We’ll actually show you how to do that via both a mobile app, and a desktop client. Do note that we’re only talking about deleting here, archiving is something completely different. Archiving emails doesn’t really delete them. In any case, we’ll start with a tutorial for the phone app, and will then move to the desktop client.
How to delete emails permanently in the Gmail app
All of you probably know how to delete an email, but we’ll cover that too, just in case. You can delete one email, or more at once. If you’d like to delete one email, there are two ways to go about it. First, you can open a list of your emails, and tap on an image listed on the left side of the email.
If you do that, you will select that email, as a checkmark will appear on it. From there, you can either delete it by clicking the trash icon at the top, or select more emails by repeating the process, and then delete them all. Alternatively, you can open an email, and then tap the trash icon at the top. This will delete only the email you’ve opened, of course.
Now, in order to permanently delete an email, you’ll need to open the hamburger menu. Tap the three horizontal lines in the top-left corner. From there, you’ll need to select the “Trash” option from the menu that pop-up. This will open a list of your deleted emails. There you’ll see the “Empty trash now” option, which will delete all your emails. You can alternatively select only some of them, and delete them like you did it initially, but this will delete them from the trash bin, and remove them for good.
How to delete emails permanently on desktop
The procedure for the desktop client is quite similar, actually. Once you’ve opened a list of emails, you can either open the email to delete it, or tap the checkbox in front of it. If you’d like to delete multiple emails, you’ll need to tap multiple checkboxes. Once you’ve decided which route to go, you’ll need to tap the trash icon at the top, similar as you would in the app.
Once that is done, you will need to access the menu on the left. To most of you, it’s open all the time, but if it’s not, you can access it via the hamburger menu in the top-left corner, as you would on an Android app. Once you do that, you’ll need to find the “Trash”. If you don’t see it in that menu, hit “More” at the bottom.
That button will reveal the “Trash” option for most of you, if you didn’t move it in the upper portion of the menu. In any case, tap that option.
A trash menu will open, and from there, you’ll be able to tap the “Empty trash now” option in the top-right corner. Alternatively, if you have a ton of emails, and you’d like to delete only some of them permanently, you can do it the same way you originally deleted them, by utilizing checkboxes.
