Learn how to easily unsubscribe from emails without opening the email, as well as unsubscribe from emails without an unsubscribe link, a common challenge in the world of email management. This simple guide will cover the best approaches to unsubscribe from unwanted emails, including how Leave Me Alone can make this even simpler.

Why should you unsubscribe from unwanted emails?

There are two main types of unwanted emails you’ll probably identify in your inbox. The first, and most harmless, type is newsletters from companies you recognize. These may be subscriptions you actively signed up for, perhaps in exchange for a code, additional information, signing up for an event, or as part of an online course. The second form of unwanted mail you’ll recognize is SPAM. These are emails from companies you are not familiar with that come to your inbox without your permission.

We always recommend unsubscribing from any unwanted mail, whether from recognized senders or SPAM, and here's why:

  1. Increasing inbox productivity: Inboxes cluttered with unwanted emails mean you’ll potentially miss important messages in between. Cleaning up your inbox and unsubscribing from unwanted senders can hugely improve your day-to-day productivity.
  2. Avoiding malware and scams: While your mail provider works hard to detect this type of mail before it hits your inbox, scammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Removing these sources of malware avoids your personal data being stolen, your online activity being tracked, and your computer being infected.

We’ve pulled together five of the most common methods of email management to help you unsubscribe from unwanted emails as well as how to stop spam emails without the unsubscribe link:

Use a third party app like Leave Me Alone

The fail-safe route for unsubscribing from an email without opening it is by using a third-party provider like Leave Me Alone. Our specialized service enables you to unsubscribe from unwanted emails and newsletters easily, even without opening these messages.

To use Leave Me Alone and take control of your mailbox subscriptions, follow these simple steps:

  1. Go to app.leavemealone.com/sign-up and sign up with your email address

2.   Follow the next steps to connect your email provider (remember that you can connect multiple email addresses, so make sure you add all of your accounts that have emails you want to unsubscribe from)


3.   Once you have connected your accounts, you’ll see your subscription emails in the Leave Me Alone dashboard

4.   Navigate the dashboard to find all mailing lists you’re subscribed to and easily unsubscribe directly from this screen with one click, we do all the hard work from there!

Email the sender directly to request removal from the list

If you find there is no unsubscribe link in an email, you can send a message requesting removal from the list directly to the sender. However, this is not recommended unless they are a known contact. Never directly reply to a suspected malicious email, and remember that by using a third-party app like Leave Me Alone, we manage this full process for you so you won’t need to worry about it.

Add a filter to your inbox

Set up a filtering rule in your email client directly to automatically filter emails. This can be set up to delete or move messages from those unwanted mailers into a separate folder. Here's how it works for Gmail:

  1. Log into your Gmail account
  2. Click on the Settings icon and select ‘See all settings’
  3. Choose ‘Filters & Blocked Addresses’
  4. Select ‘Create a new filter’
  5. Fill out the form as appropriate and select an action to be applied to all messages that match your filter criteria
  6. Finish off by hitting ‘Create filter’ and that should be good to go.

Block this sender from contacting you in future

For those stubborn senders where unsubscribe simply isn’t working and they continue to SPAM your inbox without giving you options to unsubscribe, we’d recommend blocking them directly through your mail provider. Blocking senders is something that we’ve explored a lot over the years and we have created super detailed, step-by-step guides for how to block senders in  Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud and Outlook.

Report the messages as SPAM/Phishing

If you’ve chosen to block the sender, we’d also recommend reporting their messages as SPAM to remove all risk of their messages slipping through in the future. This is a simple feature available in all mail providers, but here’s an example of how to do it in Gmail:

  1. Select a message from the sender in question

2.   Click on the ‘Report spam’ icon (an octagon with an exclamation mark)

3.   To report a phishing email, you would need to open the email then click the three vertical dots to open additional options and choose ‘Report phishing’


4.   Confirm your action by clicking ‘Report phishing message’ in the pop-up window

For more information on how to remove SPAM, have a read through our comprehensive guide on getting rid of SPAM emails.

How to unsubscribe from an email without opening it - FAQs

Most marketing emails will include an unsubscribe link in the header and/or footer of the email. If you’re pondering exactly what happens when you click the unsubscribe button, this blog post might shed some light on that process.

To stop emails without unsubscribe links, you can use third-party apps like Leave Me Alone, or set up filters in your mail manager to automatically delete or file away these emails. Additionally, you can block the sender and report the messages as SPAM directly within your email client (such as Yahoo, Google, iCloud, etc).

Why does unsubscribing from an email not always work?

If you have unsubscribed from an email, there may be a slight lag before the sender’s system updates their mailing list, and some emails from them may still slip through. Some email senders are just plain naughty. If after a few days of unsubscribing you’re still receiving emails, unfortunately, you’ll need to block the sender and report the message as SPAM to your email client.

How do I safely unsubscribe from suspicious emails?

To safely unsubscribe from unwanted mail, you can use the unsubscribe link in qualified emails or mark them as SPAM directly with your email client if the link isn’t immediately obvious or looks a little suspicious.

How do I stop getting emails from a company?

The easiest way to stop getting email newsletters from a specific company is to locate the unsubscribe link often found in the email’s footer or adjust your email preferences directly on the company’s website.

Should you unsubscribe from emails in your junk folder?

Remember that if SPAM emails are automatically going into your junk folder, they’re not doing you any harm, and the safest course of action is to take no action and allow your email provider’s SPAM management procedure to play out.

Summary

If you have the right tools in place, unsubscribing from unwanted emails without opening them or clicking the unsubscribe button is possible. We hope that this article has provided you with a comprehensive guide to the first steps of taking control back of your inbox and unsubscribing from unwanted mail.

The easiest way to unsubscribe from unwanted mail without opening them is through a third-party app like Leave Me Alone. By adding this feature to your personal inbox management process, you will find your productivity enhanced and mailbox exponentially more secure.