Many email users fall in one of two categories: those who delete and those who archive. I might argue that the latter group break into two further categories: those who follow a logic and file into various categorical folders and those whose archived messages are near impossible to rediscover except by searching. (These subgroups may not be mutually exclusive.)

In which bucket do you find yourself? And does your bucket have a hole? (More on that later…)

What is Archived Email?

Most email providers offer a way to archive messages, hiding them in an unorganized mailbox away from your inbox and/or other primary or named containers.

The commonly used icon is a file box that you might stack in a closet or basement for your descendants to rediscover after you die. Okay, hopefully it doesn’t come to that, but it’s worth considering.

If you keep multiple email accounts in Apple Mail, you’ll see a unified parent Archive mailbox and a child mailbox for each account. This mirrors the behavior of the other primary mailboxes (Inbox, Sent, etc.).

Swipe to Delete Archive (?!)

Apple Mail offers the choice to “move discarded messages” to either Trash or Archive. On macOS, this preference is application-wide, so it applies to all accounts at once. On iOS, the setting is account-specific.

If you use Gmail, you might know that Google encourages you keep all your email throughout all time. This might be fine from a storage perspective unless you have more than 300,000 messages or a lot of large attachments or really don’t care. Or, it could be overwhelming or costly.

The default setting for Gmail accounts on iOS devices is to archive discarded messages. You might have noticed on an iPhone or iPad, when swiping across a listed message from right to left, the primary action is Archive (blue) instead of Trash (red).

To change the setting on macOS, go to Mail > Preferences > Viewing and change the setting for Move discarded messages into. On iOS, the setting is a bit more buried:

  1. Open Settings
  2. In iOS 13 and earlier, choose Passwords & Accounts or Accounts & Passwords. In iOS 14, choose Mail and then Accounts.
  3. Select an account, tap the email address, and go to Advanced
  4. Choose to move discarded messages into “Deleted Mailbox” or “Archive Mailbox”
  5. Go back to the account and tap Done [the setting won’t stick unless you complete this final step]

Rediscover Archived Gmail Messages

Gmail treats email differently than most providers. Whereas most emailers place a message in only one “mailbox” at a time, Gmail enables users to apply one or more “labels” to a message such that it appears in all associated lists. Viewed in Apple Mail, which only shows mailboxes, the message is not duplicated, yet it appears in every equivalent mailbox.

Additionally, Gmail has a place called All Mail. This is literally an aggregation of all messages across the email account (except for Trash and Spam). Viewed in Apple Mail, All Mail appears as Archive.

If you aren’t confused yet, let’s go one level deeper… In Gmail, the meaning behind the Archive action is “Remove From Inbox.” When you archive a message in Gmail, the Inbox label is removed but the message retains any other previously assigned “user” labels.

If Inbox was the only label, you’ll only be able to find the message in All Mail. Except by searching for a specific message, it’s extremely difficult to find such messages. Plus, Gmail’s search engine isn’t particularly easy to query.

If you’re someone who has incidentally archived messages when you intended to delete them, here’s a trick to find them again. Go to your Gmail account in a web browser and enter the following in the search field:

has:nouserlabels -in:inbox -in:sent -in:draft -in:chats

This will reveal all messages that were archived and not otherwise categorized. If you (undesirably) archived messages that you preferred to have deleted or elsewhere filed, this is how you’ll find them.

I performed this search in my own Gmail account and found 2,600 messages. Most were from 2007–2012 and included many I thought I would have deleted or marked as spam. I attached the label “Archived?” to these emails so I could review them later.

Now, about that bucket… Is a hole a good thing or a bad thing? It could be a leak and also an opportunity for Liza and Henry to collaborate. If the bucket has a sealing lid, maybe a hole is the only way to breathe.

One way or another, email can be a blissful memory, an overflowing closet, and an organized mess all wrapped into one mailbox (or a bunch of them, depending on your approach).

The question that remains is, Are you destined for Inbox Zero? If so, I can help, or I can refer you to a professional organizer.