Unable to block email in Apple Mail after iOS 26.4 update

Javier Huerta wrote:

After updating to iOS 26.4, I can no longer block incoming inbox/junk email. Does Apple Mail have a block limit?

When the Spammer email message arrives in the Inbox

Swipe Left >> and look for " More "

Click on More

Additional actions become available

Scroll down to bottom

Look for " Block contact "

Limits, not that I am aware of.

I have about 250 " Blocked Contacts " and still counting

richphoto wrote:

Correct but it is not moving them to trash and now not allowing to even block them , this is going on for me now over two years with one small window after an update it did work and then no more.

Did you update to iOS 26.6? The new release gives a message when you have reached your block limit where previously no message was seen and it simply did not work any longer. The exact limit has not been published by Apple and may have certainly varied across different iOS versions, but those that have reduced the blocked contacts to below 3,000 have found they will once again work.

If you reduce your blocked contacts to under 3,000, the problem will be solved. Beyond that you could wait to see if Apple decides to publish the limit or see if it is changed in a future update, but nobody knows if that will actually happen or when.

Luckily it is very easy to bulk delete blocked contacts on the Mac, as opposed to the iPhone where it has to be done one at a time.

Another thing to consider is that spammers spoof the email addresses and it is very rare that you would ever get spam from the same email address again, so blocking them is ineffective. The addresses are completely made up and nothing more than a text string.

richphoto wrote:

Blocked is not moving them to the trash folder, I know about the 3000 limits and that is not the issue.

Actually, I believe it is directly related to the block limit. It has been reported many times, including by you, that previously when the block limit has been exceeded, they will still be added to the block list but will no longer be acted on, whether that is an email or blocked call.

That bug was resolved in the latest OS versions where there is now a message when your block limit has been exceeded and will no longer let you add additional contacts to the block list. The solution is the same, get your blocked contacts to under 3,000, then newly added contacts blocked will work correctly.

You are not seeing the blocked emails in the Trash folder because your original blocked addresses that are below the limit are no longer being used by the spammers and are useless. The ones above the limit are being acted on by the Spam filters where they are sent to the Spam folder and not by the Blocked contact where they would be sent to the Trash folder.

Ah, then you don’t understand what “blocked” on a device means. You cannot stop email from arriving on your phone (or on any other device that supports email) unless your email PROVIDER supports blocking at the server before the message is sent you your device (some email providers do). Your options are to move it to trash, to junk to spam, or view it. Your iPhone is recognizing that the address was marked by you as blocked, and you have chosen to view it anyway instead of sending it automatically to trash.

The same is true for texts and phone calls.

Probably because it changed several iOS updates ago. Now:

• Swipe left and pause with all 3 buttons displayed
• Tap More
• Scroll down and tap Block Contact

OR

• Hold your finger on the message in the message list
• On the menu that appears scroll down and tap Block Contact

OR

• With the message open, Tap the left pointing arrow at the bottom of the message
• Scroll down and tap Block Contact

OR

• Go to Settings/Apps/Mail, scroll down and tap Blocked, then Add Blocked Contact and paste the email address

Idris, if you click on the “sender” in the email it opens a drop down menu. In there is “contact card”. Click on that and it takes you to a screen showing the actual sender address which is always an alphabet soup @ gmail or some other domain. I typically block THAT address, not the fake one on the email.

There are two ways to deal with spam. Mark it as spam when you receive it. That puts it in the junk folder. If you get more spam from that address it will go into the junk folder without you taking any action. You can the periodically empty the junk folder. iCloud will also detect spam from the raw header data and put it in the junk folder.

The other way to deal with spam is what you do. Block it. If you then get additional mail from that address it will go into the trash folder instead of the junk folder.

But either way, you need to clean out the junk folder or the deleted folder, or wait 30 days for either to be cleared automatically. the advantage of sending it to junk is it doesn’t clutter up your deleted folder, in case you accidentally delete something and want to find it in trash.

Your choice. But the 3,000 limit isn’t going to change.

This is what I get.

Blocked Contacts

Limit Reached

You've reached the maximum number of blocked contacts. To block additional callers, remove a blocked contact in Settings.

j wfromtorrance wrote:

This is what I get.

Blocked Contacts

Limit Reached

You've reached the maximum number of blocked contacts. To block additional callers, remove a blocked contact in Settings.

If you have a Mac using the same Apple Account, it is super easy to bulk delete your contacts to below 3,000. All you need to do is go to Mail > Settings > Junk Mail > Blocked, and select a range of numbers/emails then push Delete or click the "-" button. Those numbers will then be deleted from your iPhone since it is synced with iCloud.

You can wish that Apple will publish the exact limit or add a feature to bulk delete on the iPhone, but they never have. Maybe someday they will and you can certainly send them Feedback, but if you want your problem solved today, you just need to follow those instructions.

j wfromtorrance wrote:

I see a lot of misinformation here. I just spend hours on the phone with Apple support and got nowhere.

Not really, Apple does not publish the limit, so there is nothing concrete that Apple Support could tell you. Despite what everyone says, there is one thing you can do that has been shown to work every time, reduce your blocked contacts to under 3,000. Problem Solved!

Hi All, this is now a known issue with Apple- they told me to to get others to inform apple support- the more that notify them the faster they look at fixing it

Blocking emails or phone numbers stopped working for me on the 4th last Apple update. Tried all the fixes everyone keeps repeating on this Apple community page and tech articles on internet, but these don’t work for me or other people. Read forums that said the next update will fix issue, but it never did. Contacted Apple support who told me it’s a bug with the update that it changed on. Told me to reset my phone which I was reluctant to do saying I will lose all settings set up. Was 100% reassured I would not lose anything apart from my blue tooth pairing and it will 100% fix the issue. Did reset and lost all what was set up on iPhone as well as not fixing the not blocking issue. Had to sit and fix all what was changed, but still not sorted it all. Struggled to set up my CarPlay again. Contacted Apple support again very angry and lodged complaint. Was told developers are looking into this issue as it’s a common one. Still awaiting an update. I have a 13pro.

I see a lot of misinformation here. I just spend hours on the phone with Apple support and got nowhere.

when I try and block callers, emails, messages I now get a pop- up stating I’ve reached the limit and the solution is to unblock someone so I can block the new one. Obviously a stupid non- solution. Customer support was not aware of this limitation and, in fact, was telling me there is none. They are incapable of escalating up the ladder to get to someone who actually knows the answer. Obviously this is programmed into the IOS software and somebody knows why and if there is a work around. My setting shows I have 5,569 blocked contacts. To not inform customers or even their own customer support of this “feature” (as they call it) is bad business and bad customer service. And why is there a limitation? What is the issue they are trying to solve by imposing a limitation? What is the purpose? And why is there no clear documentation that this limit even exists. Unacceptable.