If you need to select multiple emails in Gmail all at once, whether to mass-delete them, mass-archive them, or move them en-masse to a new label, keyboard shortcuts will be your new best friend. Of course, if you only have a few to select, it would be faster just clicking or tapping each one. But if you have twenty, thirty, or more, there’s a faster way to select them all.
QUICK ANSWER
To select multiple emails in Gmail mobile, you can only long-press on the first email and then individually tap the others. There are no keyboard shortcuts to choose lots of emails simultaneously. So, for selecting large amounts of emails, go to the desktop, where you can use the shift key and your mouse/trackpad.
JUMP TO KEY SECTIONS
- Android and iOS
- Desktop
How to select multiple emails in Gmail (Android and iOS)
If you’re on the Gmail app for either Android or iOS, selecting multiple emails comes down to only using your finger. Long-press the first email, and when a tick appears on the left, tap the other ones you want to select. You can then press the icons at the top to archive them, bin them, or hit the More menu to add a label to them.
How to select multiple (or all) emails in Gmail (desktop)
The desktop version of Gmail is where you can select larger numbers of emails using desktop shortcuts. You can either select all the ones visible on the screen or select emails based on a certain label, Gmail status, or keyword.
Start by getting the emails you want to select up on the screen. You can search in the Gmail search box by keyword, click a label on the left-hand side, or select emails based on what status they are in Gmail.
Or use a keyboard shortcut to bring up one of these Gmail statuses.
- All: keyboard shortcut *a
- None: keyboard shortcut *n
- Read: keyboard shortcut *r
- Unread: keyboard shortcut *u
- Starred: keyboard shortcut *s
- Unstarred: keyboard shortcut *t
You can also choose a label to have all emails matching that label come up.
Once you have the selected emails on the screen, you can first select them all if you wish. To do this, tick the box at the top-left, next to Refresh. This immediately highlights everything on the page. It will then show a link asking if you want to select all the emails matching your selection. Click that to select everything.
If you have everything on the page highlighted, but you wish to deselect an email (or more), just tick the box to the left of the email you wish to deselect. It will then highlight the rest, but not the one you just chose.
Another way to highlight and select emails on the Gmail page is to click the tick box for the first email (usually the one at the very top).
Now, holding the shift key on your keyboard, click the last email on the page you want to select. Doing this will make everything in between automatically highlighted.
Whichever way you do it, once you have the selected emails ready on the screen, options will appear at the top of the email window.
- Archive, orkeyboard shortcut e
- Mark as spamorkeyboard shortcut !
- Delete, orkeyboard shortcut #
- Mark as unread, orkeyboard shortcut U
- Snooze, orkeyboard shortcut b
- Add to tasksorkeyboard shortcut T
- Move to, orkeyboard shortcut v
- Labelsorkeyboard shortcut l
There’s also the More menu (the keyboard shortcut to open it is a full stop). There, you’ll find further options for your selected emails.
- Mark as important,orkeyboard shortcut +
- Add starorkeyboard shortcut s
- Filter messages like these,orkeyboard shortcut gf
- Mute,orkeyboard shortcut m
- Forward as attachmentorkeyboard shortcut f
FAQs
Enter their name and/or email address into the desktop Gmail search bar. When all of the emails have come up, tick the box at the top left of the search results (next to Archive.) This will highlight all the emails on the page. Click the Select All link that appears to select all emails that match what you have put into the search bar.
No, this is currently not possible.
You might like
How-to's
GmailGoogle
