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How do I find and delete all the emails that have been archived in my Gmail account?

Is there a way to filter out what has been archived and what hasn't so that it would make deleting these easier?

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How do you define simplest? I don't think there's a one-click command for that. – R.K. Jun 3 '11 at 11:03
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Padding out your question with words complaining about the quality standards that SE impose does NOT make your question any better. Asking quality questions will improve the site as a whole and improve your chances of getting a quality answer. – Barry♦ Jun 3 '11 at 11:21
Out of curiosity, why would you ever want to do that? – Lohoris Jan 20 '12 at 11:30
@Barry, yes edited. – Pacerier Mar 2 at 3:47
@Lohoris, to clear archived emails at regular intervals. – Pacerier Mar 2 at 3:51
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2 Answers

up vote 11 down vote accepted

In the Gmail search box, type

-label:inbox -label:sent -label:drafts -label:notes

and press enter. That should give you all your archived messages. Once there, select All and then click Select all conversations that match this search to ensure that all messages are selected. Click Delete.

They'd still go the the Trash though so you'd have to empty the Trash as a final step.

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heys good solution. Btw what does the dash in front of label means? I can see label:inbox and -label:inbox do different things but i couldn't see why – Pacerier Jun 3 '11 at 15:45
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The dash is really a "minus" sign. So it means stuff that doesn't have this. It's a general google syntax: google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861 – Ford Jun 3 '11 at 16:06
@fizzisist well I must say that that's very user unfriendly – Pacerier Jan 20 '12 at 14:09
R.K.'s suggestion has a potentially disastrous side effect: If you have emails that have other labels (i.e. "Emails from Mom"), those emails will be selected (and trashed) as well. In addition, when you go to the trash to remove them, they will have all of their custom labels skipped. (I'm sorry, I tried to leave this as a comment but can't find or don't have that option) – Samophlange Aug 18 '12 at 18:56
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I wouldn't call it a side effect. He did ask for a way to find all archived emails. Whether or not it has other labels is irrelevant. It is still archived. At least according to his question. – R.K. Aug 19 '12 at 3:02
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up vote 0 down vote

You can also type in :archive in the search box that will show you all archived message then you can select which you want deleted

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Sure about that? It's not working for me. All I'm seeing is messages (and docs) with "archive" in the content. – Al Everett Feb 28 at 20:28

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