I want to mass delete emails to free up storage

Question

I want to mass delete emails to free up storage

Josh Serafin 5

I’m out of storage for my outlook account. Id like to mass-delete a bunch of old emails without having to individually select and scroll through the inbox. Basically I can’t find a “select all” control. I’m not buying more storage as it is clearly Microsoft’s intent to make it hard to figure out how to clear up space so people will feel the need to buy storage. I do not support your “dark pattern” and will not engage in it.

Hornblower409 13,020 Reputation points

2025-10-21T09:21:26.72+00:00

As you are doing your cleanup, check your storage usage
https://onedrive.live.com/?view=1&v=managestorage
Claudia McAneny 0 Reputation points

2026-03-27T09:35:03.7033333+00:00

I have been trying to figure it out for the past 4 years! I simply don’t get the patience to empty a page at a time. I get so many spam on my oldest account. I want to keep it as some friends and companies still only have that email but I don’t need anything that there up to today. They should really have an option to empty the entire folder like when you clear all the deleted files. I can’t believe we don’t have the option to clear everything in one step and keep the account. :(
Hornblower409 13,020 Reputation points

2026-03-27T13:11:55.1666667+00:00

@Claudia McAneny

You might be better served by starting a new thread using the "Ask a question" button at the top of this page to create a new Question and include the details for your specific problem. This provides much higher visibility to your issue than commenting on an old post, which is only seen by people who are already following this question. (You can put the link for this page in your new Question for reference)

Also, this Question is tagged Outlook for mobile which is very limited compared to other versions of Outlook when it comes to archiving and cleanup features. Even if Outlook Mobile is your primary way of getting your email, you can still use other versions to do cleanup. e.g.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/organize-your-inbox-with-archive-sweep-and-other-tools-in-outlook-on-the-web-49b26f63-6399-4b4a-a580-14b9b1efe96d

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/organize-your-inbox-9aea8ad7-883d-459b-a3ea-ae20f06cfb32#id0ebbbbf=new_outlook

1 answer

Your answer

Hornblower409 13,020 Reputation points

2025-10-21T09:21:26.72+00:00

As you are doing your cleanup, check your storage usage
https://onedrive.live.com/?view=1&v=managestorage
Claudia McAneny 0 Reputation points

2026-03-27T09:35:03.7033333+00:00

I have been trying to figure it out for the past 4 years! I simply don’t get the patience to empty a page at a time. I get so many spam on my oldest account. I want to keep it as some friends and companies still only have that email but I don’t need anything that there up to today. They should really have an option to empty the entire folder like when you clear all the deleted files. I can’t believe we don’t have the option to clear everything in one step and keep the account. :(
Hornblower409 13,020 Reputation points

2026-03-27T13:11:55.1666667+00:00

@Claudia McAneny

You might be better served by starting a new thread using the "Ask a question" button at the top of this page to create a new Question and include the details for your specific problem. This provides much higher visibility to your issue than commenting on an old post, which is only seen by people who are already following this question. (You can put the link for this page in your new Question for reference)

Also, this Question is tagged Outlook for mobile which is very limited compared to other versions of Outlook when it comes to archiving and cleanup features. Even if Outlook Mobile is your primary way of getting your email, you can still use other versions to do cleanup. e.g.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/organize-your-inbox-with-archive-sweep-and-other-tools-in-outlook-on-the-web-49b26f63-6399-4b4a-a580-14b9b1efe96d

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/organize-your-inbox-9aea8ad7-883d-459b-a3ea-ae20f06cfb32#id0ebbbbf=new_outlook

Answer 1

Hi Josh,

Try these steps below. This is how I clean my old mails.

Go to your inbox or any folder with old emails.
Sort by Date to bring the oldest ones to the top.
Click on one email, then press Ctrl+A to select all visible emails.
Hit Delete.
Don’t forget to empty your Deleted Items folder afterward to actually free up the space.

If you're using Outlook on the web, you can also use the search bar to filter by date or sender, then select all matching emails and delete them in bulk.

But if you are using mobile app, it doesn’t have a “Select All” feature like the desktop or web version, so it’s a bit more manual. If you have access to a computer, using Outlook Web or Desktop will make bulk deletion much faster.

Open the Outlook app and go to the folder (like Inbox or Promotions).
Tap and hold on one email to activate multi-select mode.
Then tap on other emails you want to delete or scroll and keep tapping to select more.
Once selected, tap the trash bin icon to delete them.
To free up space, go to the Deleted Items folder, tap the three dots (⋮), and choose "Empty folder".

Let me know if you have any questions