How to delete all emails on your iPhone

Inboxes tend to get cluttered quickly these days.

Even a short lapse in email housekeeping can leave you buried under a mountain of unread messages.

Fortunately, it has never been easier to mass delete emails.

Here’s how to clean your email inbox on an iPhone or iPad (and other Apple devices, too!).

If you’re not an iOS enthusiast, we’ve got you covered. Here’s how to delete all emails at once on other devices.

How to delete all emails at once on your iPhone, iPad, and other Apple devices

In this brief tutorial, we’ll show you how to bulk delete emails in the:

• Apple iOS Mail app
• Gmail app for iOS
• Yahoo app for iOS
• Microsoft Outlook app for iOS.

How to mass delete emails in Gmail on an iPhone

To delete multiple emails in the Gmail app for iOS: 

1. Open the Gmail app on your iPhone.
2. Go to the inbox you’d like to clean (your “primary” inbox or sub-categories like “updates,” “social,” or similar).
3. Tap and hold on the first message you want to delete (selection will continue from this record downwards).
4. Tap “select all.”

Note:  The Gmail app selects emails in chunks of 50 or up to the point you have scrolled down to.

5. If you have more than 50 emails, scroll to the bottom of your inbox and tap “select all” again.
6. Now, all emails up to the point where you’ve scrolled should be selected.
7. Tap the “trash” button located in the top-right corner to delete all selected emails.

Those messages are now in the trash folder. They’ll remain there for 30 days before being permanently deleted—this gives you some time to restore accidentally deleted emails.

But there’s more.

Gmail allows you to filter messages in its mobile app, too, giving you the tools to easily delete only the emails you don’t want.

You can sort your unwanted emails by date, sender, read status, and more.

Here’s how to sort messages in Gmail:

1. Open the Gmail app on your iPhone.
2. In the inbox view, tap the “search in mail” bar.
3. Directly beneath the search bar, you’ll find various categories provided by Google, such as “labels,” “from,” “to,” and others.
4. Tap the category by which you want to filter your emails and follow Google’s instructions.

Now, all records displayed are according to your filters—for example, all the unread emails. You can mass delete them following our guidelines above. 

If you’d like to learn more about Gmail filtering, check out our in-depth guide.

How to delete all emails at once in the Apple Mail app

To delete multiple emails in the Mail app for iOS:

1. Open the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Navigate to the inbox you want to clean—by default, this’ll be “all inboxes.”

Note: If you select the “all inboxes” inbox, you will delete messages from all connected email accounts. If you intend to clean just one email account, ensure you select it specifically. 

3. Tap the “edit” button in the upper-right corner. 
4. Tap “select all” in the upper-left corner.

Note: If you want to select multiple emails (but not all), swipe down through the checkboxes instead.

5. Tap “delete” in the bottom-right corner and confirm your choice.

How to delete all emails in Yahoo Mail on an iPhone

To easily delete all emails in the Yahoo email app for iOS:

1. Open the Yahoo Mail app.
2. Tap “edit” in the top-right corner.
3. Tap “select all.”
4. Confirm by tapping “delete” at the bottom of the screen.

Yahoo also allows you to mass delete emails from a single sender.

To delete multiple emails from one sender in the Yahoo Mail app:

1. Open the Yahoo Mail app.
2. Tap and hold an email from the sender whose messages you want to delete until a menu appears.
3. Tap “delete all messages from <sender’s name>.”
4. Confirm by tapping “delete all.”

How to delete all emails in the Outlook app on an iPhone

To delete all emails in the Outlook app for iOS:

1. Open your Outlook app and go to the inbox folder you want to clean.
2. Tap and hold on the first message you want to delete.
3. Tap “select all” in the upper-left corner.

Note: By default, the Outlook app selects only the first 60 records or up to the point you’ve scrolled down to.

4. If you have more than 60 emails to delete, scroll to the bottom of your inbox and tap “select all” again.
5. Now, all emails up to the point where you’ve scrolled should be selected.
6. Tap the trash icon in the bottom-right corner of your screen to delete all selected emails.

FAQ