We had a client that was using Google Apps for Business but he was only ever connecting to his gmail account via pop3. The result was that after several years his mailbox filled up with email up to the 10gb limit. After this point people could no longer email him because he had reached his quota.

Logging in to mail.google.com it was evident that all the mail was in the inbox and sent items due to the connections from his Outlook to POP3 and SMTP. Do not follow this guide if you connect via IMAP! You will lose your emails locally too! He didn’t want to upgrade the entire business to paid Google Apps for Business because his was the only mailbox getting even close to it’s limit.

The solution is of course to delete email from the gmail inbox and sent items. His local Outlook had a copy of all the inbox items and sent items so he was happy to delete from the gmail account. However, bulk deleting is not as simple as tagging and saying bulk delete. See below for an example of how you go about this process.

[message_box title=”WARNING AND DISCLAIMER” color=”red”]DO NOT follow this guide if you connect to your gmail via IMAP – YOU WILL LOSE YOUR EMAIL LOCALLY TOO! This guide is for information only and we will not be held responsible for the result of any actions you take in following the process. Remember once you delete the emails they are gone! Make sure you have a copy locally![/message_box]

1) Go to the Cog icon on the right and select Settings from the drop-down

2) Click “Create a New Filter” at the bottom

3) Here you are going to want to setup a filter to show emails before a certain date. Here for example we are selecting all email before 1 January 2012. Insert the words “before:2012/01/01” into the “Has the words” field. (I know not very intuitive is it!) Then click “Create filter with this search”.

4) Now you are going to want to select what to do with matching items. Tick the “Delete” checkbox. Tick the box to “Also apply filter to xxx matching conversations”. This will ensure that the existing items will be actioned upon (deleted). Remember that you are deleting conversations so every message will be deleted from all folders including sent items! When you are ready press “Create filter”.

5) The deleted items folder is called “Trash” in gmail. Now all matching conversations that were in the inbox and other folders will be in trash.

To get to the trash you may need to click the “more” button in the side navigation.

Then Click the “Trash” hyperlink

6) To bulk delete from Trash immediately you need to click the hyperlink at the top that says “Empty Trash Now”. Alternatively you can wait 30 days and the trash will be automatically be emptied.

7) You may get problems where new messages are sent to trash automatically so we suggest you now remove the filter. Go back into Settings -> Filters and click “delete” next to the filter you created.

8) Your mailbox will be a lot less full now and you can get a few more years of connecting to Gmail via POP3 before you do another clear down.

Authored by Ian

Ian Johnson is a Director of OJ Networks. He has been working in IT since 1995. Mentored by the best, Ian started as Technical Support Officer for an innovative dialup ISP in Brisbane “Hub Communications”. He progressed to become a Web Design and Programmer in ASP, ASP.NET and PHP during his time at “The Lab Development Group” with David Vandenberg amonst others. Ian has been working as a Consultant on the Sunshine Coast since 2001 and became a Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional (MCITP) Server Administrator in 2010 after which he formed OJ Networks. He has assisted numerous small businesses to reach their potential through IT Infrastructure Planning and Implementation and Web design, Development and Web Marketing. You can connect with Ian on Linked In.