your inbox. Click "Sign In" to enter your account.
  2. Search for emails you wish to archive. You can do this by entering email names, content keywords, or sender names in the search bar at the top of your page.
    • You can search for all e-mails from a certain sender by typing from: [sender's name].
  3. Select an e-mail to archive. Do this by clicking the box on the far left side of a target email; you'll need to do this for each email you wish to archive.[1]
    • Click the checkbox above your "Primary" email, then click "All" to select your whole Inbox page.
    • Clicking the link below and to the right of the "All" box that says "Select all..." will select every email in your Primary inbox.
  4. Click the "Archive" button. This is the downward-facing arrow above your Primary folder. Clicking this button will archive your selected emails and remove them from your inbox!
  5. Click "All Mail" to view any e-mails you've archived. You'll find this option on the left side of your screen, below the "More Labels" tab.

Using Gmail (iOS)

  1. Tap your Gmail app to open Gmail. This will open to the last Gmail folder you were in; you can change the Gmail folder by tapping the menu button (three horizontal lines) in the top left corner of your screen.
  2. Search for emails you wish to archive. You can do this from the search bar at the top of your page.
    • Searching using this bar will take all folders into consideration, meaning you won't have to manually go to the "Primary" or "Updates" folders.
  3. Select an e-mail to archive. Do this by tapping the box next to one email; simply tap the body of all subsequent emails to select them as well.
  4. Tap the Archive button. This will remove your emails from the inbox and place them in the archive folder!
    • The Archive button is at the top of your screen next to the trash can icon.
  5. View your archived mail. You can do this by opening the menu and scrolling down to the bottom to find the "All Mail" folder.

Using Gmail (Android)

  1. Tap your Android's Gmail app to open Gmail. To archive mail on Android, you'll first have to switch your default mail selection settings from "Delete" to "Archive".[2]
    • While you can technically archive individual messages from within the email itself, doing this is not conducive to mass-archiving.
  2. Open the Gmail Menu. You can do this by tapping the three horizontal lines in the top left corner of your app.
  3. Tap "Settings". This will open an extended list of your Gmail app's settings.
  4. Tap "General Settings". This will open another settings menu.
  5. Tap "Gmail Default Action". You can change your default selection option--archiving versus deleting--from this menu.
  6. Tap the "Archive" option. This will make archiving your default selection option.
    • You can also choose to receive a confirmation notification before archiving/deleting emails from this menu.
  7. Return to your inbox. You'll need to select the emails you wish to archive from here.
  8. Search for an e-mail to archive. If you have keywords or subject matter for which you want to search, you can do this from the search bar at the top of your screen.
  9. Select a message. Do this by tapping the checkbox to the left of an individual email, then tapping subsequent emails to select them.
  10. Tap the Archive button. This is the downward-facing arrow at the top of your screen; doing so will remove your messages from the inbox and place them in the All Mail folder!
    • You can also archive individual emails by swiping left over the email.
  11. Access your archived mail in the "All Mail" folder. You can do this from within the Gmail menu; note that you may have to tap "Show All Labels" to display the All Mail folder.[3]

Using the iOS Mail App

  1. Tap your iPhone's mail app to open it. "Mail" comes standard with all versions of iOS; its icon resembles a white envelope on a blue background.
  2. Tap the "All Inboxes" option. This should be at the top of your "Mailboxes" menu.
    • If your Mail app currently has an inbox open, you will need to tap the left-facing arrow in the top left corner of your screen.
  3. Tap the "Edit" option. This in in the top right corner of your "All Inboxes" menu.
    • If you need to search for specific emails to archive, you can use the "Search" function at the top of your screen to enter words that pertain to specific emails or users.
  4. Select emails for archiving. Do this by tapping each email you wish to archive.
    • You can also swipe right on each email you wish to archive.
  5. Tap the "Archive" button. This is in the bottom right corner of your screen; tapping the Archive button will remove the selected emails from your Inbox!
  6. Tap your email inbox's archive folder. Depending on which inboxes are synchronized with your Mail app, the name of the archive folder will vary; however, it will usually read "Archive" or "All Mail".
    • This option will be in your "Mailboxes" menu.

Using Outlook

  1. Open your Outlook inbox. You'll need to log in with your Outlook credentials (email handle and password) if you haven't already done so.
    • On mobile, tap the Outlook app to open Outlook. You'll have to tap the "Other" tab at the top of your page to view your emails.
  2. Search for emails you wish to archive. You can do this in the search box on the far left side of your screen; you'll need to enter email names, content keywords, or sender names to filter your email.
    • If you know the subject of a specific email, for example, you would search that subject name.
    • On mobile, activate the "search" function by tapping the magnifying glass icon on the toolbar at the top of your screen.
  3. Select mail for archiving. You can do this by clicking the checkbox to the left of a target email.; repeat this process for all emails you wish to archive.
    • For mobile, tap and hold an email. This will select the email; you can then tap any subsequent emails to select them.
    • You can also hold down Control and tap A to select all emails in your inbox.
  4. Click the "Archive" button. This should be at the top of your Outlook page, right above your email feed. Doing so will archive your selected emails and remove them from your inbox! You may have to click "Create Archive Folder" first if you don't already have one; this will prompt Outlook to create a new folder for all of your Archived emails.[4]
    • For mobile, tap the Archive button on the bottom right corner of your screen. Tap "Create" to have Outlook create an Archive folder for you, and your email will be successfully archived!
    • For one email on mobile, simply swipe left over an email you wish to archive. This will send the email straight to the Archive folder.
  5. View your archived mail by clicking "Archive". This is on the left side of your inbox at the bottom of the "Folders" menu.
    • For mobile, tap the settings menu icon in the top left corner of your screen to open the "Folders" menu. The "Archive" option will be at the bottom of this menu.

Using Yahoo

  1. Open your Yahoo page. If you aren't already logged in, do so by clicking the "Sign In" button in the top right corner of your screen and entering your Yahoo username and password.
    • For mobile, tap the Yahoo Mail app to open Yahoo Mail.
  2. Click the "Mail" option. This is in the top right corner of your Yahoo page, and will redirect you to your inbox.
  3. Search for emails you'd like to archive. You can do this from the search bar at the top of the screen. These should be emails with important or potentially relevant information in them; you need not archive junk mail from your cousin that you know you'll never read again.
  4. Click the checkbox to the left of a target email. This will select the email. You'll need to do this for every email you wish to archive.[5]
    • You can also hold down Control and tap A to select all emails in your inbox.
    • For mobile, tap and hold an email to select it. You can then tap any subsequent emails to select them as well.
  5. Click the "Archive" button. This option is in the control panel immediately above your inbox; clicking it will remove your emails from your inbox and place them in the Archive folder!
    • For mobile, tap the Archive button at the bottom of your screen. It's right next to the trash can icon.
  6. Click the "Archive" option to view your archived emails. This is on the left side of your Yahoo page.
    • On mobile, tap the horizontal line stack in the top left corner of the screen, then tap the "Archive" option.

Tips

  • Archiving email is a good way to clean out your inbox and pay attention to more immediate concerns.

Warnings

  • Most email providers will delete any emails you place in the trash folder after a set period of time. If you're even remotely on the fence about keeping an email, it's better to archive it than to delete it.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6576?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en
  2. ↑ https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6576?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en
  3. ↑ http://pixelfundi.com/find-accidentally-archived-gmail-messages-on-android/
  4. ↑ https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Archive-in-Outlook-2016-for-Windows-25f75777-3cdc-4c77-9783-5929c7b47028
  5. ↑ https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN26466.html
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