iPhone screen showing an email from a blocked sender in Mail app
Khamosh Pathak

Keep getting added to annoying email threads that spam filters just won't catch? Use the new Block Sender feature in iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 to automatically archive new email from a particular sender in the Apple Mail app.

How to Block a Sender from Mail

iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 extend the blocked contacts functionality from the Phone and Messages app to the Mail app.

RELATED: The Best New Features in iOS 13, Available Now

To get started, open the "Mail" app and find an email from the sender that you want to block. Then, tap on their Profile Picture to reveal sender details.

Tap on the contact's profile picture to reveal contact details

Now, tap on their name in the "From" field.

Tap on the sender's name from Mail app

Doing so will open the sender's contact card. From here, tap on "Block This Contact."

Tap on Block This Contact from the contant card

From the next popup, confirm this action by tapping on "Block This Contact."

Tap on Block This Contact from the popup

The sender is now blocked. You won't receive a notification for any new email, but it will still show up in your Inbox with an icon showing it's from a blocked contact (highlighted in the screenshot below).

Block Sender Options

What if you don't want an email from a blocked sender to show up in the Inbox at all? An option in the "Settings" app directly sends any new email from a blocked contact to the "Bin."

To enable this option, open the "Settings" app and choose the "Mail" option. From here, tap on "Blocked Sender Options."

Tap on Blocked Sender Options in Mail Settings

Now, switch to "Move to Bin."

Tap on Move to Bin

Any new email from the blocked contact will now directly go to the "Bin."

A new email from a blocked contact shown in the Bin folder

How to Manage and Unblock a Sender

At any time, you can go back and unblock a contact to resume receiving emails from them in your Inbox. To do this, open the "Settings" app, tap on the "Mail" option, and then choose "Blocked."

Tap on Blocked option from Mail settings

From here, find the contact or the specific email you've blocked. Swipe left on the contact and then tap on "Unblock" to reverse the changes.

Swipe left on a contact and tap on Unblock to unblock them from Mail app


iOS 13 has another handy feature for blocking spam calls. Using the Silence Unknown Callers feature, you can automatically silence a call from anyone who's not in your contact list.

RELATED: How iOS 13's "Silence Unknown Callers" Will Stop Phone Spam


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