Gmail offers users a way to remove their email i.e. Gmail archive and delete. Both can sound the same but there is quite a difference. Archived emails are different from deleted emails.
Now it is a good time to see the process of archiving and unarchiving emails in Gmail.
Technically, archived emails are not deleted emails. They are usually kept in different folders. Finding these emails is easy but they won’t show up in the main inbox (if they are muted).
To unarchive an email, users need to open Gmail in either a desktop browser or on their mobile device or phone.
What does archive mean?
Those who wish to keep their inbox clean are in luck because Gmail provides them the tools to manage old emails. When users receive an email they can either mute it, delete it, move it or they can archive it.
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Archiving vs Deleting
Deleting a message is one good way of cleaning up an inbox. It helps save considerable space in both the inbox and Google account. However, some users feel that it is safe to keep old messages around. They might need those emails.
Those who wish to tidy up the inbox without the need of deleting old emails can move them to a specific folder. But they won’t be deleted.
But the email won’t be deleted. Yet it won’t be visible in the inbox easily, even if users reply to it.
Archiving emails is another way of keeping emails. It can be done when users click on the archive icon which is present in the Gmail menu.
Methods of Gmail Archive
Here are some steps in archiving a emails to the Gmail Archive folder on a desktop using a web browser:
- Users should open their Gmail inbox.
- They should click on it to select it.
- Clicking on it and then clicking on the archive option.
- Email message is now visible.
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Does Archiving help free up space in the inbox?
In a Gmail account, users can select all the emails they wish to archive and then they can click on the archive button in the top row.
However archiving does not free up space in the inbox. Users need to archive a limited number of emails if they don’t want to lose them.
What archiving emails does is that it moves the needed emails from the inbox to another much safer folder.
Archiving and space creation – how so?
If users have important emails and they want to keep them safe, then the archive folder is a very good folder to keep them safe. Emails can be backed up just in case they take too much space.
Specialized software can help save them in EML, MBOX and PDF formats. They can also be printed whenever needed.
Some of these methods have limitations. Users cannot always create EML files in bulk numbers and making MBOX files is time consuming. Email filters lack advanced options for specific and certain kinds of emails.
How to unarchive Gmail
Here are some sure fire ways to help unarchive emails in Gmail:
Step one
Logging into Gmail on either a desktop, laptop, tablet or phone by means of a web browser or the app.
Step two
Once users have logged in, they should go to the side menu on the left and click on more to open a dropdown menu having more labels. Then users can select All Mail. This shows all emails and excludes spam.
Step three
Now that all emails are visible, they are shown as a very long and uncategorized list. Users can scroll through and find their required email(s). Alternatively, using the search bar is preferable and a sensible option as it is time saving.
They can enter the sender’s name or subject (or any other keywords they remember) in the search bar. Here the advanced search bar comes in handy for searching that email. Filters like recipient, sender, any associated word, subject, date, time and relevant variable are used for finding the email.
Users can find the email they need by entering the relevant information and the resulting options can be narrowed down with ease.
Step four
When users have found the email they are looking for, they can select it by clicking the box next to it.
Then users can move that email to the inbox (which hence unarchives it). The process seems similar to the archiving one but it moves emails back to the inbox. This makes them easier to find. messages are also sorted as per the order of date and time they were sent.
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Conclusion
Now that people know about archiving and unarchiving emails in Gmail, they can put these steps into practice and archive messages they need. They can even make a system where they can decide whether or not to archive or mute new messages once they have been read. Important messages can be unarchived when needed.
