Deleting Emails

Inboxorcist lets you delete thousands of emails at once, organized by Gmail categories.

Understanding Categories

Gmail automatically sorts your emails into categories:

Viewing Email Statistics

After connecting Gmail, the dashboard shows:

• Total emails across all categories
• Count per category (Promotions, Social, Updates, etc.)
• Storage used (if available)

Click on a category to see more details.

Deleting by Category

Step 1: Select Categories

On the main dashboard:

1. Check the categories you want to clean
2. Multiple categories can be selected

Step 2: Review Count

Before starting:

• See the total number of emails to be deleted
• Confirm you want to proceed

Step 3: Start Deletion

Click Delete Selected to start the job.

Step 4: Monitor Progress

The progress screen shows:

• Emails processed - How many have been moved to Trash
• Remaining - How many are left
• Estimated time - Based on current speed

How Deletion Works

Background Processing

Large deletions run as background jobs:

• You can close the browser
• The job continues on the server
• Check back anytime for progress

Batch Operations

Emails are deleted in batches:

• Gmail allows 1000 emails per batch
• Batches are processed sequentially
• Rate limits are handled automatically

Soft Delete

Emails are moved to Trash, not permanently deleted:

• 30 days to recover from Trash
• Use "Empty Trash" for immediate deletion

Emptying Trash

After moving emails to Trash:

1. Go to Settings or the Trash section
2. Click Empty Trash
3. Confirm the action

Job Management

View Running Jobs

The dashboard shows active deletion jobs:

• Current progress
• Start time
• Status

Cancel a Job

To stop a running deletion:

1. Go to the job status page
2. Click Cancel
3. Already-deleted emails remain in Trash

Resume Interrupted Jobs

If a job is interrupted (server restart, network issue):

• Jobs automatically resume on next start
• No emails are lost or duplicated

Rate Limits

Gmail has API quotas to prevent abuse:

Inboxorcist handles rate limits automatically:

• Exponential backoff on errors
• Respects Gmail's throttling
• Jobs continue when limits reset

Best Practices

Start Small

For your first deletion:

1. Start with a smaller category (like Social)
2. Verify emails went to Trash
3. Then proceed with larger categories

Don't Delete Primary

The Primary category often contains important emails. Either:

• Skip it entirely
• Manually review in Gmail first

Keep Receipts

The Updates category may contain:

• Purchase receipts
• Account confirmations
• Travel itineraries

Consider reviewing before bulk deletion.

Regular Cleanup

For ongoing inbox management:

• Run Inboxorcist monthly or quarterly
• Delete Promotions and Social regularly
• Be more selective with Updates

Recovering Deleted Emails

If you accidentally deleted emails:

From Trash (within 30 days)

1. Open Gmail
2. Go to Trash
3. Select emails to recover
4. Click Move to > Inbox

From Gmail Admin (Google Workspace)

Workspace admins can recover emails up to 25 days after Trash deletion.

After 30 Days

Unfortunately, emails permanently deleted from Trash cannot be recovered.

Troubleshooting

Deletion is Slow

Normal causes:

• Large number of emails
• Gmail rate limiting
• Network latency

The progress bar shows estimated time.

Job Stuck at 0%

Check:

• Gmail connection is still valid
• Server logs for errors
• Try reconnecting Gmail

Some Emails Not Deleted

Possible reasons:

• Emails moved to different category during deletion
• Gmail's categorization changed
• Rate limit reached (will resume)

Trash Not Emptying

If "Empty Trash" fails:

• Check Gmail connection
• Try again after a few minutes
• Check server logs for errors