Is there a way to delete all email messages from inbox without checking each one at a time on my iphone 4?

No. What you're doing is the only way to delete your emails.

Like said, no; however, you can use the mobile gmail website (if gmail) or check to see if your email client has a mobile website and if it will allow you to do from there.

Does ANYONE know why this simple feature hasn't been implemented yet? It seems that a "Delete All" mail button is the most asked-about iOS feature in these forums, and Apple doesn't seem to care. Let's see:

1) It's a huge usability issue, and it's relatively simple to implement.

2) Apple sees itself as an advocate for usability and simple design.

Trivial, isn't it?

And if Apple did such, these forums would be flooded with postings from users screaming..."All of my eMails have been deleted...how do I get them back...HELP!!!"

Also, the iPhone is not a standalone device and obviously doesn't have a full blown mail client... it's an adjunct to your computer. If you want to delete a lot of emails, do it on your computer. You could also log into your webmail using a browser on your iPhone and do it from there.

wjosten wrote:

And if Apple did such, these forums would be flooded with postings from users screaming..."All of my eMails have been deleted...how do I get them back...HELP!!!"

Brilliant reasoning! Then why do they have a "Reset" button that wipes out EVERYTHING in the iPhone? One would think that a "Delete All" button would be less harmful, since deleting emails simply move them to the Trash and the "deleted" messages are fully recoverable. I don't think Apple thinks its users are stupid, do you?

paulcb wrote:

Also, the iPhone is not a standalone device and obviously doesn't have a full blown mail client... it's an adjunct to your computer. If you want to delete a lot of emails, do it on your computer. You could also log into your webmail using a browser on your iPhone and do it from there.

You have a point, but you're just helping exposing the misery a little more: I actually DO delete the emails in WebMail, very easily. The problem is the sorry state of the Apple email client, that does not replicate those actions on the device, so I have to delete the messages TWICE--once on my computer, with a couple of clicks, and then on my iPhone, with a couple (hundreds) finger gestures.

As to your point that the iPhone is not a standalone device: that's nonsense. The iPhone does a lot of things that users thought IMPOSSIBLE just 10 years ago. Are you saying that the addition of a simple feature like a "Delete All Messages" button is too much for a mobile device? Then what to say about Siri, a complex-beyond-our-imagination system that incorporates voice recognition, AI, searching and other hard-to-grasp technologies, all at our fingertips?

There IS a simple way to do this... a delete all. Go to the main screen of the email app.

Scroll down to your list of accounts. (you need to empty each account separately)

In this picture I need to delete 40 and 36.

Select an account

Select Inbox

Select Edit

Select Move All

Move to trash

Done

Then you go to ALL TRASH and do the same.