I decided to write this article in case anyone else is as clumsy as I am when it comes to archiving emails on Gmail when your original intention was to delete it.

I have had many instances where my intention was to delete an old email, promotional email or a spam email that made it through Google's spam filter into my inbox and accidentally archived them instead.

You start panicking and immediately reach for the archive folder only to find out that the geniuses at Google decided it was a wonderful idea to remove the 'archive' folder. I think it is ridiculous that you can store something in an archive \"somewhere\" and have no way to find it.

Also, checking my mail on my smartphone for those who use  Apples iOS can relate to this. You view your messages, click edit to check and delete some of the emails and for some really odd reason, mine always toggles between the archive and delete menu. I have archived so many emails by accident that when I finally found them, some of the emails dated back 6 years.

Retrieving Archived Emails From Gmail

Entering the following search into the search field as seen below will list all your archived emails only: has:nouserlabels -in:Sent -in:Chat -in:Draft -in:Inbox

I hope this helps. Feel free to leave me a comment below