Nowadays, Gmail is one of the most popular email services all over the world. Every day thousands of people use this service to send their friends, relatives, and colleagues messages. There you can attach files, photos, videos, etc, to let the recipient be aware of the topic of your writing. However, in order not to have a messy chatbox, the service provides an opportunity to archive emails.
Have you ever faced an issue when, you need to read once more the chat with the specific, but it was archived? Some users may get disappointed as they are confused about where to find them. However, fortunately, there are some ways to find and retrieve the archived email on Gmail.
What are archived emails and where they are kept on Gmail
Email software has been upgrading all the existence. Older Email software which is also known as Microsoft Outlook organizes messages into folders. However, the main disadvantage of this opportunity is that the message can be linked only to one folder. It means that if you want to store the messages under a specific folder, for example, “University”, but you also need to link some of them to “Important”, you won’t be able to do that.
Fortunately, Gmail makes it possible to put one message into 2 folders at once, as it uses a label-based system. This means that you can put one message on as many labels as you want to. Moreover, this system also makes inbox management much simpler, as it’s really easy to ask Gmail to show the messages linked to that or another label.
So what are archived messages? Basically, it’s still the same messages, however, instead of the “inbox” label, the label is marked as “archive”. This doesn’t mean that the message would be deleted or you won’t be able to observe it once more. Gmail made it simple to find and retrieve archived messages. However, Gmail doesn’t display the archive label alongside other labels, which is a common source of confusion even among more experienced Gmail users.
How to find archived emails on Gmail
So, many users often move old messages and chats to the archive. However, what to do in case you need to find the message that you’ve moved to the archive a long time ago? Many users think that “archived” means “deleted”. However, despite the confusion of the users, fortunately, there’s a way to find even the oldest message that has been moved to the archive on Gmail. So, if you want to do that, you should try out the prompts that would be displayed in the section below:
- First of all, you should fill in your Google email address and password and click on the “Sign In” option if you aren’t still logged in.
- After that, you should click on the hamburger menu in the top-left corner of the screen to see a pop-out menu with labels.
- To complete the process, you should click on the “All Mail” label at the bottom of the screen.
This method would be the best solution for those who don’t have thousands of emails in their inbox, as you’ll need to surf through it. In case you have many messages in your archive, it would be better not to use this method, but don’t worry, there’s still an alternative that would solve your issue. So, if this is your case, you should try out the steps which would be mentioned in the section below:
- First of all, you should head to the search bar.
- After that, you should fill in “has:nouserlabels -in: Sent -in: Chat -in: Draft -in: Inbox”.
However, if for some reason this method isn’t suitable for you, there’s still one more solution, that can help you to find the desired message even if it has been moved to the archive years ago. So, if you need to find archived emails on Gmail, you should follow the prompts which would be mentioned in the section below:
- First of all, you should head to the search bar.
- To complete the process, you should enter one or two words that you know are definitely in the email you want and click on enter.
Keep in mind, that the more words you write, the fewer unneeded emails would be displayed, as the specter of search would get more and more narrow. So, since then, you can see even the oldest messages that you may think would never be found again. This can help in different cases, as, sometimes, old messages keep some useful and important information that shouldn’t be lost.
How to retrieve archived emails on Gmail
Archive, as you know now, doesn’t mean that the email or chat would be deleted. You would be still able to access all the emails that have been transferred there. However, sometimes, you may find the archived chat with the person whose contact you’ve lost a long time ago. So, if you need to write this person one more time, you’ll need to retrieve the archived email. If you want to do that, you should try out the prompts that would be mentioned in the section below:
- First of all, you should head to: https://mail.google.com/
- After that, you should log in to your account.
- Then, you should find the archived message. Now, it’s possible to use the search bar or the All Mail label to find the email.
- Next, you should tick the box next to the message. Alternatively, you can click and hold the message in case you use the Gmail app.
- To complete the process, you should tap on the “Move to Inbox” option that can be found at the top of the screen.
Since then, the archived email would be retrieved and you’ll be able to communicate with the recipient one more time after your last conversation. This method can help you with many cases when you need to retrieve an email. Moreover, it wouldn’t require much effort and time, so you can definitely try it out.
