Mark Mail Important for Priority Inbox in Gmail
To tell Gmail a message or conversation is important (so it will give similar emails priority automatically in the future):
- Open the conversation or, to mark multiple conversations, make sure all are checked.
- Press = (or + — Shift-= on a U.S. keyboard).
- You can also click the Mark as important button; it shows a tag with a "+" sign.
In Gmail mobile, you cannot currently mark messages as important.
Mark Mail Important Via IMAP
To mark a message as important if you access your Gmail account in an email program or service through IMAP:
- Copy the message or messages to the [Gmail]/Important folder.
Mark Mail Not Important for Priority Inbox in Gmail
To mark a message from your Gmail Priority Inbox unimportant:
- Open the email, or to act on more than one, make sure all the conversations you want to mark are checked.
- Press - (minus).
- You can also click the Mark as not important button; it displays a tag with a "-" sign.
In Gmail mobile, you cannot currently change an email's importance.
Mark Mail Not Important Via IMAP
To mark an email not important if you access Gmail in an email program via IMAP:
- Delete the message from the [Gmail]/Important folder.
- Make sure deleting does not move the message to the Gmail trash, which would delete it altogether. You can also move the email to the Inbox or [Gmail]/All Mail folders to avoid that.
