Mailbox folder and label reference

Look up what each built-in mailbox folder holds, which ones cannot be deleted, and how folders differ from labels when you organise mail.

The left sidebar of your mailbox has six built-in entries, followed by the folders you create yourself. This page explains what each one does and which ones you can change.

The six built-in entries

Entry	Holds	Mail arrives here when
Inbox	Mail addressed to you	As soon as it arrives, unless the filter moves it to Spam
Drafts	Unfinished messages	Saved automatically while you write
Scheduled	Messages you sent that are waiting for their time	When you use Schedule send
Sent	Copies of messages you sent	Right after a successful send
Spam	Mail judged to be advertising or fraud	The filter moves it, or you click Report spam
Trash	Deleted mail	When you click Delete

Deleting mail does not remove it immediately — it moves to Trash and still counts against your mailbox storage. To free space, open Trash and delete permanently.

Five folders you cannot change

Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Spam and Trash cannot be renamed or deleted. They are system folders — many things refer to them by fixed names, including the mail apps on your computer and phone.

Attempting to rename or delete one is refused and the mailbox is left unchanged.

Scheduled is not a folder

It is a filtered view — it shows messages waiting for their send time, wherever they live. That is why it does not appear in desktop or phone mail apps, and why you cannot drag mail into it.

Cancelling a schedule here returns the message to Drafts so you can edit or resend it. See Schedule a message to send later.

Folders you create

Action	Possible
Create a new folder	✅
Create a subfolder inside another folder	✅
Rename	✅
Delete	✅

Deleting a folder you created takes its subfolders and their mail with it. Move anything you want to keep before deleting.

How folders differ from labels

This is the point people mix up, and choosing wrong means reorganising from scratch.

	Folder	Label
How many one message can have	Exactly one	Several at once
Where the message ends up	Moved into the folder	Stays where it is
Visible in desktop mail apps	✅	Depends on the app
Can have a colour	❌	✅

Use folders when each message belongs in exactly one place — split by year, or by finished project.

Use labels when a message belongs to several groups at once — both Customer A and Needs reply.

Deleting a label removes it from every message carrying it, but the messages stay. That is the important difference from deleting a folder.

Where a message can be when you cannot find it

Work through this order before concluding a message is lost.

Spam — incoming mail caught by mistake sits here
Trash — it may have been deleted by accident; it is still recoverable
Scheduled — a message you thought was sent is waiting for its time
Drafts — a message you thought was sent was never actually sent
Search with advanced search scoped to All Mail — it covers every folder at once, including all of the above

Still nothing after all five steps means the message never reached your mailbox. At that point the fix is with your domain administrator, not in your mailbox.