How To Sort Gmail by Sender On The Web
You may feel like figuring out how to sort Gmail inbox by sender seems like an impossible task. But, actually, there are three different methods you can use, depending on the information you know about the messages you’re looking for from a specific sender.
Method 1: Sort by Sender in Gmail Using ‘Find Emails From’
The easiest way to sort Gmail email by sender is by using the “find emails from” function. This method only requires you to have one message from a specific sender pulled up, meaning it’s a great way to search for a previous email from a coworker who frequently emails you.
To use this method:
- Find the message from the person you want to see emails from, then right-click on the message.
- When the drop-down menu appears, click Find Emails From.
- You’ll now see all the emails from that specific sender — even if they’re in the trash.
Method 2: Sort by Sender in Gmail through the Search Options Menu
What if you’re looking for a specific email from a specific person that hasn’t sent you a message recently enough for you to see it? For example, say you’re looking for an email from your boss with important contact information, and you know they sent it more than 7 days ago. Well, you can use the Search Options Menu to help you out.
To use this method, simply:
- Type the email address you need into the search bar at the top of the main Gmail page and hit Enter.
- You’ll now see all the emails from this sender, but that doesn’t help you narrow it down. However, you can look below the search bar and use some of the other criteria, which will help you sort based on when the email was sent, whether or not it has an attachment, or whether it is sorted by unread.
- Choose the criteria you know (i.e. your boss sent the email more than a week ago or the attachment is a PDF), then see the narrowed search results.
If this method doesn’t narrow it down enough for you, that’s okay — you can instead use the Advanced search feature. This can be especially helpful if you remember some of the content in the email (ex. You remember that your boss mentioned a colleague’s name). By entering specific data, you can narrow the results much more.
Use the Gmail search options menu by following these steps:
- Instead of typing anything into the search bar, click on Show Search Options on the right side of the search bar.
- A pop-up window should appear with multiple different search criteria. Use this to enter any data you know, like the subject line, words in the body of the message, a sent date, or other items that may help you narrow it.
- When you’re done, hit Enter or click the blue Search button located in the bottom-left corner of the pop-up window to get the specific email from that sender.
- You can also create a filter with your search by clicking on the “Create filter” button in the bottom-right corner of the pop-up window. This allows you to automatically apply certain actions (e.g. “Star it”) next time you receive an email that matches the specific criteria.
Unfortunately, you may not always know the sender’s address at all but still want to sort your emails by sender. Use the boxes in the advanced search to set parameters to find the email(s) you’re looking for. For example, you may remember that the body of the message included certain words or remember that they sent it 2 months ago. The more details you can recall, the better.
Still not sure where the email is? Follow our guide on how to sort Gmail by subject, date, and name.
Method 3: Sort by Sender in Gmail With Partial Criteria
Sometimes, you may only know partial information for your search but still want to know how to sort email by sender in Gmail. Luckily, Gmail allows you to use the asterisk (*) as a placeholder for unknown criteria. You can use this anywhere in an email address to help narrow results without having the exact data right.
For example, you can use an asterisk as a placeholder for the name in the email, the domain, or anything else, like john.*@techcompany.com, john.deer@*.com, or even john.deer@techcompany.*.
So, let’s say you want to delete emails from former colleagues who have left the company so you can clear out space in your Gmail. To do this, you would just:
- Go to the search bar at the top and enter *@techcompany.com then hit Enter.
- Under the search bar, use other criteria to help you narrow it down.
- Select any messages you want to delete, and remove them.
💡 Note: Similarly, you can use parentheses to group multiple keywords together for searching a subject line, etc. For example, subject:(dinner movie) will retrieve all emails containing the words dinner and movie in the subject line, while subject:(dinner OR movie) will retrieve all emails containing either the word dinner or the word movie in the subject line.
How Clean Email Can Sort Gmail Inbox
Clean Email is a popular bulk email cleaner that organizes all of your emails into easy-to-review bundles and allows you to remove, archive, move, label, and perform other actions on groups of messages with a single click, instead of selecting them one by one.
For example, the app can easily sort your Gmail account by Sender / Subject / Date / Recipients, etc. You will need to sign up to Clean Email for free using your Gmail account. Let this email sorter app analyze your mailbox, and when it’s done, click the “All Mail” box located in the Toolbar column on the left.
Then click “Group By…” filter above the email groups and choose “Sender (name and email)” or “Sender Domain”. Then choose the way you want your emails to be organized by clicking “Newest on Top” sorting option next to the “Group By…” filter. E.g. sort by Number of messages or Total size, and more.
Now your Gmail account is sorted by Sender in your preferred order, and it is that simple. No need to search for each sender manually using Gmail filters. Moreover, you can easily apply any action to the group of emails from one or several senders.
What’s more, the app can also unsubscribe you from newsletters and unwanted subscriptions with its Unsubscriber feature, block emails from senders from whom you would rather not hear again, and automatically apply certain actions to emails as soon as they arrive thanks to its powerful Auto Clean tool.
Clean Email’s automation rules can be created and applied to all matching existing and future messages with a few clicks. Every automation rule you create appears in the Auto Clean dashboard, where you can pause it, modify it, or delete it.
The app has been designed with your security in mind, which is why we never collect user data with any third parties, and it supports all IMAP-based email service providers.
How To Sort Gmail by Sender on Mobile Using Gmail App
The good news is that you don’t need to log in to Gmail on your computer just to search Gmail inbox for messages from a certain sender. You can simply open the Gmail app on your iOS or Android smartphone and complete the following steps:
- Launch the Gmail app on your smartphone.
- Log in with your username and password if prompted to do so.
- Tap on the search bar at the top.
- Type the email address or the name of the sender whose emails you want to display and click the search icon.
💡 Note: Unfortunately, the Gmail mobile app doesn’t let you include all additional search criteria available in the web version to further filter the search results. E.g. if you want an email from a known sender that contains or doesn’t contain specific words, you need to log in to Gmail on your computer and follow the first method on how to sort Gmail inbox by sender.
Why Do I Need To Sort Gmail by Sender
There are many reasons why you might want to sort Gmail by sender. If you’re like most people, you probably receive hundreds of marketing emails each month. It’s not uncommon for marketing emails to represent over 90 percent of the storage space occupied by emails, which is why getting rid of them is one of the first steps you should take to clean up your Gmail inbox.
The problem is that marketing emails are typically mixed in with legitimate emails from friends, colleagues, and business partners, many of which may be very important and definitely not intended for deletion. If you tried to individually select every single marketing email in your inbox, you would most likely find the task very tedious, and there’s a strong chance that you would select at least a few legitimate emails by accident.
By learning how to sort by sender in Gmail, you can group all emails from a particular sender together and delete them all at once without also accidentally deleting emails that shouldn’t be deleted.
You may also want to learn how to sort emails in Gmail by sender to save time when forwarding emails to colleagues or when searching for a certain piece of information from a specific sender. In other words, learning how to sort emails by sender in Gmail significantly upgrades your email management toolbox, allowing you to better control the steady influx of emails and stay organized and productive in today’s digital day and age.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to sort emails in Gmail, you can say goodbye to inbox overflow and organize Gmail better than ever before. Remember that Clean Email can also help you with other aspects of email management by organizing all of your emails into easy-to-review bundles and allowing you to apply various actions to them automatically once they hit your inbox.
Wondering to get more tips and tricks on how to sort Gmail effectively? Check out our other posts on how to sort Gmail by size and how to filter emails in Gmail.
How to Sort Gmail by Sender - FAQs
How do I filter Gmail by sender?
There are several ways you can sort Gmail email by sender, like performing a simple search, selecting another message from that same sender, or using the wildcard function to locate messages when you aren’t sure about the sender’s full email address.
Can you sort emails by name in Gmail?
Although you can search your Gmail by sender, there isn’t a way to sort your emails based on the senders exclusively. However, Clean Email can help you sort emails in many different ways, such as by sender name, date, subject line, etc.
Can you sort Gmail by sender alphabetically?
Unfortunately, Gmail does not offer features like this at this time. Instead, you can only sort Gmail by size or a few other criteria. You can use the Clean Email app to sort Gmail by sender alphabetically. Just connect your Gmail mailbox to the app and select the necessary filter to sort your emails the way you need.
How do I sort Gmail by sender and delete?
Once you use one of the methods outlined in this article to sort your messages by sender, you can simply click to select the messages you want to delete like you normally would.
How do I search Gmail inbox by sender?
There are several methods you can use to search your Gmail inbox by sender — it just depends on if you know the sender’s email address or know other information that can help you narrow down your search.
