How I cleaned out 30K messages in my Gmail account

[Graybeard]

I have a primary Gmail account that is maybe 15 years old
I haven't been able to easily prune it for years --stupid web interface.
Google's logic must be to profile me by my email LOL
@gmail is mostly signups on my phone now and newsletters & junk mail i very seldom read 30K messages in my Gmail account!

So i used Thunderbird and IMAP to go in and clean the mess out fast.

If anyone needs a good way to manage your Gmail messages,
Just ask me here.

Chat GPT 4.o showed me the way, without my having to read tons of Googlespeak that sends you in loops --Google wants to 'own' your data --it's buried in the TOS probably ...
instructions Install Thunderbird first
instructions for PC desktop

https://chatgpt.com/share/9bcbd5bb-0ee4-47d2-92d3-f5f7594c4b72

 

[Marnie]

30K emails is nothing. I have over 200K emails from all the lists I subscribed to, order confirmations, etc. I still have plenty of space but Google offered me extra space for a fee. Every once in a while I batch delete some emails, but if the account ever gets full, I'll move to a different one since I have several Gmail accounts and some other email services.

 

[Graybeard]

I managed to get to -0- in a few tries ... in IMAP.

It wasn't a matter of the storage volume it was a matter of web interfaces being time consuming to get anything done. Gmails for convince and guaranteed uptime.

I have my own mailserver and also use a secure mail server in Norway for real business on my domain accounts ofc.

Gmail can stuff-it --no privacy at all --except Google's iffy or empty promises.

 

[Marnie]

Graybeard, I gave up on Google giving me privacy a long time ago. Remember how we were told not to write anything in an email that we did not want the whole world to know? Just don't put anything personal in your emails.

 

[Graybeard]

That is why I use my own mail server and a bullet proof mail server in Norway. Have for years.
I sent my sister an email today regarding a trust account but her email is at @yahoo.com so yeah, the email included no confidential information. You got to roll with the punches ...

 

[azgold]

I have tens of thousands of emails in hotmail, gmail, yahoo. The easiest to clean is Hotmail because they have the sweep function that clears all of any sender out just by hitting the sweep button. But I still have more than 5,000 in there. Haven't really dedicated myself to getting it cleaned further, so that's one thing....

Gmail and Yahoo....I have to search a sender or email then click to delete. Then another page of the sender comes up - click and delete. Rinse and repeat until they're all gone, whilst remembering to do a quick check that there aren't other emails mixed in because sometimes there is then start again with a different sender/email. PITA.

 

[Graybeard]

I have tens of thousands of emails in hotmail, gmail, yahoo.

Web mail is not easy for me to deal with --too time consuming in general. Now my gmail is emptied and I can closely manage it in IMAP with Thunderbird and actually use it ...

 

[azgold]

I've know people who've walked away from their emails and started fresh with a new one. It's easier for them. A pain in the butt for me, though I've been tempted.

 

[Marnie]

I have tens of thousands of emails in hotmail, gmail, yahoo. The easiest to clean is Hotmail because they have the sweep function that clears all of any sender out just by hitting the sweep button. But I still have more than 5,000 in there. Haven't really dedicated myself to getting it cleaned further, so that's one thing....

Gmail and Yahoo....I have to search a sender or email then click to delete. Then another page of the sender comes up - click and delete. Rinse and repeat until they're all gone, whilst remembering to do a quick check that there aren't other emails mixed in because sometimes there is then start again with a different sender/email. PITA.

In Google and Yahoo, you should be able to delete pages of emails, you need to do an advance search of whatever the emails you want to delete, either the sender (for example an ex friend) or topic. Then you will get all those emails on one page, where they have the radio buttons next to them and you can click select all at the top of the page and then select delete. So if you have 2,000 emails from somebody it would only take a couple of minutes to delete all those.

If this is what you are already doing, never mind.

 

[azgold]

Thanks, Marnie! You said it wayyy better than I did. Yes, I get the results a page at a time but I did a really crap job of articulating that.

My main problem is that I've ignored it for far too long and now have more 9,000 in one them and I don't know how many thousands in the other.

Of course, if I got started, I'd probably finish sooner.

 

[Graybeard]

far too long and now have more 9,000 in one them and I don't know how many thousands in the other.

Of course, if I got started, I'd probably finish sooner.

That is EXACTLY why I used an IMAP client Thunderbird/Outlook (they still use that MS POS?)
Was done in minutes ...

 

[bulkpocket]

First, we say thank you for these questions and try our best to solve this issue.
We logged in to my Gmail account and found 5,238 emails in my inbox, I tried to delete all emails in my primary inbox. The magic we see when we tick the square box that is below the search bar and see the selected emails like this sentence "All 50 conversations on this page are selected." just the end of this sentence I click on "Select all 5,238 conversations in Primary" then click to delete. after completing this process my primary inbox was clean.

 

[azgold]

"Select all 5,238 conversations in Primary"

I've never noticed that! Thanks, I'll look for it. I assume it will work for the promotion and social sections, too.