5

My Gmail account does not have the "select all" checkbox, so I have to select one by one.

Is there any other way to delete all my spam messages?

Improve this question

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
5

Just to add a little more context, @Josh is right, there is no "Select All" option when viewing your inbox in the Basic HTML view:

Screenshot of mail options in basic HTML view

The only way to get the option to "Select All" to show up is to switch to "Standard View" You can do this by selecting the link at the top of the page:

Link to switch back to Standard view

Once you do this you'll be taken back to the Standard Gmail, where the "Select All" option will appear.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    actually, switching to standard view is not "the only way"; you can easily select all by issuing e.g. document.querySelectorAll('input[name=t]').forEach(t=>t.checked = true), or even writing a userscript (Greasemonkey etc.) creating a button to do so.
    – user196231
    Commented Sep 28, 2018 at 16:32
5

What browser and Operating System are you using?

The select checkbox looks like this:

Gmail select checkbox

It does look different than the checkboxes next to messages. If you click the checkbox itself, all messages will be checked. Clicking again will reverse this. If you click the down arrow next to the checkbox you'll get this menu:

Gmail select menu

Options are:

  • All
  • None
  • Read
  • Unread
  • Starred
  • Unstarred

This allows you to select exactly the messages you want.

Of course, the Spam label is special. In addition to all of that there is this link at the top of the messages:

delete all spam messages

Clicking that link will delete all of the spam messages, just as it says.

However, if you're not seeing that then possibly your browser is way out of date or you have something that is blocking the visibility of the HTML.

(Or, as OnenOnlyWalter points out, you're using the Basic HTML view.)

Improve this answer
0

I have never seen gmail not have Select All-- Just to be sure you aren't missing it, it's directly above the list of emails, below the search bar, to the left of the refresh button.

However, to delete the spam without clicking one by one, you could also wait 30 days and they will be deleted automatically.

Improve this answer
-1

You can use this query to effectively select all emails that are not found to be important, nor which you have decided to label in any way.

As well, it excludes the emails that you've read (which, if they're spammy then you probably never opened them)

in:inbox -is:important is:unread has:nouserlabels

After running the search in the gmail search box, then you select all via the select box near the upper-left side of your email list:

enter image description here

Improve this answer
4
  • 1
    One still needs a checkbox to actually select the conversation to do something with it. This doesn't ameliorate the lack of "select all".
    – ale
    Commented Dec 16, 2015 at 14:18
  • The answer you gave shows that, and this is knowledge more-basic than the matter of "where is the select all button"
    – New Alexandria
    Commented Dec 16, 2015 at 16:33
  • Sure, it's useful information, but how does it answer the question? The Asker indicates that there is no "Select All" checkbox.
    – ale
    Commented Dec 16, 2015 at 16:51
  • Maybe they'll come back and correct me — but I'll assert that the intent of their question was to solve the problem of excess crappy emails in their inbox. The language of how they ask indicated a degree of naivety about all the facets of a web app, resulting in a 'straightforward but unclear' way of wording the intent. Regardless of OP's intent, I've created an answer that can benefit searchers who come here looking for an answer to the that problem.
    – New Alexandria
    Commented Dec 16, 2015 at 21:31

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.