Batch delete thousands of Gmail drafts in seconds

Mail in macOS has long suffered from a bug that can generate thousands of near-duplicate Gmail drafts (the simplest workaround is switching draft storage from server to local).

Selecting more than 50 drafts in the Gmail web interface via "Select all x messages in Drafts" disables the "Discard drafts" option, making large-scale deletion tedious.

A faster alternative is using Google Apps Script. While script executions are limited to 6 minutes, the following API-based method can delete thousands of drafts in seconds:

1. Go to https://script.google.com → New project

2. Paste and save the following script:

   function deleteAllDrafts_FinalPaginated() {
     try {
       let allMessageIds = [];
       let pageToken;
       let pageCount = 0;
   
       // 1. Loop through all pages of drafts to get every ID.
       do {
         const response = Gmail.Users.Drafts.list('me', {
           maxResults: 500, // Fetch up to 500 per page for speed
           pageToken: pageToken
         });
   
         if (response.drafts && response.drafts.length > 0) {
           const messageIdsOnPage = response.drafts.map(draft => draft.message.id);
           allMessageIds = allMessageIds.concat(messageIdsOnPage);
           pageCount++;
         }
   
         // Get the token for the next page. If there isn't one, the loop will end.
         pageToken = response.nextPageToken;
       } while (pageToken);
   
       const totalDrafts = allMessageIds.length;
   
       if (totalDrafts === 0) {
         Logger.log("No drafts to delete.");
         return;
       }
   
       Logger.log("Found " + totalDrafts + " drafts across " + pageCount + " page(s). Processing in batches...");
   
       // 2. Process the complete list of IDs in chunks.
       const batchSize = 100;
       for (let i = 0; i < totalDrafts; i += batchSize) {
         const chunk = allMessageIds.slice(i, i + batchSize);
         const request = { ids: chunk };
         Gmail.Users.Messages.batchDelete(request, 'me');
         Logger.log("Deleted batch: " + (i + 1) + " through " + Math.min(i + batchSize, totalDrafts));
       }
   
       Logger.log("Successfully initiated deletion of all " + totalDrafts + " drafts.");
   
     } catch (e) {
       Logger.log("Error deleting drafts: " + e.name + " - " + e.message);
     }
   }

3. In the left-hand menu, click + next to Services

4. Select Gmail API → Add

5. Click Run

During testing, used this script to quickly generate 105 drafts:

function createTestDrafts() {
  for (var i = 1; i <= 105; i++) {
    var subject = "Test Draft " + i;
    var body = "This is test draft number " + i + ".\nGenerated for batch deletion testing.";
    var recipient = Session.getActiveUser().getEmail();
    
    GmailApp.createDraft(recipient, subject, body);
  }
    
  Logger.log("105 test drafts created.");
}

❧ 2025-08-06