iPhone not blocking calls/emails/voicemails after iOS 26.4

Thank you for the feedback. I waited for an iOS update to resolve the problem but unfortunately it didn’t happen. I was able to restore the block function by going to Settings / General / Transfer or Reset IPhone / Reset / Reset All Settings. Keep in mind when selecting this option you will lose all current settings and all the numbers previously blocked. I lost over 17,000 but I’m back in the game of blocking trash calls.

They are not device dependent if they are linked to the same iCloud account and have the device enabled to sync contacts with iCloud. I can’t block phone numbers or email addresses from my iPhone 17 pro max. However, I can block them from my 12 pro max, 14 pro max, or iPad Pro without issue. Once they are blocked using one of those other devices. The contact becomes blocked on my 17 pro max. It’s just can’t be blocked directly from my 27 pro max.

SOLVED IT (Indian workaround…)

i simply added numbers I want to block to any previous contact I have blocked earlier. You can add max 500 numbers per blocked contact. So as long as you have at least a few earlier blocked contacts, this should work.

Caveat: In one case, an unknown number I wanted to block could not be added to the blocked contact. I simply added a name to the unknown number (“added a name”; NOT “added the number as a contact) and then added it to a previously blocked contact…

Let me know if this works foe you all.

I was having the same issue - not being able to block contacts with 26.4. The issue is fixed for me with the 26.4.1 update.

26.4.1 did resolve the issue on my iPhone 15. I definitely had the issue on 26.4

Same issue here too on iPhone and iPad. On my Mac I opened mail preferences then clicked Junk then clicked Blocked then clicked the top blocked one hold shift key and click the bottom one so they are all highlighted then click the minus button at bottom, it will spin and spin but eventually delete them all. That worked for me.

But if you don’t have a Mac computer, the iPhone Settings -> General->Transfer or Reset iPhone -> Reset->Reset all settings will erase blocked messages but also does this:

What this action removes:

    •    Network Settings: Saved Wi-Fi passwords and paired Bluetooth devices are forgotten. 

    •    Apple Pay: All payment cards added to Apple Wallet are removed. 

    •    Keyboard & Display: Custom keyboard dictionaries are cleared, and features like dark mode, display zoom, or custom brightness revert to factory defaults. 

    •    Privacy & Location: Any permissions you previously granted to apps to access your location or photos will be reset, forcing apps to ask for permission again

Best I can tell, urge likely reason is the latest update to 26.5. I can’t say for certain, as I had given up even trying to block emails, so the day I updated I didn’t attempt it. Several days later I did, and it appears to work. That is the only thing I’ve changed on my phone recently aside from restarts (several times actually, as I’m still having issues with RCS messaging, but that’s another thread).

Do I have specific proof it worked and blocked - no. However, the mechanism is working now and showing the 🚫 symbol again, when that hadn’t happened for a long time. I’m blocking junk emails (20-30 at a time), not contacts, so I’m not able to verify through contacts.

Same issue on iPhone 15 Pro Max, 12 Pro Max AND MacBook Pro all updated to iOS 26.4 / macOS 26.4. After the blocking attempt, menu displays “Unblock Caller/Contact”, but on exit, no 🚫 icon displays & on retry attempt, menu has reset back to “Block this caller/Contact”…

My older iPhones/iPad don’t have this problem & still block the caller or contact, displaying the 🚫 icon, & menu correctly displays “Unblock this Caller/Contact” on reentry. Definitely a bug 🐜

tmmdg: Great description of the problem --my experience exactly. No success with signing in and out of Apple ID; hard restart; toggling on/off airplane mode; toggling airplane mode off, hard restart, toggling back on; resetting network settings.

Additional observations:

-After trying unsuccessfully to block numbers, I looked in blocked contacts list and confirmed they were not there. That shows the problem is not just the absence of the expected 🚫, and "Unblock" option, the entire blocking process fails.

-Contact blocking works on my iPad, except the ability to select multiple messages and block all their contacts at once. The "block X# senders" option is now missing --each contact has to be blocked individually. Hopefully a thing which will be resolved, not an intentional removal of the option.

This is not a work-around for blocking contacts on iphone. Blocked contact lists are device-specific, and can't be downloaded, copied, shared, etc.

This is not a trivial problem for those of us who receive a lot of spam texts, emails, and phone calls from unknown entities (50-80 total a day -- 20-35 in texts alone). Changing phone number and email addresses I've had for 20+ years is a hard NO. Replying "STOP" or "UNSUBSCRIBE" serves only to confirm to senders that recipients' numbers or email addresses are legit and active. Blocking and reporting senders -at the very least- stops spam from those numbers and email addresses. It's worth the few extra steps. Since updating to ios/ipados 26.4, more spam is getting through --IMO, due to repeated messages being sent from the numbers and email addresses I would have blocked after their first messages.

On 05.13.26 I had a support session call with a live person. After going through all of the troubleshooting steps, the problem was not resolved (not unexpected). The support agent told me this is a known issue which is being worked on. Good news! Hopefully no more "no one else has that problem", or "have you tried..." this, that, or myriad things we've all tried. As soon as there is a fix it will be included in an update.

Odd, 26.4.1 fixed the issue on mine.

Have you updated your iPhone to 26.5? My BLOCK CONTACT button works on spam/junk emails

After the Apple iOS update, the blocking feature likely still works but the indicators have changed, so you should verify it in the blocked contacts list or with a test number.

[Edited by Moderator]

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
• 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.

It appears that there are now limitations on the maximum number of blocked calls that are allowed. After starting from scratch the function stopped working once I got to 3000 blocked calls. I’m not sure if this will be addressed in future updates.