Email, Messaging, & Video Calls > Email How to Delete a Folder in the iOS Mail App Clean up your iPhone mail by removing unused folders By Heinz Tschabitscher Heinz Tschabitscher Writer University of Vienna A former freelance contributor who has reviewed hundreds of email programs and services since 1997. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on May 22, 2021 Reviewed by Ryan Perian Reviewed by Ryan Perian Western Governors University Ryan Perian is a certified IT specialist who holds numerous IT certifications and has 12+ years' experience working in the IT industry support and management positions. lifewire's editorial guidelines Email Yahoo! Mail Gmail Trending Videos Close this video player What to Know Open the Mail app. Go to Mailboxes > Edit. Tap the folder you want to delete, then select Delete Mailbox.To move messages out of a folder, swipe left over the message and choose More > Move Message. Select a folder. Deleting folders in the email app on an iPhone or iPad removes the folder and the messages in the folder. It's one of the easiest ways to regain storage on the phone and to declutter your emails. Here's how to do it using the Mail app for iOS 13, iOS 12, and iOS 11. Deleting a folder also deletes any messages it contains. Before you delete a folder, check the contents and move any messages you want to keep out of the folder you plan to delete (instructions below). How to Delete Folders in the Mail App After you confirm the folder no longer contains any messages you need to keep, you can delete it. To delete a folder: Open the Mail app. Go to the main Mailboxes screen. Tap Edit. Then, tap the folder you want to delete. Tap Delete Mailbox. Confirm you want to remove the folder and any messages contained in it by tapping Delete again. Select Done. How to Move Email From a Folder Make sure you no longer need the email messages in a folder before you delete it. Select any messages you want to keep and move the messages to a different folder. Open the Mail app. If the app opens on an individual mailbox instead of the main Mailboxes screen, tap Mailboxes at the top of the screen to go to the main screen. Scroll down past the mailboxes until you see the folders. Each email account you use with the Mail app has its own section with folders. Expand the section if necessary and tap the folder you want to delete. Review the messages inside the folder. If you see a message you want to keep, swipe right on it and tap Archive to move it to the Archive folder. If you prefer to move it to a different folder, swipe left, select More, tap Move Message, and select a folder. If you want to move several messages out of the folder, and you don't want to do it one at a time, tap Edit at the top of the messages screen. Tap the circle next to each message you want to move out of the folder for safekeeping. Tap Move at the bottom of the screen and choose Move Message in the screen that opens. Select a folder for the messages. You don't need to do anything with the messages in the folder that you don't want to keep. When you delete the folder, any remaining messages it contains are deleted with it. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit