Have you been swiping emails away and wondering how to delete instead of archive emails to free up room in your inbox? Here's how to delete emails on your iPhone in the Apple Mail and Gmail apps. All you have to do is change the default swipe action from archive to delete.

Why You'll Love This Tip

Learn how to change mail to delete instead of archive, and delete emails with one swipe.
Stop wasting storage space by archiving spam; delete it instead!

How to Turn Off Archive in Apple Mail on iPhone & iPad

System Requirements

This tip was performed on an iPhone 17 Pro running iOS 26.6, and it works on iPhones running iOS 14 and later. Find out how to update to the latest version of iOS.

Below, I'll show you how to change these settings for two different email apps. The Apple Mail app will need to have its settings changed from your iPhone's Settings app, while disabling Gmail auto-archive can be done from within the Gmail app.

Open the Settings app.
Tap Apps.
Tap Mail.
Tap Mail Accounts.
Tap the account you wish to adjust.
Tap Account Settings.
Tap Advanced.
Tap Deleted Mailbox to switch to deleting by default.

Repeat these steps for every email account you want to change. Now, when you swipe all the way left on an email in the Mail app, the email will be moved to Trash.

How to Turn Off Archive in Gmail on iPhone & iPad

Here's how to send emails straight to Trash in the Gmail app on your iPhone:

Open the Gmail app.
Tap the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner.
Tap the Settings option, with the gear icon.
Tap Inbox customizations.
Tap Mail swipe actions.
Here, you can choose what the Right swipe and Left swipe options do.
Tap Done when you've finished customizing.

This will change the swipe action for all email accounts in the Gmail app. Now, when you swipe in the chosen direction on an email from any account in the Gmail app, it will be deleted and moved to the Trash.

With your emails sent to Trash instead of the archive by default, you'll save on storage, as emails in Trash are typically erased after 30 days. If you use another third-party email app like Yahoo! and your emails are archived by default, try opening its settings within the app, similar to the instructions above for Gmail.

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