How to Delete or Mass Delete All Emails at Once on an iPhone

Here's how to delete multiple unread emails at once on your iPhone, and how to delete all emails on your iPhone. These tips work for deleting emails in Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, and any other email account you have synced to your Apple device. Here's the hidden workaround to mass delete all emails, or just all unread emails quickly. 

How to Delete All Unread Emails Quickly on Your iPhone & iPad

We've already gone over how to delete or remove an email account from your iPhone. Now, let's learn what to do if you don't want to delete your entire account. Here's how to delete multiple emails in Gmail, another email account, or All Inboxes. For more great email tutorials, check out our free Tip of the Day.

  1. Open the Mail app.

    iphone mail app
     
  2. Tap All Inboxes, or select a specific email account.

    tap all inboxes
     
  3. Tap the Filter icon at the bottom of the screen, then tap Edit in the upper-right corner.

    tap the filter icon, then tap edit
     
  4. Without pressing, start at the empty circle to the left of the first email you want to delete and swipe down to bottom of the page with your finger and hold it there until all the unread emails are selected. 
  5. You'll see all the circles become highlighted in blue, and the number of emails you've selected at the top of the page. If a preview of the first email pops up instead, you have used too much pressure.
  6. Once you've selected all the emails you'd like to delete, tap Trash.

    highlight email then tap trash
     
  7. Before I started this process, I had over five hundred unread emails in my Inbox.
  8. After a few seconds of swiping, I deleted hundreds of unread emails.

    deleted emails
     

If you realize at this point that you’ve messed up and don’t want to delete everything, after all, don’t panic. Undo the mass deletion by using Shake to Undo. Just give your iPhone a shake and then tap Undo. It may take a while to restore the emails. Do you ever unsend text messages? If so, you can learn about the downsides of unsending text messages, as well as who can still see your deleted texts!

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How to Delete All Emails in Gmail, Yahoo, or the Whole Mail App on Your iPhone & iPad

If you want to delete all your emails at once in a particular Mailbox, or even All Inboxes, you can. Let's go over how to delete all emails in Gmail, or any other email account, on your iPhone.

  1. First, tap the Mailbox you'd like to empty (this could be All Inboxes, or a specific inbox like Gmail or Yahoo).

    choose the inbox in the mail app
     
  2. Tap Edit.

    tap edit to begin deleting emails
     
  3. Tap Select All.

    tap select all
     
  4. Now, tap Trash, and all the emails in the Mailbox will be deleted.

If you're trying to clean up space on your device, consider learning how to delete apps from your iPhone and iPad.

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Author Details

Sarah Kingsbury's picture

Author Details

Sarah Kingsbury

As the Editorial Director at iPhone Life, Sarah Kingsbury manages the online editorial team and oversees all website content. She is a long-time Apple enthusiast who never goes anywhere without her Apple Watch and owns way too many HomePods. Since joining iPhone Life in 2013, Sarah has done everything from writing hundreds of how-to articles to founding the Daily Tip newsletter. She even co-hosted the early episodes of the iPhone Life Podcast. When not at work, Sarah can be found hiking in the mountains and canyons around Las Vegas, where she lives with her partner and dogs.