Archive or mute Gmail messages

To clean up your inbox without deleting your Gmail messages, you can archive or mute the messages.

Learn how archive and mute work

The 'All mail' section displays messages that you archive or mute.

• Archive:
  • The message comes back to your inbox when someone replies to it.
• Mute:
  • The message is labelled as Muted.
  • New messages in the thread skip your inbox.
  • You still receive the message in your inbox if:
    • The message is sent to you and no one else.
    • The message is sent to a Google Group where you're a member.
    • Someone adds you to the 'To' or 'Cc' fields in the message.

Archive a message

Find archived messages

Move archived messages to your inbox

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. Find the archived message.
3. Next to the message, tick the box.
4. At the top, click Move to inbox .

Mute or unmute messages

1. On your computer, open Gmail.
2. Open a message.
3. At the top, click More   Mute or Unmute.

Tips:

• At the top of the Gmail search box, to find all messages with the 'Muted' label, enter is:muted.
• To mute a message with keyboard shortcuts, press M. Learn more about keyboard shortcuts.

Related resources

• Search in Gmail
• Search operators that you can use with Gmail