Archive or mute Gmail messages

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If you want to clean up your inbox without deleting your emails, you can archive or mute them. Your emails are moved to a label called "All Mail."

  • When you archive a message: The message will come back to your inbox when someone replies to it.
  • When you mute a message: Any replies stay out of your inbox. You can search for the conversation if you want to find it again.

Archive an email

  1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
  2. Point to the message.
  3. On the right, click Archive Archive.

Tip: If keyboard shortcuts are turned on, you can also press e to archive an email you're looking at.

Find or move messages you archived

Messages you archived aren't deleted, and you can find them any time.

Search for archived messages

When you search in Gmail, your results will include any messages that have been archived.

Learn more about search in Gmail.

Open All Mail

The All Mail label is added to every message. If a message has been archived, you can find it by opening the All Mail label.

  1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
  2. On the left, click More.
  3. Click All Mail.

Move archived messages back to your inbox

  1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
  2. Find the archived message.
  3. Next to the message, check the box.
  4. At the top, click Move to Inbox Move to Inbox.

Mute or ignore messages

  1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
  2. Open or select the conversation.
  3. At the top, click More Moreand then Mute.

Tip: To mute more quickly, learn how to turn on keyboard shortcuts.

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