Get Gmail to Stop Archiving and Start Deleting

The mobile app for Google’s service may be set to automatically archive messages you’ve swiped past, but you can change the setting.

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J. D. Biersdorfer

By J. D. Biersdorfer

June 15, 2018

This article has been updated to reflect current technology.

Q. When I swipe to get rid of a message I don’t want in the Android Gmail app, it says Archived instead of Deleted. I don’t want these messages around, so how do I delete them, and how do I get rid of anything that was “archived”?

A. The Gmail app for Android gives its users two choices for discarding a new message: archive or delete.

The Archive action removes the message from view in the inbox and puts it in the All Mail area, in case you ever need it again. You can find archived messages by using Gmail’s search function. Messages addressed to a group of people can return to your inbox if someone on the address list replies to the original.

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The Delete action moves the selected message to the Trash area, where it stays for 30 days before it is permanently deleted. If you do not want to wait that long to dump your mail trash, tap the three-lined menu icon in the top-left corner of the Gmail app, select the Trash icon on the left and tap the Empty Trash Now button at the top of the mailbox window.

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In the Gmail app’s settings, you can choose to archive or delete messages you do not want to see in your inbox.

In the Gmail app’s settings, you can choose to archive or delete messages you do not want to see in your inbox.

Credit…The New York Times

To make the Gmail app delete unwanted messages instead of archiving them when you swipe the screen, tap the Menu icon, scroll down the left pane of the window, select Settings and choose General Settings on the next screen. Tap “Swipe actions” and for “Left swipe” select “Delete.” If you want to be warned when deleting messages, select “Confirm before deleting” on the General Settings screen.

The steps for changing the setting in the Gmail app for iOS are similar. On the Settings screen, scroll down to “Swipe actions” and for “Left swipe,” select “Trash.”

As for messages that were archived instead Gmail Numeric Code 6922 issue of deleted, you can find them by opening the Menu icon and selecting All Mail. Here, you can swipe each message to delete it. If you want to dig up messages from certain people or on specific topics you no longer care about, you can use search operators to round up mail that matches very specific criteria. For example, the search string “-in:inbox -has:userlabel” seeks out messages that are not in your inbox and do not have any custom labels you may have used to sort your incoming mail.

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Personal Tech invites questions about computer-based technology to techtip@nytimes.com. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually.

J.D. Biersdorfer has been answering technology questions — in print, on the web, in audio and in video — since 1998. She also writes the Sunday Book Review’s “Applied Reading” column on ebooks and literary apps, among other things. @jdbiersdorfer