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Any Tips or Help Managing Gmail account?

1,040 226 February 18, 2025 at 07:01 PM
Hi

I have a gmail account from my old university.

Apparently it has 5GB limit and I have over 10GB data, dating back to 2001. They are cracking down and now my MAIN email account is disabled til I get it back down under 5GB. I have 7 days before they do that by deleting ALL of it.

I DO want to keep some of these messages! I thought they were lost forever, lol.

BUT I am having a lot of trouble with the Gmail interface:

1. It only shows 50 messages at a time. I have 90,000 messages. Most of it is spam. Is there any way to view more messages? I keep scanning, then select all (50) and trash. Very, very slow going.

2. It does not seem to use folders. How do I save the messages I want if I can't move them to a "save" or "keep" folder? For example, I filtered for messages including the word "costco egift". I get a list that includes 2000 ads selling egift cards, as well as a few dozen emails with details about egift cards that I want to keep.

3. How do I sort/display message size? There is a filter that allowed me to show all messages above a certain size. But it doesn't show me what the actual size of each message is?!?

Thanks. I have just 5 days left. Driving me nuts. I am used to Outlook Mail and being able to sort by every column and graphic UI that allows me to drag and drop messages I want into the folders I want...
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roykirk1
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uʍopǝpısdn
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cpubradley
02-18-2025 at 08:05 PM.
02-18-2025 at 08:05 PM.
I use a PC in this case if you are not, then use the advanced search options. Search for things you know that should be deleted or safe to delete - like emails from a certain store etc - I usually will open one and select the option to filter messages like these. Then once you feel comfortable with what it has selected as being something you no longer want, check the box to select all but before you delete look for the link at the top that will say "All 50 conversations on this page are selected. Select all conversations that match this search".

Select all conversations and delete. This can take a bit as the deletion will run in the background. Keep searching or other emails and deleting. Also in the advanced search you can search for attachments greater then X size - start with a larger size find all the large ones determine if you want them or delete them - keep reducing the size and proceeding through as many as you can.

You might also be able to setup Outlook (or any other email system even another gmail account if you pay for enough storage etc.) if you own a copy to POP all the email off google and keep whatever you want that way. Or use the google takeout option (not sure I never used it).
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Joined May 2004
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roykirk1
02-18-2025 at 08:29 PM.
02-18-2025 at 08:29 PM.
Quote from cpubradley :
I use a PC in this case if you are not, then use the advanced search options. Search for things you know that should be deleted or safe to delete - like emails from a certain store etc - I usually will open one and select the option to filter messages like these. Then once you feel comfortable with what it has selected as being something you no longer want, check the box to select all but before you delete look for the link at the top that will say "All 50 conversations on this page are selected. Select all conversations that match this search".

Select all conversations and delete. This can take a bit as the deletion will run in the background. Keep searching or other emails and deleting. Also in the advanced search you can search for attachments greater then X size - start with a larger size find all the large ones determine if you want them or delete them - keep reducing the size and proceeding through as many as you can.

You might also be able to setup Outlook (or any other email system even another gmail account if you pay for enough storage etc.) if you own a copy to POP all the email off google and keep whatever you want that way. Or use the google takeout option (not sure I never used it).
THANKS. Yes, I have been searching for sender = macys, dominos, burger king, etc. The problem is that there's sometimes a FEW message among the thousands that I want to keep. Trying to find them is painful.
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roykirk1
02-18-2025 at 08:44 PM.
02-18-2025 at 08:44 PM.
Any flaw with this logic:

I filtered for all emails from abc.com. Let's say I have 1000 though there's no display. Of those, I need to find the 5 that were invoices. Everything else can be deleted.

I add filter for "invoice" in "Has the Words"... assuming I even know to use "invoice".

I get the five on the screen together. If I select them all and "archive" them... they should no longer be in inbox, right?

I can then go back to abc.com filter, which should now have 995 messages (though it doesn't say, it just say "50 shown of many"... arrrgh)... right? And I can select all and trash?
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uʍopǝpısdn
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cpubradley
02-18-2025 at 09:18 PM.
02-18-2025 at 09:18 PM.
if you search again the 5 you archived will be included unless you set you search to only include inbox - so just make sure it is only searching inbox
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jkee
02-18-2025 at 10:55 PM.
02-18-2025 at 10:55 PM.
If you have another Gmail.com account (preferably a secondary account with lots of storage), you can go into settings, all settings, accounts and import, and import the contents of your university email to that account.

You can also download to your computer using POP3 or IMAP. With IMAP and a mail client like thunderbird, you can drag and drop emails between accounts.

Note that some email clients get grumpy with imap folders that have over 10,000 messages. Gmail has the option to limit the number of messages per folder. In some cases, you may have to break your messages up into smaller folders to get them to play nice.

In gmail, you can also search for messages that have attachments or messages that exceed a certain size eg. "larger:300K"

A search like "in:anywhere larger:100k +unsubscribe" could be a good starting point for the purge.
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Last edited by jkee February 18, 2025 at 11:05 PM.
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Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
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komondor
02-20-2025 at 06:40 PM.
02-20-2025 at 06:40 PM.
You can try these options too as well as looking at getting rid of attachments by downloading them

options here

https://www.google.com/search?q=download+gmail+mail+to+pst&sca_esv=1acd8b04de468a77&ei=Dua3Z87GKNq_0... [google.com]
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handyguy
03-03-2025 at 08:13 AM.
03-03-2025 at 08:13 AM.
Search for : label:unread
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Joined May 2004
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roykirk1
03-11-2025 at 11:52 AM.
03-11-2025 at 11:52 AM.
THANKS. Took an extension and DAYS of deleting, but I finally got the message box down below 5 gb. I had to delete 50 at a time and then delete forever 50 at a time. Arrrrgh.

I have a NEW problem. So I was expecting a password reset email, but it never came. I logged into the university gmail box and ... it was there! I got an error... apparently spectrum had rejected the message. Here is the error explanation:


1300 - 1340
Spectrum limits the number of concurrent connections from a sender, as well as the total number of connections allowed. Limits vary based on the reputation of the IP address. Reduce your number of connections and try again later.

Does anyone know what this means? Is it because I was logged into both at the same time? (I am logged into spectrum on one tab... and then on an incognito tab, I am logged into university. I had been doing this to double check I had copies of some messages on spectrum before deleting from university....)

Thanks again for all the help!!
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jkee
03-11-2025 at 06:17 PM.
03-11-2025 at 06:17 PM.
Quote from roykirk1 :
THANKS. Took an extension and DAYS of deleting, but I finally got the message box down below 5 gb. I had to delete 50 at a time and then delete forever 50 at a time. Arrrrgh.
You should be able to increase the number of messages displayed at a time to at least 100. I think also there's an option to empty your trash all at once.

Just out of curiosity, what extension did you use?
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