How to select multiple emails and delete on an iPad

I'm a little confused, as well. Quite a few emails have accumulated in my several email boxes in Mail.

Mail is read. I press, "Edit," and there's a long list of emails; the only option (in blue) is "Mark All." When I tap that, I have to options, "Flag" and "Mark as Unread." There's no option to select a large amount of emails, unless I select them one by one.

I don't want to choose them one by one. I want to get rid of a bunch all at once. Any way to do this?

I'm kind of surprised I can't do this.

First of all, if you use select all, you can then unselect the ones you want to keep. But, no, you cannot select a group of ten consecutive emails. But with the Edit function selecting them one by one is not so hard.

As to whether the Trash option appears at the bottom of the Edit screen - it depends on the mailbox. What mailbox are you trying to delete from?

This is what is si laborious. I think we are asking for a "shift-select" equivalent- multitouch could serve this purpose if Apple would make it happen.

Also, Mail IOS needs a "sort by" option C'mon Apple!!! Fix this!!

I have over 3000 old emails in my account and haven't been able to delete them, except individually! This is archaic!

I just figured this out so I'm sharing even though this thread is ancient;

Go to All Mail > Edit > Select the first email on the list > press AND HOLD "Move", simultaneously, unselect the first mail again > Release all fingers from device > You will now be on a screen that has ALL email selected and you can press Trash to delete them all! WOOO!

Open the mail app.

choose the mailbox you want to delete out of

Tap on the word 'edit'' (just to the right of the word mailboxe)

Choose the mails you want to delete.

Tap on 'trash'.

You can select all. It's in the options at the bottom of the mail list.

I'm sorry, I thought you could.

I'm afraid the only other thing I can suggest is to access your mail via safari and the web interface and bulk delete that way.

In a previous version, one could delete bulk emails with an arcane keyboard shortcut; they took that away.

I get why the feature is there: otherwise, countless users would be complaining here that they accidentally deleted their email and can't get it back.

That said, there has to be an easier way.

I am using IOS 7.0.4 and the trash option does not show up when I try to delete all messages from my inbox.

I have previewed many videos online (and tips that work on my iPhone 5s) but they do NOT work on IOS 7.0.4, the latest update from Apple.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

there is a very effective way to do this and when you see it through, it will be a Eureka moment...you guys ready?

http://http://youtu.be/LbIP6EbndvA

this is a safe link to a youtube video and yes it work on the new OS7 as well. I recently deleited 12,428 emails i had on a runaway yahoo account.

Good luck and enjoy your "Eureka" moment

Savannahstang66

BTW, if you have more than 3000 i would suggest lifting any sleep feature. if it goes to sleep during the process you will need to start over. So no Eureka moment...

Hello I have a MacPro Book (2013) I can use this feature by selecting the first email you would like to delete, hold down the shift key, then select the last email you would like to delete. This should then high light/select all the other email inbetween. Drag to trash or hold down the control key and click select delete.

Someone please post if you did not know how to do this and this worked for you. This is my first time posting on the boards being able to help. I'm always getting help from this community so it feels good to be able to help.

🙂

Hi Lpayton333,

Welcome to the joys of answering in Apple Support Communities.

I agree that it feels good to be able to help, so keep it up!

When helping you need to be aware of what device the person is talking about. In this case the question was referring to the iPad, and was posted to the iPad support community. iPads don't work the same way as desktops or laptops in terms of selecting large numbers of things. For one thing there isn't a shift key to hold down.

I hope you will continue to answer questions.