How to view archived emails in Gmail?

Archive means moving your emails to a less-used location. It won’t be available in the Inbox folder, but Gmail won’t delete it either. 

All archived emails are available in the All Mail section. You can access archived emails in Gmail from the web and the mobile app. 

If you get a reply to the same email, the email will be moved to your Inbox folder automatically, and you can also manually move an archived email to Inbox. 

So, there’s nothing to worry about if you mistakenly archive an email and can’t undo the action in the given period. 

What does archive mean in Gmail? 

Archiving an email means moving it from the Inbox folder. But it won’t be marked as spam or moved to the trash. 

It indicates to Google that you don’t need this email anytime soon or want to hide it from the Inbox for a while. 

Though there’s no dedicated Archived Emails section in Gmail, you can still find all your archived emails.

How to view archived emails in Gmail

Gmail Web Version

Open a web browser on your computer and visit Gmail. Ensure you use the correct Gmail account if you have multiple accounts.

Click on More from the left navigation menu. 

Tap on All Mail from the menu.

Those emails that don’t have an Inbox label were archived from the Inbox. To move an archived email to Inbox, select the email.

Then click on the Move to Inbox icon from the toolbar. 

Gmail Android/iOS App

Open the Gmail app on your smartphone and make sure you switch to the correct Gmail account if you have multiple accounts. 

Click on the hamburger menu icon at the top left corner. 

Scroll down and click on All mail above the Spam level. 

Note: In the Gmail app, there’s an All inbox label that shows emails from all your Gmail accounts when you have multiple accounts. It’s not the same as All mail. 

You can see all of your non-spam emails here. But the question is, how do you identify which email was archived?

It’s simple. Every email from the Inbox folder will have an Inbox label below the title. Archived emails will have no label below the title. 

To move an email from archived to Inbox in the Gmail app, open the email from the All mail folder. 

Tap on the menu icon at the top right corner of the app. 

Click on Move to Inbox from the menu bar. 

Alternatively, you can find archived emails using the search feature. 

If you remember, search for the sender or title, and search results will show matched results from the All mail folder.