Unable to block callers after update 26.3

• From the Phone app, tap Recents, then tap the phone number or contact you want to block or the Info button  in Classic view. Scroll down, then tap Block Caller.

Block phone numbers, contacts and email addresses on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support (IN)

I was having the same issue on my SE 3rd gen until today. I read in a different thread that Apple changed the allowed the amount of blacked contacts to 3,000. I had more than 6K and didn't experience the issue until iOS 26.5. Today I deleted enough blocked contacts to get below the 3K number, and immediately contact blocking started working again. The red circle with the slash appeared again and when exiting the contact and reentering again the contact remained blocked. Hopefully it will continue to work. And because it has been some time since I was last able to block a contact, and since it no longer lists them in chronological order, I decided to delete them all. Your MMV but I figured I'd share.

hawkeyeapple wrote:

community support says option is available in classic mode but it isn't.

Yes it is.

Block phone numbers, contacts, and emails on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

Sorry it isn't, sberman, It is a bug in SE iPhones with some cellular providers. I reported it in beta and they never fixed it - minority user group I expect.

hawkeyeapple, PLEASE REPORT IT https://apple.com/feedback and we may get a fix.

(SE owner)

Thank you, but that is not the issue.

I am following those exact steps, and have been for years.

The problem is that on iOS 26.5, tapping “Block Caller” does not actually block the caller anymore.

Steps:

1. Open Phone → Recents.
2. Tap the ⓘ next to the number.
3. Scroll down and tap “Block Caller.”

The phone accepts the command, but:

• No blocked indicator appears.
• The number is not added to Settings → Apps → Phone → Blocked Contacts.

If I immediately return to the same number’s info screen, it still says “Block Caller” instead of “Unblock Caller.”

In other words, the block action is not being saved. It becomes an endless loop where I can repeatedly tap “Block Caller,” but the caller never actually gets blocked.

I am seeing the same behavior on both my iPhone and my Mac with Mail’s “Block Sender” feature, which makes me suspect a bug with Apple’s unified Blocked Contacts system rather than an issue with the steps being followed.

Is anyone else on iOS 26.5 seeing this behavior?

See the pic below about Classic and Unified View

• iOS 26 and higher versions have two views in the Phone App in the Recents tab
• I use the classic view to block callers. Tap the More Info button  next to the name of the Contact in the Recent list of calls.

I went to Apple they had to reset my phone I lost so much information and it still had bugs. Yes I can block now but who ever is at Apple needs to be aware of this issue so annoying I’m ready to go to a different phone.

@sberman While the option to block might be there, it doesn’t actually work. I have an iPhone 17 Pro. If I get a call and I go into the call details, I can click “block” and it says it’s blocked but when I go back into the call details, it’s no longer blocked. I’ve even tried saving numbers and then blocking them through the contact information and the same thing happens. Same thing also happens within iMessages. I block the person through the details within the iMessage and it just won’t block. All of these functions worked prior to the iOS 26 update. This is beyond frustrating. Yes, I realize I can silence unknown callers and I can use focuses to silence callers, as well. But that’s not the point. I don’t want to see them even show up in my Unknown callers list. The functionally used to be there but iOS 26 just broke it all.

I can also confirm LD150's report that it was NOT fixed in 26.3 on my SE 2020 in wither Classic or Unified mode. I recall it went walkabout with v 26.1

Swiping right in the "Calls" screen does nothing.

I'm finding with newer iOS versions that what goes for a standard-size iPhone does not necessarily apply to the small-format series like the SE. We all need to ask what model iPhone an OP has if it is not mentioned in text or displayed in the equipment line.

Nope - definitely still not available in classic for me. I am being absolutely bombarded with spam calls every day - today five in the space of ten minutes. I have followed the advice given to switch on ‘Silence unknown callers’ which it says sends them to answerphone, but this has simply made matters worse as they now seem to deem it an active number and are calling more not less. It used to be so simple by simply tapping the I icon and scrolling down to block. I am hoping it is an error in the updates which has not been solved yet, but it seems to be taking a long time to solve if that is so. I am getting to the point of changing my number after many years of easy blocking!

Hi there,

I just received a marketing or scamming call and wanted to block that number like I used to. I have SE2020 ios 26.2.1. and I have the same issue of not having any direct way to block that number.

Im on classic view, and there is no orange hand when I swipe the recent call from right to the left.

There is no block feature after opening round circle with "i" after an empty scroll.... to nothing.

It's not only for recently called number, it's also for all contacts in my list on recent call.... no blocking.... nada!

As google says another method to try to click on circled i and quickly push home button and reopen phone app, that the orange hand will open.... nothing

The only way blocking someone and a number is to create a contact, which is ridiculous and then in Privacy/Location scrolling down to blocked numbers and add that scamming contact.

In today's digital advancement, I have to undertake so many steps for just blocking a number.

Strangely I don't have that issue on WhatsApp, so what is the problem that Apple cannot fix such an important task in today's world of scamming etc.

I truly regret having updated to ios 26 since the layout has change a lot and perhaps to worse than better.

Sometimes more isn't better.

Will apple fix the Block Caller feature and when. Thanks for reading and I await a hopeful reply.

Blocking spam generally does nothing because they use different cloned numbers every time. I base that on empirical evidence where I added each spam number to a contact called "spamm" for a year and never got another call from "spamm" despite having 30 numbers saved there..

But then I get less than one spam call a week on average.

I agree with LD150’s assertion that blocking spam callers is generally useless. I have an old fashioned land line that gets 5 or 6 spam calls daily. Every night, I block these callers on my land line phone which retains 150 blocked numbers. I remove the oldest blocked numbers and replace them with the recent spammers. Almost no blocked callers repeat their calling attempts.

Allan Jones wrote:

We all need to ask what model iPhone an OP has if it is not mentioned in text or displayed in the equipment line.

• In this case, the OP’s model is displayed in the equipment line.
• Often, responders including myself will say things like “Here’s what I see on my iPhone model running this iOS version.” Should we require that as a standard? I think not. There are many aspects of iOS behavior that one would not expect to vary by iPhone model or the specific instance of an iOS major version. Surely this is an outlier.

Tracifromcaliforniagirl wrote:

need to block all spam calls but can’t

As LD150 said above:

”Blocking spam generally does nothing because they use different cloned numbers every time.”

that why I hate updates

Here is why you should look forward to updates and install them promptly.

About Apple software updates - Apple Support