The Mysterious Gmail “All Mail” Folder Demystified

By | October 31, 2022

 

 

The Mysterious Gmail “All Mail” Folder Demystified

Most of you use Gmail. And all of you who use Gmail have an “All Mail” folder. Google defines the “All Mail” folder this way…

Gmail does not use Folders. We use Labels. Even Inbox is considered a Label

All Mail contains all of the mail in your Gmail account. Gmail only has one copy of any email, but can multiple views of the same messages depending on what Labels you set up. Any email you delete from any view is deleted from all views. 

You cannot clear out the All Mail folder (it’s not a folder anyway). That would be like deleting all of your mail.

So the mystery grows because we call it a folder and Google says they don’t use folders – they use Labels. We’ll continue to call them “Folders” and not “Labels” because a rose by any other name is still a rose.

Anyway, if you check your Gmail accounts on your computer, tablet, and/or smartphone, you’ll be glad to know that all of your mail is stored in the “All Mail” folder even if it’s in your Inbox or another folder (Label). No, there are not multiple copies of the same email – there’s only one copy – but regardless of how many other folders (Labels) a mail shows up in, it will always show in the All Mail folder. But there are no duplicates or triplicates. Got it?

The All Mail Folder is Your Friend

Let’s let go of the confusing notion of shadowing/mirroring and just remember that the All Mail folder can be your friend. If you’re searching for an email, search the All Mail folder -because regardless of the folder (Label) that it is in, it will always be in your All Mail folder.

If you delete an email from your Gmail inbox or any other folder (Label) it will be deleted from your All Mail folder and placed in your Trash folder (Label). And any mail in your Trash folder will remain there for 30 days. After that Gmail will automatically delete it – (unless you delete it from the Trash folder first).

If you want to clean out your Inbox without deleting the emails in the Inbox, select the email(s) you want to archive, and then click the archive icon. See the screenshot below.

Cloudeight Gmail Tips

All selected emails will disappear from your Inbox but remain in your All Mail folder.  This is a great way to back up your emails!

Where is the All Mail folder?

Your All Mail should appear in the list of folders (Labels) on the left when you open your Gmail account on the web. If you don’t see it, make sure you did not hide it. To check, log into www.gmail.com, click settings (the gear icon) and then choose Labels. You will see All Mail in that list. Be sure “SHOW” is chosen. See the screenshot below.

Cloudeight Gmail Tips

Another Gmail tip

While you’re there, it would be a great time to HIDE those folders “social, updates, forums, promotions” that are included by default.

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