Want to get away from it all—or at least get it all away from you? Find out here how to clean up your account and delete all email at once on Yahoo Mail.
First, 2592 Characters
and not one iota more had to suffice for any email when email was initially conceived: on the CTSS computer at MIT, that made one record on disk, and that was all you (generously, given how crammed computer storage space was) got when Tom Van Vleck threw together the MAIL program in 1965.
Now you seem to have 2592×1965 emails of sheer unlimited size cramming your Yahoo Mail inbox and folders? How about getting rid of it all?
How to Delete All Email at Once on Yahoo Mail
Delete Absolutely All Emails
Using Yahoo Mail on the Web
Time needed: 5 minutes
To purge all mail from your Yahoo Mail account using Yahoo Mail in a browser on the web:
- Click Search your mail in your Yahoo Mail inbox.
Yahoo Mail keyboard shortcut: You can also press / (dash) to focus the search field.
- Type
@.Here’s why: This will find (practically) all emails, because the ‘@’ sign is part of all messages, either as part of the sender or of the recipient.
- Click the selection checkbox on top of search results to select all emails.
Keyboard shortcut: You can also press Ctrl A (Windows and Linux) or Command A (Mac) to select all messages.
- Now click Select all ___ messages matching this search. if it appears on the page’s top.
- Click Delete.
- Empty your Yahoo Mail Trash folder to finally purge all messages from your account.
Using an Email Program
To remove all emails in a Yahoo Mail account using a local email program:
- Set up Yahoo Mail using IMAP in an email client such as Thunderbird, macOS Mail or Microsoft Outlook.
- Delete all emails (and, as you see fit, custom folders) in the email program.
Delete All Emails in a Yahoo Mail Folder
To delete all emails in a custom Yahoo Mail folder:
- Hover with the mouse cursor over the folder you want to empty.
Important: Deleting all messages will not work for standard Yahoo Mail folders—including Inbox, Sent and Archive; here, you can select all visible emails and then expand the search using Select all ___ messages in <folder>. using the method above. - Select the downward-pointed triangle (▼) that appears next to its name.
- Now choose Delete all emails from the context menu that has appeared.
- Click OK in the Delete all emails dialog box.
- Optionally, empty the Trash folder.
How to Delete All Email on Yahoo: FAQ
Will deleting all mail using search also delete spam?
No.
Yahoo Mail search does not include messages in the Spam folder. You can empty the spam folder separately, though.
(How to delete all email in Yahoo Mail tested in a desktop browser; first published December 2018, last updated December 2024)