How can I not have the emails of a gmail label show up in my inbox?

Question

How can I not have the emails of a gmail label show up in my inbox?

Answer 1

How do you apply your labels? Is it manual or automated?

If automated then you have a filter doing it, and you'd want to edit that filter (Go to settings, then the Filters tab). As Ryan mentioned, in step 2 of the filter you'd check the box that says "skip the inbox".

If you're doing it manually but it could be automated, you should create a filter (again, go to Settings, then the Filters tab). Again, in step 2 of the filter you'd check the box that says "skip the inbox".

If you're doing it manually and you don't want/can't use filters, then just change the way you apply the label. Instead of selecting a label using the Labels dropdown, select it using the Move To dropdown. That one applies the label and then removes the message from the inbox (archives it).

If you want to archive (remove from inbox) all emails that already have a label defined, then do this:

1. In the gmail search bar, type in "label:" and then the name of the label. So, if you wanted to archive everything labeled "friends" you'd do: "label:friends".
2. Run the search (hit Search Mail)
3. Click on the "All" link next to "Select:". This should be under the button bar at the top (underneath the Archive button). This will select all messages in the current page of results.
4. If there is more than one page of results there should be a message at the top that says (for me) "All 20 conversations on this page are selected." Next to that should be a "Select all conversations that match this search" link. Click on that. Now, ALL emails with that label are selected.
5. Click on the Archive button.

Answer 2

Create a new filter (or edit an existing filter). On step 2, check the box that says "skip the inbox"

Answer 3

I can't think of any simple, direct way to do that currently.

If you have filters that apply the label, you can modify them to archive the mails too, but that wouldn't work for mails that you labelled yourself.

Answer 4

A recent Labs feature will turn off the labels appearing in your Inbox. The label will continue to be applied, and you'll still be able to view all items of a specific label just like you were always able to.

The change is only cosmetic.

Lifehacker had something on it recently; that was where I heard about it.