Archiving an email is always a good idea than simply deleting an email in Gmail or any other email service. That’s because when you archive an email in Gmail, it simply gets hidden from the Inbox and can be accessed anytime later. Whereas the delete option removes the certain email forever from your Gmail account.
Having said that, those using Gmail on Android or iPhone often tend to accidentally archive an email through the swipe gesture. Such emails can include important messages that you cannot afford to miss.
Deleting emails from your Gmail account is final – they’re lost forever once you empty your trash folder. If you want to hide emails, rather than delete them, you can archive the messages instead. This allows you to find and retrieve the emails at a later date.
How to Archive Emails in Gmail
To archive an email in Gmail, you simply need to select an email (or multiple emails) and then click the Archive button. When you select emails on the Gmail website, the “Archive” button appears in the menu directly above your list of emails.
In the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad, or Android, tap the Archive button in the top menu that appears. The Archive button has the same design as the button shown on the Gmail website.
Any email you archive will disappear from your main Gmail inbox, including from any of the focused categories you might have. You’ll still be able to view them under any separate folder you create using Gmail labels, however.
Using the All Mail Label to Find Archived Emails in Gmail
As we’ve mentioned, archived emails disappear from the typical Gmail view. One option to find archived emails in Gmail is to switch to the “All Mail” folder view.
This will list all of your Gmail emails in one, long list, including priority emails, as well as any emails that have been categorized automatically.
You can view this list by clicking the “All Mail” view label in the left Gmail menu on the Gmail website.
To do this in the Gmail app, tap the hamburger menu icon in the top-left corner. From here, scroll down and tap the “All Mail” label.
There’s an obvious downside to this, especially if you have a large number of emails – the sheer number of emails you’ll have to go through.
This option is fine if you’ve only recently archived an email, but you might need to use the Gmail search bar to specifically locate archived emails instead.
Finding archived emails via the web
If you access Gmail via a web browser, it is a straightforward process to recall any emails you may have archived. For starters, if you choose to use the search bar at the top of the page, search results will include any archived emails. Alternatively, you can access all of your available mail, including archived pieces, under the All Mail option.
Step 1: Visit the Gmail website and sign in.
Step 2: On the left side of the screen, scroll down, and select More.
Step 3: Select the All Mail option.
Step 4: On the right side of the screen, you may now browse your email; it will include all emails in your account, including archived content.
Finding archived emails via mobile apps
If you are using the Gmail mobile app on your iOS or Android device, you can also access archived content easily.
As on the web, you can use the search bar displayed above your mail to initiate a search that will include archived content. Otherwise, if you wish, you can access all of your available mail, including archived content, under the All Mail option.
Step 1: Open the Gmail app on your device.
Step 2: At the top of the screen, tap the Menu button; it is displayed as three horizontal lines.
Step 3: Scroll down if needed and select the All Mail option.
Step 4: You may now browse your emails on-screen. This will include all emails in your account, including archived pieces.
Moving an archived email to the inbox via the web
If you change your mind, you can always move any archived content back to your inbox. Follow these steps to move archived email back into your inbox using the Gmail website:
Step 1: Visit the Gmail website and sign in.
Step 2: Locate the email you wish to relocate.
Step 3: To the left of the email, check the small box.
Step 4: At the top of the screen, select Move to Inbox.
Your archived email will then be moved back to the inbox for regular viewing. If you wish to return the piece of mail to archived, hover over
the email once again and select the Archive button (pictured as a small box with a down arrow).
Moving an archived email to the inbox via mobile apps
You can also change your mind about archived emails while you are out and about using Gmail’s available mobile apps for iOS and Android.
Follow these steps to move the archived email back into your inbox within Google’s official Gmail app for Android:
Step 1: Open the Gmail app on your device.
Step 2: Locate the email you wish to relocate and tap on it.
Step 3: Tap the More button in the upper corner (shown as three vertical dots).
Step 4: Tap the Move to Inbox option.
Your archived email will then be moved back to the inbox for regular viewing. If you wish to return the piece of mail to archived, reopen the email and tap the Archive button (pictured as a small box with a down arrow).
iOS devices
Note: For iOS devices, the process is a bit different. Here’s how to do it according to Google:
Step 1: Find the email you want in All Mail.
Step 2: Tap the sender’s profile icon on the left of the screen.
Step 3: Tap the More icon (three dots).
Step 4: Select whether you want to Move to Inbox or Move To > Primary.
Archiving an email vs. muting an email
You may have heard of the ability to mute an email and archive an email discussed in the same breath.
Both features will remove messages from your inbox to keep things tidy, but archived emails will return to your inbox if someone replies to them. On the other hand, muted messages will stay out of your inbox permanently.
Follow these steps on either the web or mobile app if you wish to mute an email:
Step 1: Access your Gmail account.
Step 2: Open the email you wish to mute.
Step 3: Select the More button (shown as three vertical dots). For the web, it is important that you click on the More button that is located toward the top of your screen, just under the Search box.
Step 4: Select the Mute option.
You can follow these steps on both iOS and Android phones and tablets. The only minor difference with iOS devices is that the More icon for iOS is not three vertical dots, but instead is three horizontal dots.
Conclusion
So, these are the ways to find archived emails in Gmail. Also, we have listed the steps to archive a mail on Gmail for those who don’t know how to do it. We hope the article helped you in doing so.
People Also Ask :
Q. Why is there no Archive folder in Gmail?
Ans – Although you can archive emails in Gmail, there’s no dedicated email archive folder in your Gmail account. This might sound confusing, but it’s actually not that complicated. Any emails that you archive in Gmail are automatically moved to the “All Mail” label.
Q. How do I find archived emails in Gmail Mobile?
Ans – How to find archived emails in Gmail on Android. To see archived emails on your Android device —> open your Gmail app —> click on the hamburger icon on top left, and then click on All Mail label. Here you will see all archived emails as shown in the screenshot below.
Q. How do I retrieve an email from Archive?
Ans – To retrieve the archived message, open the email and tap on the three dots at the top right of the screen. Tap “Move to inbox”, and your message will be instantly sent back to your inbox and the “Archive” label removed.
Q. Where does my Archive email go?
Ans – Unlike messages you move to the Trash, archived messages remain in your Archive folder until you delete them. You can view the Archive folder in the Mailboxes list. To quickly move messages to the Archive folder, you can replace the Delete button with the Archive button in Mail Preferences.
Q. Where is archive in iPhone?
Ans – When you open the Mail app on your iPhone, tap Mailboxes in the top left corner of the screen to view all of your mailboxes, then tap on the Archive mailbox to view all of your archived emails.