Auto-purge can be used for automatically and permanently deleting emails after a set amount of time.
How auto-purge works
Auto-purge can be enabled for a folder or a label. For folders, enabling auto-purge will permanently delete messages after a set amount of time. For labels, enabling auto-purge will either permanently delete the message or remove the label from the message depending on your setup.
Auto-purge occurs based on when a message was placed in the folder/label, rather than when the message was received.
As an example, if you've set your Trash folder to auto-purge after 30 days, then you move a message that was received one year ago into the Trash folder, the message would not be purged immediately — it would be purged 30 days later.
Auto-purge for folders
Auto-purge for folders will automatically and permanently delete unpinned messages in that folder after a set amount of time.
If you have any pinned messages in the folder, those messages will not be deleted.
You can choose how many days until the messages are auto-purged. This ranges from after 1 day, all the way to after 365 days.
Auto-purge for labels
Auto-purge for labels will automatically remove that label from unpinned messages after a set amount of time. If the messages do not have any other labels applied, then those messages will instead be permanently deleted.
Pinned messages will not have the label removed or be deleted.
Same as folders, you can choose when to take action on the messages in the label. The time can range from after 1 day, all the way to after 365 days.
Enable auto-purge
Folders
- Go to the Settings → Folders screen.
- Click on Edit for the folder you want to enable auto-purge on.
- On the following screen, click on Show advanced preferences.
- Enable the Permanently delete unpinned messages after option. On the dropdown menu, you can select the amount of time until the auto-purge takes action.
- Click Save to save your changes.
Labels
- Go to the Settings → Labels screen.
- Click on Edit for the label you want to enable auto-purge on.
- On the following screen, click on Show advanced preferences.
- Enable the Remove this label from unpinned messages after option. On the dropdown menu, you can select the amount of time until this takes action.
- Click Save to save your changes.