How to block emails on your iPhone or iPad

Modern email is an ongoing war against spam and other unwanted messages. We’ve got separate guides to blocking email in Outlook and Gmail, but if you use Apple’s native Mail app on an iPhone or iPad, here’s what to do.

How to block emails in the Mail app

There are two ways, the first being directly from an email thread.

• Open an email with the sender you want to block.
• In its header, tap the sender’s contact.
• Choose Block this Contact.

You can also preemptively block someone using the Settings app.

• First, add the sender’s email to your Contacts app if they don’t already have an entry, or you only have their phone number.
• Open the Settings app and select Mail.
• Choose Blocked. Scroll down to the end of the list and tap Add New.
• Pick the sender from your contacts.

Note that blocked contacts can still send messages, but they’ll automatically be dumped into your trash folder. This lets you salvage info if you’ve blocked someone prematurely.