Gmail always opens the message list after I delete the message I’m looking at.  I finally got motivated enough (read: frustrated enough…) to figure out how to make Gmail show the next message after I delete the message I’m on. Surprisingly, it wasn’t easy to find in the Gmail Settings.

After deleting or archiving a message, you can have Gmail open the next message in the list automatically, or the previous one  if you prefer.

This is not in the General Settings where you’d think such a common function would be. They’ve buried it in the Labs section of  the Gmail Settings.  You need to enable “Auto-advance.”

To turn on Gmail’s Auto-advance function…

• Select Settings in Gmail.
• Go to the Labs tab.
• Make sure Enable is selected for Auto-advance.
• Click Save Changes (at the very bottom.)

Now you can just read through your messages one by one instead of returning to the Gmail list every time. Enjoy!