How to Star, Archive, Delete and Report Spam

Star an important message, or clear out mail you don't need with archive, delete, or spam actions — one message at a time or in bulk.

Steps

One message at a time:

1. Hover a message in the list — a star icon appears; click it to flag/unflag the message.
2. Right-click the message (or click More actions) for Not spam / Report spam, Archive, Label, and Delete.

Several at once:

1. Select messages using their checkboxes (or Shift-click to select a range).
2. A selection bar appears showing the count selected, with Archive, Delete, Mark read/Mark unread, Star/Unstar, Move, and Label. Reporting spam on a selection is also available from the same context menu used for a single message.
3. Destructive actions (delete, and reporting several messages as spam) ask you to confirm first, telling you plainly whether the action can be undone.

What you'll see

Archived mail moves to your Archive folder, deleted mail to Trash, and mail reported as spam moves to Junk (marking it "not spam" moves it back to your inbox). Starred messages stay wherever they are — the star is just a marker you can filter or spot by.

Keyboard shortcuts

Working the inbox without a mouse: j / k move a selection cursor down/up the list, Enter opens the focused message, Escape returns to the list, e archives the current selection, # deletes it, and r / a / f reply / reply all / forward the open message. See Email Keyboard Shortcuts for the full list — the app itself shows it if you press ?.