How to recover archived emails from Gmail

Did you get a new email message on Gmail, and in trying to read it, you archived it by mistake? You have archived several messages on Gmail, now you would like to retrieve them because you need some information contained in them, but you don’t know how to do it? If this is the case, you don’t have to worry, because I have all the answers you are looking for.

In today’s guide, in fact, I will show you how to recover archived Gmail emails in a few simple steps. I will explain, first of all, how the Gmail archive works and how to easily find messages hosted on the service. Next, I will explain how to retrieve a message from the web version of Gmail and from its app for Android and iOS.

How do you say? Can’t wait to start reading the tips I’ve prepared for you? In that case, let’s not waste any more time and get started right away. All you have to do is sit comfortably and dedicate only a few minutes of your free time to me, so that you can learn all the information you need and reach your goal. All that remains for me is to wish you good reading and, above all, good luck!

Index

• Preliminary operations
• Retrieve emails stored on Gmail from PC
• Retrieve emails stored on Gmail from smartphones and tablets

Preliminary operations

Before addressing the topic of how to retrieve emails stored on Gmail, it seems appropriate to clarify the functioning of the Archive of the famous Google email service. In fact, you must know that the Gmail archive (as well as that of other e-mail services) has the purpose of storing all the emails that you do not want to be displayed in the inbox but, at the same time, you do not want to delete.

In fact, you can also archive messages in other folders, such as those included in the Sent Mail, but if you extract them from the archive they will still be moved to the Inbox folder.

The search for messages stored in Gmail is done through a special search engine included in the service, which I will talk about in the next chapters. In this regard, however, I want to suggest some operators that you can use to optimize your searches.

First, you can help the operators from: to: cc: and bcc: to identify the sender or the recipient of a message. These operators accept both the user’s display name and their email address. You will then, for example, type the string from salvatore to locate all messages from the user Salvatore.

Another useful operator is subject: which allows you to search only in the subject of emails. As for the information in the body of the message, the has operator could be useful: it must always be accompanied by an argument, such as those indicated below.

• has: attachment requires only messages with an attachment to be displayed;
• has: drive requires only messages with a Google Drive file attached to be displayed ;
• has: document requires only messages with a Google Docs file attached to be displayed ;
• has: spreadsheet requires only messages with a Google Sheets file attached to be displayed ;
• has: presentation requires only messages with a Google Presentations file attached to be displayed ;
• has: youtube requires only posts with a YouTube video to be displayed

As for attachments, you may also be interested in the filename: operator, which allows you to search for all emails that contain a particular extension (for example filename: txt ) or a specific file (for example filename: filename.txt ).

Considering attachments, a message can have a certain size in bytes. To do this, you can use the site: operator, which displays all messages exceeding a specific size in bytes, or those named smaller: or larger: which search for messages smaller or larger than a specified size, respectively. For example, size: 5242880 shows all emails that are larger than 5MB.

Finally, I also recommend the after: and before time operators, which allow you to filter messages based on a specific time interval. Please note that the date format is the US format yyyy / mm / dd, i.e. first the year, then the month and finally the day. For example, you can type after 2019/06/01 to filter all messages received after 01/06/2019.

Retrieve emails stored on Gmail from PC

Retrieving archived emails on Gmail is not a difficult task. If you work from a computer, through the Web version of Gmail, you can retrieve your email messages through the procedures that I will show you below.

First, open the browser you usually use to browse the Internet and go to the mail.google.com website. Once this is done, log in with your Gmail account, following the procedure shown on the screen. If you have any doubts about the login procedure, I suggest you read my guide on how to enter a Gmail account.

On the main Gmail screen, use the search bar at the top, called Search Mail, to type in some terms contained in the message, which can help you locate the emails you are looking for. To make it easier for you, you can use the operators, which I told you about in the previous chapter.

Alternatively, through the left sidebar, click on the items More> All messages, to access the list of emails that are in your email account, including those that are archived.

When you have identified the email you want to recover and, therefore, move to the Inbox folder, right-click on it and, in the context menu, select the item Move to Inbox. Alternatively, open the email message, click on it and then press the Move to Inbox icon, which you can find in the top bar.

If you have followed the steps I have indicated to the letter, your message will be available in your Inbox. It was simple, wasn’t it?

Retrieve emails stored on Gmail from smartphones and tablets

If you manage your Gmail mailbox using the appropriate app for Android or iOS, know that you can retrieve an archived email in a very simple way, similar to the one already described in the previous chapter of the tutorial.

First, start the Gmail app (whose icon, in the shape of an envelope, is located on the home screen) and, if you are not logged in yet, add your Gmail account by logging in with your credentials. If you have any doubts in following the procedure on the screen, you can consult my guide dedicated to the topic.

Now, on the main screen of the Gmail app, use the search bar at the top, Search Mail, to type in terms that can help you find what you are looking for. For example, you can indicate some words that you remember were present in the body of the message or you can use the operators, which I talked about in a previous chapter.

Alternatively, you can locate it directly in the All messages folder, which you can reach by pressing the ☰ icon and selecting the All messages item.

After you have identified the archived email you want to recover, tap on it and press the three dots icon , located at the top right. Among the items that are shown to you, on Android , select the one called Move to Inbox , while on iOS , choose the one called Move to Inbox .

Alternatively, you can move an archived email directly from the message list by keeping your finger pressed on the email and tapping the three dots icon at the top. In the box that you see, select the item then Move to Inbox, on Android, or Move to Inbox, on iOS, and that’s it.