When you empty your trash folder, your emails are permanently deleted from your Gmail account. You can archive emails instead of deleting them if you wish to hide them. This enables you to locate and retrieve the emails at a later time.
Update, 7/18/22: We checked this article for accuracy and can confirm that it still works with the most recent versions of Gmail.
How to Archive Emails in Gmail
To archive an email in Gmail, just pick the email (or emails) to be archived and then click the Archive button.
When you choose emails in Gmail, the “Archive” button displays in the menu directly above your email list.
Tap the Archive button in the top menu that displays in the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad, or Android. The Archive button looks just like the one on the Gmail website.
Any email you archive will be removed from your main Gmail inbox, as well as any targeted categories you may have.
You will, however, be able to view them in any different folder you establish using Gmail labels.
Using the All Mail Label to Find Archived Emails in Gmail
As previously stated, archived emails are no longer visible in the standard Gmail display. Switching to the “All Mail” folder view in Gmail is one way to retrieve archived emails.
This will display all of your Gmail emails in one lengthy list, including priority emails and any emails that have been automatically classified. This list can be accessed by clicking the “All Mail” view label in the Gmail website’s left Gmail menu.
To do this in the Gmail app, tap the hamburger menu icon in the top-left corner. From here, scroll down and tap the “All Mail” label.
The sheer number of emails you’ll have to sift through is an evident disadvantage, especially if you have a significant number of emails. If you’ve only recently archived an email, this option is OK, but you may need to utilize the Gmail search box to explicitly identify archived emails instead.
Finding Archived Emails in Gmail Using the Search Bar
Unfortunately, there is no “archive” label to search for when using the Gmail search bar at the top of the Gmail website or app.
To manually search for your archived email, you’ll need to know the topic, sender, or subject. You may also use advanced Gmail search filters to find emails that aren’t in standard folders like your inbox, sent folder, or drafts folder.
In most cases, this should include a list of your archived emails. In the search bar, put “-in:Sent -in:Draft -in:Inbox.” This can be done in the Gmail app or on the Gmail website.
You may also use the “has:nouserlabels” filter in Gmail to remove emails that already have a category label. Even if they’ve been archived, you can access the email in your designated folder if it’s been categorized.
This method isn’t perfect, but it should help you narrow down your archived emails if you’re having trouble finding them using a basic search or in the “All Mail” folder.
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