Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@gene1wood
Last active March 10, 2024 17:53
Show Gist options
  • Save gene1wood/0f455239490e5342fa49 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save gene1wood/0f455239490e5342fa49 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
A Google Apps Script script to bulk delete large amounts of email in Gmail while avoiding the error #793 which Gmail encounters normally
/*
This script, when used with Google Apps Scripts, will delete 400 emails and
can be triggered to run every few minutes without user interaction enabling you
to bulk delete email in Gmail without getting the #793 error from Gmail.
Google returns a maximum of 500 email threads in a single API call.
This script fetches 400 threads in case 500 threads is causing timeouts
Configure the search query in the code below to match the type of emails
you want to delete
See - https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/gmail/gmail-app#search(String)
and https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7190
Browse to https://script.google.com/
Start a script and paste in the code below.
After you paste it in, save it.
Now you need to set the authorized scopes for the script ( https://developers.google.com/apps-script/concepts/scopes )
On the left side of the screen, hover over the gear symbol and then click on Project Settings.
Enable 'Show "appsscript.json" manifest file in editor'
On the left side of the screen, click on the < > to return to the code editor
You should see a new file appear, appscript.json. Click on it.
Edit the file to add an oauthScopes entry for mail.google.com. It should look something like this.
{
"oauthScopes": [
"https://mail.google.com/",
"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.readonly",
"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.modify"
],
"timeZone": "America/New_York",
"dependencies": {
"enabledAdvancedServices": [
{
"userSymbol": "Gmail",
"version": "v1",
"serviceId": "gmail"
}
]
},
"exceptionLogging": "STACKDRIVER",
"runtimeVersion": "V8"
}
In the drop down at the top select the function you want
to run. For example, you could run the batchDeleteEmail function.
This gist contains a few different functions to give examples of how to do other actions
besides deleting emails. For example if you wanted to mark all mail with the "work" label as read
you could run the markReadLabelWork function
Next click the little clock looking button.
This is for your triggers. You can set up how frequently you want the script
to run (I did mine for every minute but others are seeing execution take longer than
a minute in which case you may want to run every 5 or 15 minutes).
This writeup from @timur-tabi goes into more detail : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PLfAnNus-B87gHS1pkbmzFTkWckAPNcqmvO7hFo_gBc/edit
Source : # https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/gmail/YeQVDuPIQzA/kpZPDDj8TXkJ
This gist includes additions by @kulemantu found in their fork : https://gist.github.com/kulemantu/84682cfebe72eb925cfe/revisions
*/
function batchDeleteEmail() {
processEmail('label:inbox from:user@example.com', 'moveThreadsToTrash');
}
function markReadLabelWork() {
processEmail('label:work', 'markThreadsRead');
}
function markReadFromInfoExample() {
processEmail('from:user@example.com', 'markThreadsRead');
}
function processEmail(search, batchAction) {
var batchSize = 100; // Process up to 100 threads at once
var searchSize = 400; // Limit search result to a max of 400 threads. Use this if you encounter the "Exceeded maximum execution time" error
var threads = GmailApp.search(search, 0, searchSize);
for (j = 0; j < threads.length; j += batchSize) {
GmailApp[batchAction](threads.slice(j, j + batchSize));
}
}
@gene1wood
Copy link
Author

@jmjeanjm @LucipherVenus I've updated the comment section of the code to include the information @timur-tabi linked above

Try that and let me know if it resolves the issue for you.

@celestialeye
Copy link

I was getting the following error:

Exception: Access denied: : Metadata scope does not support 'q' parameter.
    at processEmail(Code:70:26)
    at batchDeleteEmail(Code:55:3)

But was able to fix after removing the following from oauthScopes:

"https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.metadata",

@gene1wood
Copy link
Author

@celestialeye Thanks, I'll update the instructions to remove that scope.

@ajk99
Copy link

ajk99 commented Mar 29, 2023

How nice it is to see the emails from that massive folder slowly but surely disappearing. Thanks for sharing.

@ankhaa-g
Copy link

Thank you! Deleted 1.6M emails in one night.

@MadonnaMat
Copy link

This is fantastic! Thank you!

@mdklapwijk
Copy link

mdklapwijk commented Oct 4, 2023

@Hectorhammett, @asifiqbal, what I noticed is that this worked/works perfectly:

function batchDeleteEmail() {
  processEmail('in:inbox after:2018/01/01 before:2022/09/01', 'moveThreadsToTrash');
}

function processEmail(search, batchAction) {
  var batchSize = 100; // Process up to 100 threads at once
  var searchSize = 500; // Limit search result to a max of 400 threads. Use this if you encounter the "Exceeded maximum execution time" error
  
  console.log('starting with search size: ' + searchSize);
  var threads = GmailApp.search(search, 0, searchSize);
  for (j = 0; j < threads.length; j += batchSize) {
    console.log('removing batch: ' + j + '-' + Number(j + batchSize));
    GmailApp[batchAction](threads.slice(j, j + batchSize));
  }
  console.log('done with search size: ' + threads.length);
}
9:03:13 AM	Notice	Execution started
9:03:15 AM	Info	starting with search size: 500
9:03:15 AM	Info	done with search size: 0
9:03:14 AM	Notice	Execution completed

But this fails:

function batchDeleteEmail() {
  processEmail('in:inbox after:2022/01/01 before:2022/12/01', 'moveThreadsToTrash');
}

function processEmail(search, batchAction) {
  var batchSize = 100; // Process up to 100 threads at once
  var searchSize = 500; // Limit search result to a max of 400 threads. Use this if you encounter the "Exceeded maximum execution time" error
  
  console.log('starting with search size: ' + searchSize);
  var threads = GmailApp.search(search, 0, searchSize);
  for (j = 0; j < threads.length; j += batchSize) {
    console.log('removing batch: ' + j + '-' + Number(j + batchSize));
    GmailApp[batchAction](threads.slice(j, j + batchSize));
  }
  console.log('done with search size: ' + threads.length);
}
9:06:53 AM	Notice	Execution started
9:06:54 AM	Info	starting with search size: 500
9:07:15 AM	Error	
Exception: Gmail operation not allowed. 
processEmail	@ Code.gs:10
batchDeleteEmail	@ Code.gs:2

I ran it with 1 year at a time and it removed vast amounts of emails, but at 2022/2023 it borked, by reducing to before:2022-06-01 it worked again up until before:2022-10-01 which fails again.

Update some more results:
before:2022/09/15

9:20:25 AM	Notice	Execution started
9:20:27 AM	Info	starting with search size: 500
9:20:33 AM	Info	removing batch: 0-100
9:21:48 AM	Info	removing batch: 100-200
9:23:02 AM	Info	removing batch: 200-300
9:24:18 AM	Info	removing batch: 300-400
9:25:33 AM	Info	removing batch: 400-500
9:26:51 AM	Info	done with search size: 500
9:26:50 AM	Notice	Execution completed

before:2022/09/25

9:27:50 AM	Notice	Execution started
9:27:52 AM	Info	starting with search size: 500
9:27:54 AM	Info	removing batch: 0-100
9:29:10 AM	Info	removing batch: 100-200
9:30:25 AM	Info	removing batch: 200-300
9:31:20 AM	Info	removing batch: 300-400
9:31:47 AM	Info	removing batch: 400-500
9:32:12 AM	Info	done with search size: 500
9:32:11 AM	Notice	Execution completed

before:2022/09/28

9:35:23 AM	Notice	Execution started
9:35:25 AM	Info	starting with search size: 500
9:35:27 AM	Info	removing batch: 0-100
9:36:02 AM	Info	removing batch: 100-200
9:36:34 AM	Info	removing batch: 200-300
9:37:07 AM	Info	removing batch: 300-400
9:37:38 AM	Info	removing batch: 400-500
9:38:09 AM	Info	done with search size: 500
9:38:08 AM	Notice	Execution completed

before:2022/09/29:

9:38:57 AM	Notice	Execution started
9:38:58 AM	Info	starting with search size: 500
9:39:51 AM	Error	
Exception: Gmail operation not allowed. 
processEmail	@ Code.gs:10
batchDeleteEmail	@ Code.gs:2

Confirmed failure on before:2022/09/29 3 times more and then ran before:2022/09/28 again which was succesfull again.

Head	batchDeleteEmail	Editor	Oct 4, 2023, 9:41:44 AM	285.671 s	Completed
Head	batchDeleteEmail	Editor	Oct 4, 2023, 9:40:36 AM	23.158 s	Failed
Head	batchDeleteEmail	Editor	Oct 4, 2023, 9:40:04 AM	22.636 s	Failed
Head	batchDeleteEmail	Editor	Oct 4, 2023, 9:38:58 AM	54.405 s	Failed
Head	batchDeleteEmail	Editor	Oct 4, 2023, 9:35:24 AM	164.667 s	Completed
Head	batchDeleteEmail	Editor	Oct 4, 2023, 9:27:51 AM	261.174 s	Completed
Head	batchDeleteEmail	Editor	Oct 4, 2023, 9:20:26 AM	384.693 s	Completed

@bnh1
Copy link

bnh1 commented Dec 31, 2023

Thanks for this code!

I added a try/catch to keep running despite the very frequent "Gmail operation not allowed" exceptions, and some random delays to try to reduce those exceptions. This gets my triggered runs to execute for the full 1800 seconds allowed, and a new one is kicked off every half an hour. I have managed to move some 8,000,000 messages to the trash in a few days.

-ben

//source: https://gist.github.com/gene1wood/0f455239490e5342fa49

var email_search = 'label:<mylabel> from:an@email.address' 
function batchDeleteEmail() {
  try {
    processEmail(email_search, 'moveThreadsToTrash');
  }
  catch(error) {
    Logger.log(error)
    Logger.log('Re-trying...')
    batchDeleteEmail();
  }
}

function processEmail(search, batchAction) {
  var removed = 0;
  var batchSize = 100; // Process up to 100 threads at once
  var searchSize = 500; // Maximum search result size is 500

  var threads = GmailApp.search(search, 0, searchSize);
  var rando = 0;
  Logger.log('Found '+threads.length+' threads matching search: "'+search+'".')
  while (threads) {
    for (j = 0; j < threads.length; j += batchSize) {
      rando = Math.floor(Math.random() * 3000);
      Logger.log('Removing threads '+j+' to '+(j + batchSize)+'...');
      GmailApp[batchAction](threads.slice(j, j + batchSize));
      Logger.log('Sleeping for '+rando+' milliseconds.');
      Utilities.sleep(rando);
      removed += batchSize;
    }

    if ( ( removed % 2000 ) == 0 ) {
      rando = Math.floor(Math.random() * 40000);
      while ( rando < 20000 ) {
        rando = Math.floor(Math.random() * 40000);
      }
      Logger.log('Long sleeping for '+rando+' milliseconds.');
      Utilities.sleep(rando); // long sleep to try to keep api calls working...
    }

    threads = GmailApp.search(search, 0, searchSize);
    Logger.log('Total removed so far: '+removed+'.');
    Logger.log('Found '+threads.length+' more threads, removing...');
    
  }
}

@Sabapathy80
Copy link

Sabapathy80 commented Mar 6, 2024

I want to create a script to delete emails from a specific bank with a transaction amount of less than some number, once a day or a couple of times per week. Any suggestions will help.

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment