iPhone not blocking calls/emails/voicemails after iOS 26.4

Check this thread for the fix... Unable to Block Calls on iPhone with new … - Apple Community

I’ve just updated to iOS 26.6, & the cat is out of the bag now: when I try to block a junk email, I get a message reporting than a limit has been reached:

See the screenshot:

[Edited by Moderator]

Thanks to everyone who has shown an interest in the problem. For those of us who get a lot of spam calls and no way to block those numbers is very frustrating.

When I receive a spam call I can swipe right and select the hand symbol to attempt to block the number. I have the choice to block contact or block and report spam. Once I select the block command I can immediately swipe right again and the option to block is available once more.

if I select the i with the circle I can select block contact there as well. It first gives the appearance that the number is blocker but when I go back and tap the i again the block contact command appears indicating that the first attempt failed.

I can go to settings, phone app, blocked contacts and type in the number I wish to block but that also fails as previously described.

I can create contact using the spam number and try to block contact in that manner to no avail.

Hopefully someone can provide a solution to the annoying problem.

Thank you!

Exact same problem here. Literally right after I rebooted from 26.4, this entire mechanism crashed and broke. I have a Support ticket in with the engineers… This is insane. Between that and the memory leak and lagging, this is a terrible update.

I too am having this same problem since the update to 26.4. While using 26.3.1 I was able to select any number of emails, then select "Block (number of emails selected) Contacts" and it would show the red circle with the slash through it and the contact would show as blocked. I also could do this by opening a single email, viewing the Contact Card, and selecting "Block Contact." Now, any attempt at blocking contacts does not show the red circle/slash and when going back to check, it does not show that the contact has remained blocked.

I am having the same issue with phone numbers as what I described above with attempting to block single emails. After going through the blocking procedure, the contact does not stay blocked.

same issue with BLOCK CONTACT. Since updating to IOS 26.4 and the newer updates (just today)for bug fixes on my iPhone 14, it does not work with the red slash nor contact name feature. I also have checked my BLOCKED CONTACT list to see if any spam has been added and the answer is no.

I’m getting an influx of spam and some are very inappropriate It’s like the same junk email has mutated. It’s tedious and time-consuming. Never had this problem until this new upgrade to 26.4 and newer bug fixes

I can confirm, having just applied the newly-released iOS 26.4.1 update, that this block 🚫 email issue is NOT yet fixed for my iPhone 15 Pro Max & my iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Whats now fixed for us UK iPhone users is the “verify age 18+” bug that declined to resolve for those using Debit Cards for Wallet payments.

The fix states:

All Set:

The length of time you have had an Apple Account was used to confirm you are 18+

I'd like to add: Possibly this is an iOS problem only -not iPadOS, nor MacOS. My iPhone is the only device on which blocking contacts does not work. It works as it should -as it always has- on iPad & Mac. When I block numbers & email addresses on those two, texts, emails, & calls from blocked senders that I continue to receive on iPhone do not show up on iPad & Mac.

Unfortunately, Blocked Contacts lists are device-dependent, & cannot be synced, nor copied & saved from other devices to add to iPhone after the problem is fixed.

Problem persists even on iOS 26.5 - while the blocked 🚫 icon will now display if you swipe left on the email & select “Block Email” at the bottom of the menu, it’s not permanent; if you close the Mail app & reopen it, the blocked 🚫 icon is found to have disappearsed & the email is unblocked ‼️😡

Continues with 26.5. When applied, block appears. If you move manually blocked contact, email and move it to another folder blocked symbol is removed. The block must reblocked. That's a waste. it doesn’t appear in privacy & security under blocked contacts..

its still broken.

gratefulfloors1 wrote:

And speaking of this, it would be useful if there was some way to unblock multiple numbers and emails simultaneously. As opposed to one at a time

That sounds like a good suggestion to make to Apple:

Product Feedback - Apple

This is happening in ios 26.5.2 to me as well. It may be time to switch to Android. Why limit the number of blocked contacts? If by design, at least explain why. Or implement a rolling delete of oldest entries first as new blocks are added.

i’ve only 7158 blocked contacts. But I’m not allowed to add any new blocks. Nor do I get any warning.

Manually blocking thousands of numbers is largely ineffective in preventing spam and scam calls. The vast majority come from randomly generated spoofed numbers that will never be used again.

Delete the blocked numbers and use call screening instead. it's much more effective when it comes to actually preventing spam calls from getting through.

Portomomo wrote:

Have the same problem. Not even close to 3000 blocked entries.

You are posting on a thread of nearly 5 months ago specifically related to iOS 26.4. I would recommend creating a new post with your device/iOS details and provide a screenshot of what you are seeing when blocking and the number of blocked contacts showing. That way support is tailored to you specifically instead of going sideways for a number of other topics.