How to Retrieve Archived Emails on iPhone

Table of Contents

With so many emails coming in every day, from personal subscriptions to work-related messages, your Gmail inbox can be a mess. You may want to clean it up but not to the point that they’ll be deleted permanently. After all, some of them may prove to be important or useful someday.

The best course of action would be to archive your emails instead. Archiving an email would remove it from your inbox but it will remain accessible when you need it. If you think this email has become important, you can even move it back to your regular inbox for easier access. 

On iPhone, archiving email messages would just simply be transferring them to the All Mail folder. It’s like hiding these emails only from your main inbox. However, if someone replies to this archived message, it will automatically go back to your inbox.

When do people usually archive their emails? It’s typically done to email messages that contain confidential information. This can include account credentials or personal information such as your home address and contact number. You wouldn’t want them easily to be found in your inbox. 

If you’ve never archived an email on your iPhone before, here are the steps on how to do it using the Mail app:

  1. On your iPhone, open the Mail app.
  2. Under the Mailbox section, open the Inbox folder. Upon opening, your Inbox will get updated with the most recent emails.
  3. Find and select the email that you’d want to archive.
  4. From the preview line, swipe the email to the left. You will find some quick options on the right side.
  5. Tap on Archive. This will automatically remove the email from your Inbox and move it to the All Mail folder.
  6. You can also swipe on the message preview first, then tap on the More icon to open a pop-up menu.
  7. From the menu, select Archive located on the upper-right corner of the window and that’s it.

Repeat the same process for all the email messages that you wish to archive.

Now that you’ve archived your emails, what if you need them again in the future? How will you find them? You have two ways of finding your archived email messages. One is through the web and the other is through the Mail app. It depends on what method you usually use to access your email.

If you’re using a web browser on your iPhone, just follow these steps:

  1. Open your web browser, like Safari or Google Chrome.
  2. Visit the email website. Gmail, for example.
  3. Sign in to your account.
  4. After logging in, swipe down the list on the left side of the screen.
  5. Tap on More.
  6. Tap on All Mail. Here, you will find all your email messages, including the archived ones.
  7. Use the search bar to find the specific archived email you wish to see.
  8. To return it to your Inbox, check the small box on the left side of the email preview line.
  9. At the top of the window, tap on Move to Inbox.

On the other hand, if you’re using the Mail app, here’s what you need to do to move it back to your Inbox:

  1. On your iPhone, open the Mail app. Make sure your account is signed in.
  2. Under the Mailbox section, open the All Mail folder. Here, you will find all your email messages, including the archived ones.
  3. Use the search bar to find the specific archived email you wish to see.
  4. To return it to your Inbox, open the email conversation.
  5. Tap on the sender’s Profile icon located on the left of the window.
  6. Tap on the More icon, represented by the three dots.
  7. You can choose between returning the email back to your Inbox or to your Primary.

And that is it! Your archived email should already be back in your Inbox after following this simple procedure. 

Picture of Kokou Adzo

Kokou Adzo

Kokou Adzo is a stalwart in the tech journalism community, has been chronicling the ever-evolving world of Apple products and innovations for over a decade. As a Senior Author at Apple Gazette, Kokou combines a deep passion for technology with an innate ability to translate complex tech jargon into relatable insights for everyday users.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts