Don’t want to act on emails one at a time? Want to move, mark or delete all emails in one go? You do not have to—and you can. Find out here how to select all email in an iPhone Mail folder for action.
First, 100 000 Games of Monopoly
Games Computers Play played playing Monopoly—a lot.
A Monopoly game simulator played 100,000 rounds, for instance, with one party out of four consistently shunning utilities (while the other three followed a general trade-to-complete monopolies strategy).
Now, would you know it, the hypodomiphobe player won more often that it should have: avoiding the infrastructure gives you an edge of some 1.5% (everything else being more or less equal).
While not to “select all” might be useful in Monopoly, in iPhone Mail, “select all” can be just the winning strategy (when it comes to utility):
How to Select All Email on iPhone (in the Apple Mail App)
Only part? How to Select Multiple Emails Fast in iPhone Mail
Time needed: 1 minute
To select all emails in a folder using iPhone Mail:
- Open the folder in iPhone Mail.
- Tap Edit in the folder list above the message list.
- Now tap Select All.
No Select All: If you do not see Select All, chances are a filter is active; tap the filter button in the lower left corner to turn off filtering; see below for selecting all with a filter (or search) active.
New messages: The selection will include all visible messages; emails that are added after you tapped Select All (because messages were still loading, or a new email arrived in the meantime) will not be added to the selection automatically.
Change selection: You can always add or exclude individual emails from the selection; see below.
- Act on the selected emails in bulk as desired.
Mark as read: You can mark all emails read, for example.
Trying to get rid of a bunch of emails? How to Delete Multiple Emails on an iPhone
Select All Unread Emails in iPhone Mail
Selecting all unread emails is not quite so fast and easy—but possible.
To check all unread emails in a folder in iPhone Mail:
- Tap the filter button in iPhone Mail’s lower left corner.
- Now tap Filtered by:.
- Select Unread under Filters: but leave other criteria off.
How filters apply: Filters under INCLUDE: and ADDRESSED: work as OR filters, and all messages that match any enabled criterion are included; Filters that have an on/off switch do exclude all messages that do not match.
Example: With Unread, Flagged and Only from VIP selected, you will see only messages from VIP senders that are either unread or flagged or both.
- Now tap Done.
- Tap the topmost message with two fingers and start dragging down.
- Keep dragging until you are at the very bottom.
Bottom of the screen: When you have reached the bottom fo the screen, keep your fingers on the screen; iPhone Mail will continue loading and selecting messages until it has reached the bottom of the message list.
You can also use filters to select all flagged emails or messages with attachments, of course.
How to Select All Emails on iPhone: FAQ
Can I exclude specific messages from the selection?
Yes.
To remove a message from selecting all on an iPhone:
- Select all emails in the folder.
- Now tap the checked circle in front of each message you want to exclude.
How do I undo selecting all?
With all messages selected, tap Deselect All to remove the checkmark from all emails.
You can also tap Cancel, of course, to undo selecting and return to the folder as well, of course.
(How to select all email on an iPhone tested with iOS 14–17; first published August 2021, last updated September 2024)