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How to sort emails in Gmail by sender, size, date, and unread
Gmail gives you a tremendous amount of storage space, but effectively sorting emails becomes essential as messages begin to stack up. Thankfully, Gmail has got you covered when it comes to sorting emails by specific criteria, such as sender, size, date sent and received, and unread emails.
This article will show you how to do this type of filtering, so when you need to find an email, you’ll find it quickly like a pro. We’ll also give you some other tips on organizing your Gmail.
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To sort emails in Gmail, use the search box to find what you're looking for. When the drop-down menu appears, you can sort by sender, size, date sent or received, and more. If you want to sort by sender, you can also right-click on an email in the inbox and select Find emails from.
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How to sort emails by sender, size, date, and unread in Gmail (mobile)
The mobile Gmail apps don’t have the same easy and robust filtering options as the desktop version. You need to memorize the exact filter on the mobile app and manually type it into the search box.
- To filter by sender, type the sender’s name, such as From:Mark O’Neill.
- To filter by recipient, type the recipient’s name, such as To:Mark O’Neill.
- To filter by size, type Size, and then a specific size, such as Size:1GB. This will give you all emails over the size of 1GB.
- To filter by date, type Before:YYYY/MM/DD or After:YYYY/MM/DD, obviously replacing YYYY/MM/DD with your desired dates.
- To filter by unread emails, type is:unread.
How to sort emails by sender, size, date, and unread in Gmail (desktop)
Sorting messages in Gmail is much easier on the desktop version of Gmail. Click the three horizontal lines to the far right of the Gmail search box.
When the drop-down menu appears, you’re presented with many possible search options.
- To filter by the sender, type the name of the sender into From.
- To filter by the recipient, type the name of the recipient into To.
- To filter by size, choose greater than or less than in Size and specify the size.
- To filter by date, choose the time period in Date within, or choose a specific date in the calendar.
To filter out your unread messages, type the following into the Gmail search bar: is:unread.
What can you do after sorting emails in Gmail?
Once you have your emails sorted on the screen, there are various things you can then do.
How to add a label to messages in Gmail
Click Labels to select an already-existing Gmail label or create a new one. You can also remove an already-existing label from the emails.
How to mass-delete emails in Gmail
Individually deleting emails is one thing, but if you have 100 or 1,000 to delete? Filtering out the ones you want to go, selecting them all in one go, followed by hitting the Delete button, will take care of that for you.
How to automatically filter Gmail messages
If you want any future emails based on that filter to be handled a certain way, you can make an automatic filter by selecting More—>Filter messages like these.
How to mark as read multiple messages in Gmail
If you have many unread emails from a specific sender, and you know you’re never likely to read them, deleting them may not be an option. One alternative is to mark them as read. Tick the emails in question and select More—>Mark as read.
Another solution to sort by sender
A really easy way to sort by sender is to right-click on the email in your inbox. When the Gmail right-click menu comes up, select Find emails from…
