How To Mark All Emails as Read on Android, iPhone, PC & Outlook

20-Second Summary

If you have been reading all the important emails from your Gmail but never bothered to delete the unnecessary emails, they will stack up as hundreds or sometimes even thousands of unread emails. 

Having your inbox stacked with so many unread emails could end up with you missing out on important emails from clients, hence we are bringing this “How to mark all Gmail as read” step-by-step guide for you.

How Marking All Gmail Emails is Helpful

Marking all Gmail as read can be helpful to you for the following major reasons:

• Even though you believe you have read all your important emails, when you leave out the unnecessary or promotional emails in the Gmail app without deleting them, they may accumulate, and some may mislead you into ignoring a critical email that gets lost among them. 
• If you are someone who gets dozens of emails daily and already has hundreds of them sitting unread in your inbox, then you must mark all Gmail read, rather than deleting them, if you plan on exploring them to see if an important email was missed in them.

Let us go through the step-by-step procedure to mark all emails as read in Gmail for different devices and for the third-party app Outlook.

How To Mark All Emails As Read in Gmail (Desktop Version)

In order to mark all emails as read in Gmail, the steps are quite simple. It can be done in two different ways, and both have been explained below.

How To Mark All Emails as Read in Gmail on Desktop (Checkbox Option)

This is the first way to mark all Gmail as read. Below are the steps to follow:

1. Open up your Gmail account in any of the browsers you use.
2. Sign in to your account and go to your Inbox.
3. Now, in the inbox, you get various tabs like Primary, Promotions, Social, and Updates tabs, along with a side Menu bar.
4. On the left side of your menu, click on the “More” button.
5. This will expand the menu, and here you should click on “All Mail” next.
6. Click on the “Check” box.
7. As soon as you click on the “Check” option, the option to select all the unread emails will appear right above your inbox email area.
8. Click on the Select All Emails in All Mail.
9. Now, click on the vertical dots (“More” option) right above the Select all emails in mail option.
10. Click on “Mark all as read,” and you will be done marking all your Gmail emails read.

How To Mark All Emails as Read in Gmail on Desktop (Search Option)

This is the second way to mark all Gmail as read. Below are the steps to follow:

The search bar helps you select the specific categories to smartly handle your emails.

1. From the Gmail inbox, go to the search bar at the top.
2. In the search bar, type is: read and then click enter.
3. You should now see all emails that are unread.
4. Click on the small checkbox at the top left of the inbox to select all the emails on the current page.
5. To select all emails in the unread category, click “Select all read conversations.
6. Next, click on the vertical dots icon (“More”) and click the Mark as read option.
7. These are the same steps as before, except that instead of selecting the “All Mail” view, we’re searching and selecting a specific category of email.  

You can use the search bar feature for selecting different types of categories, or even search emails from your specific client or friend by typing in their email address. This way, if your client has mentioned mailing you and you never saw it, you can search for it with their email ID, and read it easily.

How To Mark All Emails As Read in Gmail for Android Users

How to mark all emails in  Gmail for the Android app is usually answered that it is not possible to select all while using the app, and it can only be done using the batch method, or by using the Desktop view method to open Gmail in a mobile browser to select all emails at once.

How to Mark All Emails as Read using the Batch Method in the Gmail App on Android

Below are the steps to remove emails in batches on your Android phone.

 Open the Gmail app and go to the inbox or the label (using the search bar) you want to clean. Use the search box (for example, is: unread or label: promotions is: unread) to narrow the messages you select.

1. Long-press one unread message to enter selection mode.
2. Tap the circular sender avatars or the checkboxes to select additional messages.
3. When selection mode is active, tap the three-dot menu (top right).
4. Tap Mark as read. The selected messages will become read.

Repeat the selection and mark steps for the next batch until done.

Important Considerations

• The app only lets you select the messages currently visible on the first page of the app interface. You must repeat for subsequent pages.

How To Mark All Emails as Read in Gmail on Android Using Browser Desktop Mode

While it is not possible to select all emails in Gmail to mark as read, you can definitely do that in your Android phone by opening Gmail in your mobile browser in the desktop view option.

To mark all unread messages at once using Gmail Desktop mode in Chrome on Android

1. Open Chrome on your Android device.
2. Go to mail.google.com.
3. Open Chrome’s menu and check the Desktop site to load the Gmail desktop interface.
4. In Gmail’s search box, type in: inbox or just is: unread and press Enter.
5. Click the top left checkbox to select all messages on the page.
6. Click the link that appears: Select all conversations that match this search to select every unread message.

Click the three-dot More menu or the top toolbar and choose Mark as read. Confirm if prompted.

This approach marks every matching conversation at once, making it an ideal way to mark all Gmail as read when you have hundreds or thousands.

How To Mark All Emails As Read in Gmail for iphone Users

For iphone users, there are basically three methods that can be used to manage the emails for Gmail specifically. You can do it using the Gmail app, the Apple Mail app, or the Gmail desktop version in a browser. 

All of these methods have some limitations to them as well, and have been explained below step-by-step.

Method 1: Gmail App on iPhone (Batch Select Only)

The Gmail app on iPhone does not have a “mark all as read” option. You can only select multiple messages in small batches to mark as read.

Steps to batch select emails for marking as read are:

1. Open the Gmail app on your iPhone.
2. Go to your inbox or any label/folder by using the search bar option.
3. Tap and hold any one unread email to enable selection mode.
4. Select additional emails by tapping the circular sender icons.
5. Tap the three-dot menu (top right).
6. Choose Mark as read.

Important Considerations

• You are limited to selecting visible emails only on the screen inside the app.
• The “Select All” option does not exist in the Gmail iPhone app.
• If you have to delete hundreds or thousands of emails, then using the Gmail app on an iPhone will not be ideal, as it will be time-consuming. 

Method 2: Apple Mail App with Gmail Synced

If you add your Gmail account to the iPhone’s built-in Mail app, you can use its Select All feature to mark emails as read more efficiently.

Steps:

1. On your iPhone, open Settings > Mail > Accounts.
2. Add your Gmail account (if not already added) and ensure Mail sync is enabled.
3. Open the Mail app and from the categories, go to the All Inboxes category.
4. In the top right corner, tap on Select.
5. Upon clicking the select option, on your top left side, the option “Select All” will appear.
6. Then, on your bottom left, select the Mark option, and there select the “Mark as read” option.
7. Wait for a moment, and all of your emails will be marked as read.

Important Considerations

• The emails that are synced into the Mail app will be affected by this process.
• If your sync is set to “recent emails only,” older messages may not be marked read.
• Ensure that your Mail sync settings are marked to sync all emails.

Method 3: Gmail in Browser (Desktop Mode on iPhone)

For full bulk management of your Gmail, if you have thousands of emails, you can use Gmail’s desktop interface in Safari or Chrome.

The steps for this are as follows:

1. Open Safari or Chrome on your iPhone and go to mail.google.com.
2. In the browser menu, choose Request Desktop Site.
3. In Gmail’s search bar, type is: unread and hit Enter.
4. Tap the Select All checkbox in the top left.
5. Tap the link that appears: Select all conversations that match this search.
6. Tap the More (three dots) menu → Mark as read.

Desktop view on mobile is less user-friendly, as there is a small selection of buttons, but still, it is the most effective way to mark all Gmail emails as read at once on an iPhone

Deleting Emails Using Gmail via Outlook

Most of us still use Outlook to manage our emails. If you have your Gmail integrated into Outlook, whether you use the web or desktop version, you can use it to mark all emails in Gmail as read because Outlook syncs with your Gmail through IMAP.

Method 1: Outlook Desktop App (Windows/Mac)

1.     Open the Outlook desktop app.
2.     In the folder pane, right-click your Gmail Inbox.
3.     Choose Mark All as Read.
4.     Outlook will instantly mark every email in that folder as read, and the change will sync to Gmail.

Important Considerations

 Always use IMAP syncing your Gmail to Outlook because if your Gmail is set up via POP instead of IMAP, the changes may not sync.

Method 2: Outlook Web App (Outlook.com)

1.     Open Outlook.com in your browser and log in with the account that has Gmail connected.
2.     Select your Gmail inbox from the left sidebar.
3.   Next, at the top of the message list, click the checkbox in order to select all emails on the page.
4.     A banner will appear where you can click Select all conversations in this folder.
5.     From the toolbar, click Mark as Read.

Important Considerations

While using the web version of Outlook, the process may be time-consuming if you have hundreds or thousands of messages, but this does work.

Advanced Tips & Settings for Bulk Unread Email Management

If you already have hundreds and thousands of emails stacked up in your Gmail account, then it definitely becomes impossible to go and check them one by one to mark them as read or delete the unnecessary ones.

But you can still manage to organize your Gmail and make it clutter-free. Below are some advanced and practical tips that you can use to manage your Gmail effectively to ensure your important emails do not get lost among the unread emails.

• Create filters to move specific emails from the inbox to the archive.
• You can create custom labels in Gmail to move your important read emails to these labels, so even if you accidentally remove all read or unread emails moved to the labels, they get saved.
• You can cancel subscriptions from the brands or newsletters you do not really use or need promotional content from, to stop receiving those unnecessary emails that clutter your inbox. 
• If there are any senders that do not provide the unsubscribe option, you can directly block them in Gmail to stop receiving emails from them.
• Check your Gmail daily, and remove the emails that are not important and move the important ones to their labels, keeping your inbox empty. This seems tough, but once it becomes a habit, cleanup is really a matter of a daily 5-minute routine. 

Final Remarks

We believe we have answered your question, “How to mark all Gmail as read.” You can use this guide for your Desktop PC, iPhone, and Android as well, to mark all Gmail emails. 

But to avoid having to mark them all as read with the risk of losing important emails in the unnecessary emails, we recommend taking your time, decluttering your Gmail once, and then maintaining a daily habit of cleaning up your Gmail so you can avoid having to mark all emails as read.

Share this blog with your friends who are looking for this step-by-step guide on marking emails as read, and keep coming back to The Digital Advice for more such helpful tutorials.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I mark all Gmail emails as read at once on the Gmail app?

No, you can only batch mark emails on the Gmail app. To mark all emails as read on mobile devices, we recommend using the browser’s desktop mode to access the Gmail website, which allows you to select all emails. 

How do I mark all unread Gmail emails as read using search?

In the search bar, you can type is:unread and hit the enter key to show all unread emails. Then you can select all using the checkbox to mark them as read.

Does marking emails as read delete them in Gmail?

No, marking emails as read does not delete them. They stay in your inbox.

Can I mark Gmail emails as read on the iPhone’s Mail app?

Yes, if you add and sync your Gmail account with the iPhone’s mail app, you can mark all Gmail emails as read at one go. 

How do I mark all Gmail emails as read in Outlook?

If Gmail is synced with Outlook via IMAP, then you can mark all emails as read for Gmail using Outlook. Right-click on your Gmail Inbox in Outlook and select Mark All as Read.