how to find archived messages

Can’t get your hands on an important email in your Gmail inbox? Have you looked at archived messages? In this tutorial, we explain how to access it.

Has an important or old email disappeared from your Gmail inbox? What if you looked in the archived messages? Gmail tends to encourage you to sort your messages into folders, as one of its many features. The downside is that it can happen that a message ends up in the archived messages folder, and finding it is not as easy as in your inbox.

Also note that you could have simply archived it intentionally to get it out of your main inbox and store it in an organized manner. Sometimes, Gmail itself takes care of this since certain emails, such as newsletters, notifications or order confirmations, are automatically archived by Gmail to prevent them from filling up your inbox. It is not impossible that one of them ends up in the famous archived messages box. Finally, this could also perhaps be due to incorrect classification of emails on Gmail or even done involuntarily instead of deleting a message or moving it to another folder.

Remember, however, that there are several reasons which can explain the loss of one or more emails: inactivity for a long period, accidental deletion, hacking of your account, etc.

However, there is a simple method to find an archived message in Gmail, as long as it is still stored in your account.

How to find an archived message on Gmail?

The procedure is essentially the same on a web browser from a PC or on the mobile application, here is the procedure to follow.

On browser

Open Gmail and log in to your account.
Go to the Settings at the top right (notched wheel) then on See all settings.
Then go to the tab Labels and scroll to the bottom of the page to see if all messages are displayed in your inbox.