How to Archive Emails in Gmail
Each of us has email, and some of us even use Gmail.
Over time, it fills up with strange messages that we don’t have time to sort through: spam, receipts, one-time codes, promotional emails, and so on.
Often we need to clear the inbox counter but keep the emails available for search, reading, or replying. That’s exactly what email archiving does!
Now you can archive all emails older than a certain date with one button!
How does it work?
1. First, choose the time period (emails older than this period will be archived):
2. Click the “Archive Emails” button:
3. Then sign in to Google and grant access to your Gmail account through the certified service – “Mail Application for Gmail™”.
Fun fact for those interested: the service was originally created for the Gmail App extension, but now it can be reused in any project that requires access to the Gmail API.
4. If there are emails older than the selected period (for example, older than 6 months when “6 months” is selected), the archiving process starts. You will see a progress bar that fills gradually in batches of 100 emails:
5. When processing is complete, you will see fireworks and a success message:
6. If there are no emails to archive, you will see a corresponding message:
How is the service better than regular Gmail?
Regular Gmail web version
Let’s look at the steps required in native Gmail to process all emails.
1. First, you need to display emails older than a specific date (using the search bar and the filter older_than:6m for 6 months, which is quite difficult for an average user):
2. Then you need to click the checkbox to select all emails on the page,
3. Next, click the (not very noticeable) blue link to select all emails in the inbox:
4. Click the “Archive” button:
5. Confirm your action by pressing “OK” in a separate pop-up window:
6. And wait an unknown amount of time (Gmail may take timeouts while processing messages):
“Archive Gmail Emails” service
Now let’s look at the steps required to archive the entire mailbox using my service:
1. Choose the time period for emails you want to archive:
2. Then press the large red button in the center of the screen:
3. Sign in and grant access to our authorized service:
4. Finally, wait a few seconds while watching the clear and intuitive progress bar:
Final comparison
Number of actions
- Gmail: 6 actions
- “Archive Gmail Emails” service: 4 actions
Verdict
“Archive Gmail Emails” service is much easier to use and requires almost twice fewer actions than regular Gmail.
Task completion time
Number of emails to process: ~200 messages
- Gmail: ~1 minute
- “Archive Gmail Emails” service: < 3 seconds!
Verdict
“Archive Gmail Emails” service works more than 20 times faster than the official Gmail web version.
Main features
- Standard authorization via Google OAuth v2.0 – all data goes through Google’s own servers
- Requests minimal permissions from the user – only
gmail.modify
- Includes a progress bar with a counter of processed emails – it’s clear how long you need to wait
- Displays client and Gmail service errors — if something goes wrong, you can understand the reason and fix it or contact us for help
- Works online, free, and with one button
Technical features
- All processing happens on the client side (no backend, all data goes directly from the browser to Google)
- Emails are processed in batches of 100 (more granular progress than standard 1000+ email requests, and no risk of Google account blocking due to spam-like requests)
Privacy
1. The service has passed CASA certification (Cloud App Security Assessment) and complies with the ESOF Cyber Score (9.7/10).
2. The service does not store any user information (processing happens locally in the browser, with requests sent directly to the authorized Google backend).