Prompt book · Email

Bulk delete or move emails

Clean up your inbox in one prompt, by sender, domain, subject, or topic.

Web ChatSMS

The prompt

Delete all emails from [SENDER OR DOMAIN].

This is the prompt for “I just want all of these gone.” Tell alfred_ what to remove and where they should go, alfred_ does it in one pass.

What alfred_ does

  1. Searches your inbox for everything matching your pattern
  2. Shows you the count before doing anything destructive
  3. Performs the bulk action, delete, archive, or move
  4. Confirms what was actually moved

Patterns that work

By sender domain:

  • “Delete all emails from @reddit.com”
  • “Move all wework emails into the Wework folder”

By specific sender:

By subject keyword:

  • “Move all of the emails titled ‘4 West 101st Street #53’ into the folder of the same name”

By topic / category:

  • “Cleanup all my emails by deleting marketing and promotional emails”
  • “All the marketing emails from senders I never reply to, can we get them unsubscribed?”

Delete vs. archive vs. move

Be explicit about which you want:

  • “Delete” → trash (recoverable for ~30 days depending on provider)
  • “Archive” → out of inbox, kept in All Mail / Archive
  • “Move to [folder]” → relocated, still findable

If you want them physically gone from inbox (not just tagged), say so: “I want them moved to the deleted box, not just tagged or labeled.”

Pair with a rule

If this is going to keep happening, chain it with a rule so you only have to do it once:

“Delete all the reddit emails from my inbox, and add a filter so future ones get archived automatically.”

See Create an inbox rule.

Tips

  • Always check the count first: alfred_ will tell you “this matches 247 emails” before deleting; review before approving
  • Use date ranges for big cleanups: “Delete all promotional emails older than 60 days”
  • Unsubscribe before deleting: for newsletters, ask alfred_ to unsubscribe and clean up in one prompt

Variations

  • Delete all the reddit emails from my inbox
  • Remove all emails from haystack
  • Move all wework emails into the Wework folder
  • Any PDF Expert / Readdle emails, delete from the inbox
  • Move all of the emails titled '4 West 101st Street #53' into the folder of the same name
  • Cleanup all my emails by deleting marketing and promotional emails

Best for

One-off inbox surgery, when newsletters piled up, when you're cleaning out a vendor relationship, or when you finally accept that you'll never read those reddit notifications.