How to Create a Rule in Gmail To Move Emails Automatically

You receive numerous emails in your Gmail inbox each day. But going through all of them is impractical as you can have hundreds of emails cluttered all over the message inbox.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could easily declutter your inbox by creating a rule to filter out only the important emails and delete the unnecessary ones? 

Well, you can do it all by creating a filter in Gmail. So, without further ado, let’s dive right into the article to learn how to create rules in Gmail.

Why You Would Want to Create Rules in Gmail

By creating a rule or a filter in Gmail, you can effortlessly sort all the messages in your inbox. You also save plenty of time by skipping all the spam messages or messages from particular people. Furthermore, you can jump directly to the emails of a specific type using labels.

How to Create Rules in Gmail

By default, Gmail provides a Create filter feature to create rules. However, there are various ways to create a filter. 

From using the search operators to creating a label to use as a filter, you can go through various methods to create rules in Gmail.

Using the Default Gmail Settings

You can easily create a filter within the Gmail settings. To do it,

1. Open any browser and log in to your Gmail.
2. Click on the gear icon on the right side of the window.
3. Under the Quick settings section, click on See all settings.
4. Click on the Filter and Blocked Addresses tab and under it, click on the Create a new filter text.
5. Fill the fields according to the filter that you would like to create.
6. Click on the Create filter button.

Using the ‘Filter messages like these’ Feature

You can use this feature to create a filter for one message and then apply it to all other messages. Here’s how you use it.

1. Open any browser and log in to your Gmail.
2. Open the message in your inbox for which you would like to create a filter.
3. Click on the three dots icon next to the Reply icon.
   
4. Select the Filter messages like these option.
5. Fill the fields according to the filter that you would like to create.
6. Click on the Create filter button.

Using Search Operators

You can combine multiple operators simultaneously provided by Gmail to quickly perform a specific type of search. There are numerous operators in Gmail, but the most common and frequently used ones are as follows:

• From: In this field, you mention the sender’s email address. Moreover, you can create a filter for multiple senders by typing out their email addresses with a comma between them.
• To: Here, you specify the recipient’s email address. And you can even send the same message to multiple email addresses using this field.
• Date within: With this field, you can customize Gmail only to show you the messages between specific dates.
• Size: Since some messages have attachments, you can limit their size using this field.
• Search: You can use this field to filter out the messages from specific labels or categories.

To learn more about other operators in Gmail, you can visit the Gmail help site.

How to Create Rules to Use Labels in Gmail

Labels are basically folders for different categories of your messages. It can be quite helpful in navigating designated emails. Here’s how you can create labels in Gmail.

1. Open any browser and log in to your Gmail.
2. On the left sidebar, click on More to expand more options.
3. Click on Create new label.
4. On a New Label prompt, enter the label name.
   
5. You can also nest one label under another by checking the Nest label under the checkbox and choosing its parent label from the dropdown menu.
6. Finally, click on the Create button.

How to Edit or Delete Filters

After creating a filter, you might want to edit it or even delete the ones you feel are unnecessary. Here’s how you can edit as well as delete the filters in Gmail.

1. Open any browser and log in to your Gmail.
2. Click on the gear icon on the right side of the window.
3. Under the Quick settings section, click on See all settings.
4. Click on the Filter and Blocked Addresses tab.
   
5. Click on edit to edit filter. Click on Continue, and when you are finished customizing the filter according to your preference.
6. Click on delete to remove the filter.

How to Create a Rule to Move or Delete Messages Automatically

Using the Gmail filter feature, you can automate the incoming messages to automatically move to a specific folder/label. Furthermore, you can also delete the unwanted emails or send them to the trash directly upon receiving them.

Moving Messages to a Particular Folder/Label

1. Click on one of the messages you would like to move to a separate folder.
2. Click on the vertical three dots at the top-right corner next to the Reply icon.
3. Select the Filter messages like these option.
4. Click on the Create filter button.
5. Check the Apply the label checkbox and choose one of the labels you have already created.
   
6. Finally, click on the Create filter button.

Deleting Messages from a Particular Mail Address

1. Open one of the messages of the person you would like to delete automatically from now onwards.
2. Click on the vertical three dots at the top-right corner next to the Reply icon.
3. Select the Filter messages like these option.
   
4. Click on the Create filter button.
5. Click to enable the Delete it checkbox. Additionally, you can also tick the Also apply filter to matching conversations to delete previous emails from the particular person.
   
6. Finally, click on the Create filter button.

How to Import or Export Filter from a Gmail Account?

After creating a filter, you might want to use it on other Gmail accounts as well. For this, you can use the import/export feature in Gmail. Here’s how you can import as well as export the filter.

1. First of all, log in to Gmail, which has the required filter. 
2. Click on the gear icon at the top-right corner and then on See all the settings.
3. Select the filters under the Filters and Blocked Addresses by clicking on the checkbox.
4. Click on the Export button and save it somewhere on your system.
5. Login to the next Gmail and navigate to  Filters and Blocked Addresses.
6. Click on the Import filters link and click on Choose File.
7. Navigate to the location where you exported the XML document.
8. Select the file and click on Open.