How to find your unread email in gmail

If you have many emails in your Gmail, managing them can be a hassle. For help with filtering them, you can find unread emails in Gmail using this guide.

If you get tons of messages in your Gmail inbox every day, it helps to have the ability to sort them out. Luckily, if you use Gmail, it offers a couple of ways to sort through unread messages.

By performing a quick search, you can find unread emails in Gmail or have it display all unread messages at the top of the list.

The ability to sort through email messages through different criteria makes your inbox more manageable. For example, finding unread emails in Gmail is typically the most important.

How to Find Unread Emails in Gmail

This first option to find unread Gmail emails works on your PC, Mac, or mobile device. You can run a quick search to find unread messages.

To find unread emails in Gmail:

1. Launch Gmail on your desktop or the app on your phone and sign in if you’re not already.
2. Click or tap the Search field, type is:unread, and hit Enter.
   
   
3. Gmail will list all your unread messages at the top of the list.
   
   
4. Now you can easily read your unread messages and reply, delete, mark them as spam, or take other appropriate action.

How to Show Unread Emails First in Gmail App

In addition to showing unread emails first on the desktop, you can add a tab that only displays unread messages.

To find unread emails in Gmail mobile app, use these steps:

1. Launch the Gmail app on your phone and tap the hamburger menu in the top-left corner.
   
   
2. Scroll down and tap Settings.
   
   
3. On iPhone, swipe down and select the Inbox type option.
   Note: For Android, select your email account on Android first, and tap Inbox type.
   
   
4. On the Inbox type screen, select Unread first from the list and tap Done.
   
   
5. After tapping Done on the previous screen, tap the hamburger menu in the upper left corner of the search field.
   
   
6. Tap Unread from the menu’s list to access all your unread messages in Gmail.
   
   

Sorting Out Your Gmail Inbox

If you have thousands of emails in Gmail, you don’t want to scroll through all of them to find the unread ones. Using the steps above will allow you to view the unread messages first. Gmail makes it much easier to manage unread messages on both your desktop and mobile app.

Speaking of sorting and managing messages, you might be interested in sorting by the sender in Gmail or learning how to create a group email list.

There are many options you can use with Gmail. For example, you might want to add an image to your Gmail signature or reply to all recipients in Gmail.

When it comes to composing messages, too much writing can take up valuable time. Learn how to stop overwriting in Gmail and when writing a note, learn to indent in Gmail.

It's easy to overlook some messages in Gmail. In this article, we provide instructions on how to make Gmail show only unread emails, how to search for unread emails only, and how to add parameters to those searches.

How to Make Gmail Show Unread Emails First

You can set Gmail to make unread messages appear at the top of your Inbox. Here's how.

1. Within Gmail, in the top-right corner of the screen, select Settings (gear icon). From the drop-down list, choose See all settings.

   
   

2. If the Inbox tab isn't already displayed, select Inbox.

   
   

3. In the Inbox type section, select Unread first from the drop-down menu.

   
   

4. In the Inbox sections section, make your selections using the drop-down menu. You can opt to show up to 50 unread items at one time. You can also choose to hide the Unread section when there are no unread messages.

   
   

5. At the bottom of the screen, select Save Changes.

   
   

6. Back in your Inbox, you'll now see an Unread section followed by an Everything else section. You can select Unread to hide that section.

How to Search for Unread Messages

Gmail also makes it simple to search for messages that are unread within any label.

1. In the left rail, select any label you'd like to search in.

2. In the search bar at the top of the screen, you'll see label:XX where XX is your label title. Without deleting any of that text, type is:unread after it. So, if your label is named "work," the entire search term should be label:work is:unread.

   Be sure to include a space after your label name.

   
   

3. To submit the search, press Enter on your keyboard. All the unread emails in that label appear. Everything else in the label is temporarily hidden. To see everything in the folder again, delete is:unread and press Enter.

Refine Your Search

You can add additional search operators to find unread emails between certain dates, from certain people, or other specific parameters.

1. In this example, Gmail will only show unread emails between December 28, 2017, and January 1, 2018.​

   is:unread before:2018/01/01 after:2017/12/28
   
   

2. Here's an example of how to see unread messages from a certain email address only.

   is:unread from:[email protected] 
   
   

3. This one will show all the unread emails that came from any @google.com address.

   is:unread from:*@google.com 
   
   

4. Another common one is to search Gmail for unread messages by name instead of email address.

   is:unread from:Jon
   
   

5. Finally, you can combine a few of these elements for a super-specific search. A search for unread emails from any sender at Bank of America before June 15, 2017, would look like this.

   is:unread before:2017/06/15 from:*@bankofamerica.com
   
   

FAQ

• How do I delete all unread emails in Gmail?

  In the Gmail search bar, enter is:unread to display up to 50 unread emails. Then, select the main checkbox above the list of unread emails > Delete (trashcan). If you have more unread emails to delete, repeat the process of selecting the main checkbox above the list of unread emails > Delete.

• How do I find my archived emails in Gmail?

  To find archived emails in Gmail, select All Mail in the left vertical pane. If you don't quickly see your archived emails in the list, go to the Gmail search bar and enter specific search terms.

  Why can't I find my unread emails in Gmail?

  Using the Primary tab to find your unread emails can also be done with the help of the Search bar. Enter your account and navigate to the Search bar. Next, type in the following line: “label:unread category:primary”, without quotes. Then, hit Enter and you'll now see your unread emails in the Primary tab.

  Why does Gmail say I have 1 unread message?

  You're using the Default Inbox setting in Gmail, but have disabled all categories apart from the Primary one (this cannot be disabled). In this case, Gmail treats your Inbox as Unread First and doesn't apply the Primary label to any incoming emails.