How To Auto Delete Emails In Gmail

 


Gmail is arguably the best email client when it comes to communication via email. Users throughout the world prefer Google’s email service for various reasons. Apart from its user-friendly interface, Gmail also offers automation for the management of your email inbox. One of the life-saving features is knowing how to auto delete emails in Gmail.


If you aren’t habitual of deleting old messages, they get accumulated and consume your valuable cloud storage space. Thanks to an excellent features like filters, you don’t need to worry about the Gmail auto delete emails process or organizing your Gmail inbox. Just go ahead and use automation tools to clear your cluttered inbox by creating filters for spam, deleted, or archived emails.

How To Auto Delete Emails In Gmail

The automatic deletion process is straightforward. Using automation in Gmail allows email users to skip basic tasks like sorting or deleting emails and increase their productivity. Let’s see how we can use the Gmail auto delete emails process to delete old and unwanted emails

How To Auto Delete Emails In Gmail

1. Open the Google Chrome browser and select Settings.
2. Select the Filters tab and choose Create a filter.
3. Help Gmail identify the message by setting the criteria and click on Create filter.
4. Select the Search criteria options.
5. Create the filter to Auto-Delete Gmail Emails.

Note: The steps mentioned above are the quick steps for how to auto delete emails in Gmail. Let’s check the step-by-step instructions with images so that you can create a filter to auto delete emails in Gmail.

How To Auto Delete Emails In Gmail

There are two simple ways to clear your mailing list in Gmail. The first one is to create Gmail filters to delete the incoming emails. You can create a filter from the Gmail search bar or Settings menu.

However, email users need to remember one thing. A new filter for auto-deleting emails gets triggered only when new incoming emails arrive. So you need to do different Gmail settings to auto-delete the emails that already exist in your inbox according to filter criteria.

You can filter a Gmail message based on the email size or email address of a specific sender. Filtering emails is also possible based on categories like promotional emails, unread emails, or archived emails.

For instance, let’s say you want to use the Gmail auto delete emails feature to delete all bulk emails that have been in your email inbox for more than 5 days.

To create a mass-deleting emails filter for this time frame, click on the Settings gear icon in your inbox and choose Select all settings.

Select all settings
Select All Settings
Moving forward, select the Filters and blocked addresses tab and select Create a filter.
Create a filter for auto delete emails in gmail
Create A Filter

Then, in the ‘Includes the words’ section, type “older_than:5d” without quotation marks. The ‘d’ in the boolean equation stands for days. Click on Continue after doing this step. You can use ‘m’ for months and ‘y’ for years to set a different time frame as per your requirements.

So, suppose you want to delete emails older than 3 months, the equation would be “older_than:3m”.

Set the criteria for auto delete emails in gmail
Set The Criteria

In the next window, check the box next to ‘Delete it.’ By now, you have set a filter to auto delete emails in Gmail for future emails.

To set this filter for existing emails, check the ‘Also apply filter to matching conversations’ box. Then, click on Create filter to finish the process.

Create a filter for existing and incoming emails
Create A Filter For Existing And Incoming Emails

After this process, refresh the tab. You can see all the email messages that fit the specified filter criteria will be deleted and sent to the Gmail Trash folder.

If they are in the Trash folder, you will still need to delete them manually to ensure they don’t occupy your Google Drive storage space.

If you wish to remove the filter, go back to the Filters and blocked addresses tab and click on the Delete button in front of the filter. That’s the primary way to set the Gmail auto delete old emails process.

How To Auto Delete Emails Using Email Studio

In the method we saw previously, you need to know the Gmail search operators better to set the filter criteria to auto delete emails in Gmail. If you wish to go for a more accessible alternative, you can also consider using an add-on like the Email Studio.

Go to the Google Workspace Marketplace and install Email Studio for Gmail. Once the installation is complete, go to your Gmail Google account inbox and click on the paper-plane icon for Email Studio on the right sidebar.

Click on the Email Studio
Click On The Email Studio

Select Email Cleanup from the given options.

Select Email Cleanup for auto delete emails in gmail
Select Email Cleanup

You will need to review the permissions for trusting the app to check your Google Data.

Review permissions
Review Permissions

Next, you will enter the Email Studio. Click on New Rule.

Click on New Rule
Click On New Rule

Once you set the purge rules as per your preferences, click on the Save button. We have set the Trash folder as our destination folder for all the multiple emails that fit the criteria.

Move to the trash and click on the Save button
Move To The Trash And Click On The Save Button

Then, select the Run button to apply the rule to the specified folder in your Gmail account.

Select the Run button for auto delete emails in gmail
Select The Run Button

The Email Studio will launch in the background and run a check once every hour to see if any emails match the rule. So, you don’t need to execute the rule manually every time to auto delete emails in Gmail.

If you want to create multiple purge rules for mail, you need to buy the premium version.

Conclusion

Very few people prefer deleting old emails in the spam folder or the deleted items folder as a Gmail user. Many of us might not even be concerned about the ever-increasing stockpile of Gmail emails accumulating in our inboxes. However, these emails consume your Google Drive space, so it’s necessary to auto delete emails in Gmail.

You can either use Gmail filters or an Email Studio add-on to automatically delete older emails and unwanted incoming emails. The most significant benefit of using automation is it keeps your Gmail mailbox or any Gmail label free of clutter. In addition, it relieves you of performing basic tasks regarding small and large emails.

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