Delete emails on your iPhone or iPad

You can use gestures to delete emails and select Delete or Archive as the default option.

Delete multiple emails at the same time

1. Open Mail and go to your Inbox.

2. Tap the More button in the top right-hand corner, then tap Select.

3. Individually select the emails that you want to delete. To select multiple emails quickly, swipe down through the tick boxes.

4. Tap the Delete button or tap the Archive button. If you only see Archive, touch and hold Archive to see other options such as Delete Selected Messages.

   

To choose Select All when you select emails, use List View. Tap the More button, then tap List View.

Swipe to delete and other ways to discard one email

In Mail on iOS, there are multiple ways to delete one email:

• Swipe left quickly over a single email.

• Touch and hold an email from your Inbox, then tap Delete Message from the menu.

• Tap the Archive button or the Delete button from within an email.

  

You can also use the steps to delete multiple emails to delete a single email.

Delete emails from a specific sender with categories view in iOS 18.2

1. In the Mail app, tap on a message you want to delete. All of your messages in that category from this sender will appear in a message list.

2. Tap the More button.

3. Tap Delete All.

You can also swipe left on individual emails in a message list to delete a specific email.

Set Delete or Archive as your default option

Depending on the type of email account you have, you may see Archive instead of Delete when you try to delete emails. You can edit where your deleted messages go in your Mail settings:

1. In the Settings app, tap Apps.

2. Tap Mail.

3. Tap Mail accounts.

4. Tap your account.

5. Tap Account Settings.

6. Tap Advanced.

7. Scroll to Move Discarded Messages Into and select Deleted Mailbox or Archive Mailbox.