Delete thousands of emails on your iPhone or iPad

How to delete thousands of emails at once on an iPhone or iPad.

In some folders within iOS Mail, such as the Inbox Folder, there is no Delete All option.

So how can you delete all the messages in such a folder?

Read the following steps carefully. This tip takes a little bit of patience.

Steps

1. Open the iOS Mail on the iPhone or iPad and go to the Inbox folder
2. Tap on the Edit Button on the top right and select the first email in your list.
3. Then hold down the Move button
4. While you are still holding the Move Button, deselect the first email.
5. Remove your fingers from the screen and wait a few seconds. Be patient. The Mail should prompt you to indicated where to move ALL of the to be deleted emails.
6. Select the Trash Folder as your destination (or whichever folder you prefer).
7. Then go to the Trash Folder from where you can delete all of the items at once.

I did this for a friend who had over 4,000 + emails in the iPhone inbox.

It took two or three times to do this. It takes a while for the gmail server to synch. But it works.

This tip is not mine. This is earliest dated reference that I found (2011) from Jason Elk.

See: http:http://www.jasonelk.com/2011/02/how-to-delete-all-your-mail-at-once-on-your-ipho

Addendum#1 from Lawrence Finch:

If it's Gmail just go to mail.google.com with a web browser and you can delete them there, then wait for them to sync with your iPhone. This will work with any email provider that has a webmail interface.