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up vote 13 down vote favorite
3

I was trying to mark an email as "Important" in Gmail and accidentally archived it.

Now I cannot locate it, since there is no "archive" label anywhere.

How do I get it back?

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1  
Checking mail on my phone I have archived mails that I didn't even notice. I have no idea how to search for them. The Archived mail should be labeled with an Archive label so I could always go look at those specific emails and deal with them which could include restoring them or deleting them. Otherwise the Archive label is just a "loose" label and should not exist. Ridiculous that you can store something in a database "somewhere" and have no way to find it. I do know that one of the 2-3 emails I archived by accident was important but I have no idea what it was. – Doug Jan 13 at 18:58
Over 120k views of this question! Seems like Gmail could use a "recent changes" feature (like you find on web sites or wiki pages). That would allow one to locate messages in such cases. Archiving an "old" message leads to trouble since it won't appear at the top of the All Mail list. However, it would appear at the top of a "recent changes" list. – Fuhrmanator Mar 1 at 16:00

6 Answers

up vote 22 down vote

Click on 'All Mail' on the left. When you see the message, open it, and choose the 'Move to Inbox' option to "un-archive" it.

Alternatively, you can use the search feature to locate the message (the search box should be towards the top of the Gmail page.)

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Just to add, the 'All Mail' system label on the left is not visible by default. To show it, click on the cog button on the top right > Settings > Labels > Show (next to the All Mail system label). – w3d Aug 7 '12 at 8:52
up vote 4 down vote

Just search for -label:inbox.

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That will still include sent emails and drafts. The following search should leave only archived emails: has:nouserlabels -in:Sent -in:Chat -in:Draft -in:Inbox – IQAndreas May 5 at 7:16
up vote 3 down vote

An archived email is just an email with the inbox label removed. Search for it, or open a label that it should be in, then click on move to inbox.

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up vote 0 down vote

Archiving an email is just a solution to hide so many emails from Inbox. You can anytime view these emails on label "All Mails" shown on left panel on gmail.

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And how is this different than this answer? – Al Everett Dec 17 '12 at 17:50
up vote 0 down vote

In addition to the other answers that show how to find your answer again, you can always get it back immediately after archiving it by clicking "Undo" in the message that appears just after the action:

enter image description here

I have used this "undo" feature many times. Also works for deleted messages.

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up vote 0 down vote

If you can remember who is the sender or his mail id or part of his name, try to search with this information in the search box on the top of the page.

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