Filed under: iPhone, iPhone 101
iPhone 101: Batch mail deletion
Here's a very handy feature of the iPhone 2.0 software. Previously, deleting many email messages at once was a real pain. You could either swipe across your messages one at a time (invariably selecting a few by accident), or enter edit mode and select a message, touch the Delete button and then touch the Confirmation button. Not exactly speedy.The 2.0 software makes this much easier. First, touch the Edit button. Next, touch every message you want to delete. When you're through, touch the Delete button at the bottom of the screen.
Alternatively, you can use this method to bulk move messages.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
nano said 7:52AM on 7-16-2008
So that's what the edit button does... Now I'll click on it :)
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Rob said 9:58AM on 7-16-2008
They forgot the ability to mark multiple messages read at once...
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hbeltran said 8:42AM on 7-16-2008
Who cares about deleting. You have to get them first. My phone will not get emails pushed to it. I came home checked my IMac and saw I had 24 messages. But they never showed up on my phone. The feature is set so don’t ask me to check it. The push feature is just not working. So deleting is the least of my problems.
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eric f. said 9:35AM on 7-16-2008
you know that push only works with .Me accounts, right?
hbeltran said 10:07AM on 7-16-2008
Yes I even use my me.com email address. I get my gmail faster. But junk mail has more pull. Not push :)
Dan Warne said 8:50AM on 7-16-2008
Still no freaking way to offer the most basic of email client features: "mark all read"!! Or, better, "mark previous read".
I do NOT want to have to open emails from airlines and Amazon.com that I know are just advertising (not to mention straight out spam) just to have to clear it from my unread emails count.
DUMB, Apple, dumb!!
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iphotostuff said 1:08PM on 7-16-2008
absolutely agree! "MARK ALL READ" come on already! That email notifier on the home screen is useless without this command.
dasilvetz said 9:32AM on 7-16-2008
but unbelievably there is *still* no way to mark multiple messages as read. sad.
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Cynthia said 9:34AM on 7-16-2008
I like this feature and I appreciate you taking the time to explain it
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YodaMac said 9:44AM on 7-16-2008
Not sure I understand the complaint above... if you don't want to open a spam email, just swipe across it from left to right, then press the delete icon. Not opened and deleted in one easy swipe...
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Sim1 said 9:48AM on 7-16-2008
PLEASE APPLE!!!!!!!!! Add the "mark all messages as read" option. PLEASE. PLEASE. PLEASE!!!
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Andy said 9:51AM on 7-16-2008
Where's the "delete all?" My Blackberry has had it for years. I don't feel like clicking on all 43 e-mails this morning that I've already read on my work computer.
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tys said 2:10PM on 7-16-2008
Mine has delete all. After choosing "edit", I hadn't yet selected any messages and the red button at the bottom said "delete all", rather than delete. I tapped it and away they all went.
Thanks, BTW, for pointing out the multi-delete feature. I wasn't aware of it!
Spanky said 12:10PM on 7-16-2008
Not having Mark All As Read is the single dumbest thing in the world of "smart" phones I've ever seen. It's the reason I jailbroke my iPhone pre-2.0. It's the reason I'll jailbreak the 2.0 when I can. It's the reason I do NOT recommend the iPhone to people that are serious about email. I keep hearing people whine and bitch about cut/paste. Give me a break. 99 emails showing up as unread, despite the fact that you've read them all, is a HORRIBLE USER EXPERIENCE and I'm shocked that no one at Apple has figured this out. NO DESIGN AWARDS FOR APPLE UNTIL THEY FIX THIS RIDICULOUS OMISSION.
(Yes, I'm fed up about this and no I don't need to get a life. I've got a life but it's being negatively impacted by not knowing whether or not I truly have unread email.)
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Ali Daniali said 9:42PM on 7-16-2008
Now why didn't they add this "feature" to the SMS application?
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Andy said 2:20PM on 7-16-2008
Odd. I do not have that "delete all" choice. It just says "delete." Could this be a GMail thing?
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Chris Aubeck said 6:58PM on 7-17-2008
No, he's confusing the inbox with the trashbox.
Wes Plate said 2:53PM on 7-16-2008
I would prefer Batch SMS message deletion.
Swipe Delete
Swipe Delete
Swipe Delete
Swipe Delete
Swipe Delete
Swipe Delete
Swipe Delete
Swipe Delete
Swipe Delete
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Marc Jones said 2:57PM on 7-16-2008
I also can't fathom why you'd not delete emails you don't want to read?
That said, I'm using an email address I set up _just_ so people can email me on the iPhone (it's a gmail account) so I am not (so far) getting bombarded by emails.
The "delete all" option is a godsend and a great advert for the iPhone - I mean that the changes in functionality that I've enjoyed thus far with my iPhone 1.0 would only have happened with a handset upgrade before I left SE and Nokia behind.
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danny said 6:10AM on 7-18-2008
if you are not getting push mail to the iPhone just delete the mobile me account on the iPhone and recreate it. The iPhone has to be set up last, after all the Mac computer/s. If you add or remove or change something on the Mac's .Mac or Mobile Me preference panel you will need to recreate mobile me ok the iPhone.
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