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Quick Tip: Archive old email in your Gmail inbox the easy way

So how many messages are in your inbox right now? Do you need to do some archiving?

I think of myself as quite proficient in exchanging mails, however by using the Gmail account at work from June 2011 I just came out with 2,167 messages amounting to 6% of total space. I assume I don't need archiving for the time being. I do tend to delete useless mails on a daily basis though.

By the way, archived mails would show in a global search once archived? If not how could I include them in such a search if in need to find an old important document? I mean, if I needed to archive then when unpacking the older mails I arguably wouldn't have enough space in the mailbox to hold everything and perform a global search anyway... How do i manage this?

Just search under the "All Mail" label - that is where your archived emails reside.

Before the recent "improvements" in Google Mail I used to click oldest select all on the page with one click and then archive. One click then took me back to my most recent emails. No typing involved.

Back in the day, I sorted my mail assiduously, had folders for every appropriate category, and kept my inbox cleaned out daily. Now, though, with the huge improvements in search, I don't see any point in taking the time to organize. I either keep mail or I don't. My gmail inbox has over 3000 messages. My Outlook inbox has 21000 items. Works for me.

A writer for a magazine last year had his Gmail account hacked into. Aside from sending out spam, the hackers ditched every message accumulated over the past 5+ years. Everything was gone. Googlre couldn't even properly restore what he did have. He then contacted a vP at Google [who happens to be a friend] and managed to get back all [?] of the lost mail. But for the average individual, good luck.
What is suggested is to install a mail client on a computer and connect to your cloud mail provider [Gmail, Hotmail, etc.]. Configure the software NOT to delete the mail from the server after downloading it to the computer.
Eh voila. An instant backup.
Open the client mail software every once in a while to "backup" your mail.

I am constantly advised that every 30 days my older emails will be deleted. This does not happen. I have around 1200 emails in "Mail" and a few more in "All Mail". I clean (delete forever) my Trash daily. I am still in the learning process as far as using my computer is concerned. I wish there was a easier system for stream lining and deleting emails. Any comments or help would be appreciated. Archiving may not be the solution for me? Thanks for your time. TC.

I have searched and scratched my head, and apparently there is no setting to disable the archive feature of gMail. I like to keep online, or cloud services, CLEAR of data. I use only controllable backups, not uncontrollable ones.

Great article. Additionally, you can keep on top of your inbox by archiving messages as you go. If you're using Chrome as your browser, this extension adds an archive icon to each message in your inbox so you can archive on-the-fly.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/actions-for-gmail-beta/mclmmkhldnfokbgnhoibcgblghkmncem