It’s the most frequently asked question about the iOS Mail app: how can I delete all of my emails at once?
Well, first, the bad news: Apple removed the Trash All functionality from its Mail app in iOS 10. What was once a breeze in iOS 9 is now impossible.
Though Apple hasn’t officially given a reason for the change, it’s presumed this is to stop users inadvertently deleting their entire email archive by mistake – arguably, Trash All was too powerful for its own good! However, its disappearance has annoyed a fair few people and unfortunately, there isn’t currently an alternative.
There may be hope on the horizon, though. Here are three workarounds to try:
1. If you use an email service like Gmail or similar you should be able to log into the provider’s website and delete everything from there. This is probably the best option for a full cleanse.
2. Some third party email clients may still offer a similar Trash All function, so it could be worth searching to App Store for an alternative to the standard Mail app.
3. If you don’t have too many emails to contend with, it’s still possible to delete multiple emails at once by tapping Edit and then manually selecting which ones to delete. This becomes less feasible when we’re talking about hundreds of emails, though.
There’s no sign as yet that Apple will be bringing this feature back with iOS 11 – it’s certainly not in the beta release. Still, most people should be able to find a solution amongst these quick suggestions. As a last resort, you could always just turn off the badge notifications from the Mail app icon so your inbox doesn’t look full anymore.