Select multiple conversations for mass action
Edited

Overview

In your quest for Inbox Zero, you may find that you have many conversations that need organization or action en masse. Front enables you to do this with the Select all or multi-select features, and you can then apply a mass action to the whole selection.


Available mass actions

There are two categories of mass actions you can take when you select multiple conversations, depending on the selection method and volume of conversations — large selection and small selection.

Large selection

Using Select all by pressing COMMAND + A on Mac or CTRL + A on Windows to select 50+ conversations, including any not loaded visibly on the screen.

Large selection mass actions:

Small selection

Using multi-select by pressing COMMAND or SHIFT + clicking on the conversations you want to select, or using Select all with fewer than 50 conversations.

Small selection mass actions:

In addition to the large selection actions available above, small selections additionally allow these mass actions:


Instructions

Step 1

Click to the section where you want to select all conversations. This could be an inbox, a tag, or you could use the search to pull up the results you need.

Step 2

On your keyboard, press COMMAND + A on Mac or CTRL + A on Windows to select all conversations in the inbox or results. Alternatively, if you only want to select some conversations, press COMMAND or SHIFT + click on the conversations you want to select. You will see the conversations turn blue to indicate they have been selected.

Step 3

In the message panel to the right, you will see the different actions you can take. Click the More button to see additional options. Click on the mass action that you want to run. You can also clear the selection by clicking Clear selection.

Step 4 (optional)

If you have a large selection, you will see a popup informing you how long the job will take. Click Proceed to confirm the mass action. If you have a small selection, the action will run immediately without another confirmation screen.

Step 5

A progress bar will show on the bottom left and you can continue working in your inbox as usual. You can press Stop in the progress bar if you want to stop the job, though the actions that have already run will not be reversed.


FAQ

Will rules run from mass actions?

Rules will trigger if you've used the small selection method to select your conversations, but will not trigger if you use the large selection method.

Can I take multiple mass actions?

No, you can only perform one mass action at one time. Once it completes, then you can run the next one.

What mass actions are not allowed?

Features not available as mass actions at all are:

  • Create rules

  • Block sender

  • Report phishing

Can I permanently delete conversations via select all?

No. The permanent delete feature is not supported when using Select all (COMMAND + A or CTRL + A).

To permanently delete all trashed conversations, you can click the first conversation in the list, hold the Shift key on your keyboard, then click the last conversation in the list. Click the permanent delete feature and confirm the request.

How many conversations can I select?

The maximum number of conversations you can select at once using Select all is 10,000 conversations.

Can I undo a mass action?

No, you cannot undo the mass action you just took, but you could do the opposite action to return the conversations to the prior state. For instance, if you archived a selection of conversations with a mass action, you can reopen the conversations again.

Who sees the mass action progress bar?

Only the teammate who initiated the mass action, whether in the Me section or the Team section of the sidebar, can see the progress bar for the mass action. However, your teammates will be able to see the results of the mass action, such as conversations being archived or a tag added; they just won't see the progress bar for the mass action.

What happens to conversations I mass moved?

Conversations moved from one inbox to another via the mass "move to" action will be unassigned and reopened in the destination inbox. If they were originally archived before the move, you can mass select and archive them in the destination inbox.