How to block an area code on an iPhone

Seems like a good idea, but it doesn’t work. There is no “block this caller” at the bottom of the contact page when I tried to edit the contact. Has anybody found another way to block all calls from the 501 area code?

Yes it does work. Add the contact, then go to settings-phone-blocked contacts, and add it from there.

Binone wrote:

Perhaps this technique worked for older versions of iOS, but there is no longer a "Block" button in the contacts page.

You can still block people through Contacts. If you don't see the option, scroll down further. It's there.

What you can't do (and have never been able to do) is block all calls from a specific area code.

It does not work for me either. iPhone 12 mini running iOS 17.6.1. I am able to add a contact named "Political Spam", with a phone number +1(202), which is where most seem to be coming from. I can see that caller in my blocked list. Yet, I continue to receive spam messages from that area code. I can reply "Stop", but they come back with a new list name. I can hit "delete and report spam" but then they come back with a different number. No way out, it seems.

10/11/2024 iPhone 13 Pro:

1. Created a new contact called "Blocked Calls from AZ Area Code". I used +1 (602) as the contact number.
2. Went to Settings > Phone > Apps > Blocked Contacts > Add New (scroll to the very bottom of the list)
3. Entered my contact "Blocked Calls from AZ" in the search bar or could select the contact I wanted to block from my contacts list.
4. It automatically added the contact to my blocked call list. (I have more than 35 blocked callers, so the mention of that by another frustrated Apple user as a possible limiting factor did not prevent me from adding more.)

This literally did not work

MyTipsandTricks wrote:

You have to go to your settings page after making a contact ‘1-(area code to block) and saving it.

open the phone app and scroll down to ‘Blocked Contacts’ then scroll down to ‘Add New’. Add the name of your area code that you saved in contacts. Some people say that you can just put the area code in here but I did it the way I described.

go back to the contact and scroll down and you will see in green it says Unblock Caller’. It worked. Or I hope it did. I made a Blocked Caller 1 and a BC 2 for two different area codes.

Have you tested this? Does it work?

Call the contact after creating it, cancel it and block it from your recent calls list.

You have to go to your settings page after making a contact ‘1-(area code to block) and saving it.

open the phone app and scroll down to ‘Blocked Contacts’ then scroll down to ‘Add New’. Add the name of your area code that you saved in contacts. Some people say that you can just put the area code in here but I did it the way I described.

go back to the contact and scroll down and you will see in green it says Unblock Caller’. It worked. Or I hope it did. I made a Blocked Caller 1 and a BC 2 for two different area codes.

thank you!! this did work...

Tried that, wasn't seeing any "Block this Caller" option under the contact. Forced closed Contacts and re-checked the contact, still not there. Checked other contacts, and it was under any of those either, even though I remember seeing it before.

Went to Settings > Phone > Blocked Contacts, and I have a fairly long list of blocked contacts that I've collected over more than a decade, so I deleted a bunch that hopefully won't still be trying to spam me, and then went back to Contacts, and lo! Now the "Block this Caller" appeared for that area code's entry.

Apparently the Blocked Contacts list only allows a limited number of entries, ~36?

I have tried this on iPhone 15 pro max and saving the contact as :

+1 <Area code>

Worked for me:



Doesn't work on an Iphone 15 Pro - no option to block is available

No it doesn’t

try blocking 872 area code. They call me 3 times a day same area code, but the rest numbers all different every time

Unfortunately you will have to either do this through carrier settings, or through a filter app that you could personalize to something like “only in my contacts list”. There are several third party options that would work as well as the default iOS filtering if you look under the Settings>Phone>Silence Unknown Callers as well as Text filtering under Message Settings, AND your carrier can possibly give you the option to block incoming SMS/DATA/Calls from specific parameters in numbers.

Personally I believe a third party service would be most user friendly for what you’re trying to do. MWBS for iOS is one I’ve used. This is more so for the message filtering aspect, as calls can be whitelisted by being in your contacts or not. (Not sure messaging works the same).

I recommend the Support app for guides on what these settings do.

good luck!