Most of us are not great at keeping up with the number of messages sent to our inboxes. While you can delete them individually or a few at a time, junk mail or infrequent account usage can necessitate the removal of thousands of messages. This page shows you how to clear all messages in your inbox (or other folders) at the same time. To proceed, choose your e-mail service from the list below and follow the steps.
Google Gmail
Gmail only allows users to view 50 messages per page. To delete more than that, you can use the Search mail feature.
- Google Gmail
- Yahoo! Mail
- Outlook.com
- Microsoft Outlook
- Mozilla Thunderbird
How to delete every message in a folder
Log in to your Gmail account.
Locate the Search mail bar near the top of the screen.
To choose a folder, type “label:” followed by a folder name. For example, label:Inbox displays all messages in your inbox.
In the section below the search box, check the Select box with the down arrow next to it, and then click the Delete icon.
Yahoo! Mail
By default, Yahoo Mail does not offer a direct option to delete a folder’s entire contents, and only shows its first 40 messages. To delete more than 40 at once, you first need to scroll down in the folder to populate the list with all messages.
If you would like to delete all of the messages in your Gmail account, you can type label:All into the Search mail bar. HOWEVER, do note that this method deletes every message in every folder in your Gmail account, so proceed with caution.
Log into your Yahoo! e-mail account.
On the left side of the screen, locate and click the folder you’d like to empty. We’re using the inbox for this example.
On the right side of the screen, click-and-drag the vertical slider until you reach the end of your inbox. You may need to repeat this process many times to populate all the messages, but it goes faster as you repeat this action.
Once you have fully populated the folder, click the checkbox in the upper-left corner, and then select Delete.
Wait a few moments (longer if there are many messages), and you see a confirmation prompt appear.
Outlook.com
Microsoft’s Outlook.com webmail service is the most straightforward when deleting an entire folder’s worth of e-mail messages.
Log in to your Outlook.com account.
On the left side, click Folders to expand the menu.
Locate the folder you want to empty. We are using the inbox.
Right-click the folder and select Empty folder from the drop-down menu.
Click the Delete all button on the prompt that appears.
Once the folder is emptied, you see a confirmation message.
Microsoft Outlook
Similar to its online counterpart Outlook.com, Microsoft’s software-based version of Outlook allows users to delete an entire folder’s worth of e-mails, no matter how many it contains.
- Open Microsoft Outlook.
- Expand the Folders pane (if not already expanded) by clicking the arrow in the top-left corner of the window.
- Locate the folder you’d like to empty and right-click it.
- Select Delete all from the drop-down menu.
- Click the Yes button on the prompt.
- Return to the expanded Folders menu. Right-click the Deleted Items folder.
- Select Delete all from the drop-down menu.
- Click the Yes button on the prompt.
Mozilla Thunderbird
Thunderbird requires you to select all messages in the folder that you want to delete, and then choose to permanently erase them. While this two-step solution isn’t ideal, it may keep you from getting rid of messages you meant to keep.
- Open Thunderbird.
- Open the folder you’d like to empty.
- Press the shortcut key combination Ctrl+A to select every message.
- In the lower message pane, click Delete to remove the selected e-mails.
- Once you’ve deleted the messages, right-click the folder and select Compact to erase them permanently.
Related information
- How to recover deleted e-mail messages.
- How to delete an e-mail account or address.
- How to delete or move e-mail messages.
- How to add and remove e-mail contacts.
- How to create or delete a folder in e-mail.
- E-mail help and support.
