If Gmail has been adding the 'Important' label to your emails and you would rather that didn't happen, here's how to stop it from happening.
Some months ago various new emails in my Gmail accounts started showing up with an 'Important' label (flag) attached to them. Since I don't use labels in my email I thought that was more than a little odd.
I use a third party email client to access all my email, and any email that Google labeled 'Iimportant', I would uncheck the label and the label would disappear for that email. Random new email would still arrive with the 'Important' label.
If you're experiencing the same thing, the following steps should stop Google from adding the 'Important' label to any email that Google decides is important.
Note that these changes can only be made using the Gmail web interface, not through a Gmail app or a third party email client. Changes made in the web interface will apply to any apps or third party email clients.
- In a web browser, open Gmail (https://mail.google.com )
- In the top right, click the gear icon and choose 'Settings'
- Click the 'Inbox' tab
- In the 'Importance markers' section, select 'No markers'
- At the bottom of the page, make sure to click 'Save Changes' or any changes you made won't be saved.
These steps should work whether you are using the Default or Priority Inbox type.
Since it's a system label, making these changes will remove the 'Important' label from use in Gmail.
You can easily create a new label to use in its place. Select an email, click on the label icon, select 'Create new', give your label a name, click 'Create' and your label will appear when you click the Label icon.
I went through these steps a some months ago and all was well until the last few weeks, when some emails started arriving with the 'Important' label again. If that happens, repeat these steps:
- Log in to Gmail (https://mail.google.com ) using a browser
- Click the gear icon in the upper right
- Choose 'Settings'
- Click on the 'Inbox' tab
Make these two additional changes:
- Under the 'Importance markers', check the button next to 'Don't use my past actions to predict which messages are important'
- In the 'Filtered mail section' directly below the Importance markers, check the button next to 'Don't override filters'
Make sure to click the 'Save Changes" button at the bottom of the page
Or, you can also make these two extra changes from the beginning.
These steps should stop Google from assigning an 'Important' label to messages in your Gmail inbox.