Blocked Contacts Limit Reached

Why do you have so many numbers blocked? Spam calls and texts are sent from spoofed numbers that are rotated regularly. Blocking them has essentially no effect. Blocking is useful if you are getting calls or texts from a real number (e.g., an annoying ex, brother-in-law who wants to borrow money, college acquaintance you're really rather not be back in touch with). If you have more than 3000 of those, well, I don't know what to tell you.

That said, a number of people have reported that Apple Support has told them that the limit is now 3,000.

Chris Winkler1 wrote:

There were only 9 contacts & 1400 unknown in Mail blocked, and it did not touch the 18 contacts and 3,151 phone blocked. I deleted 1 of the known contact in mail, and it did not delete in phone blocked contacts.

Is there any other way to get them off the phone besides 1 @ a time?

On your phone, no. If you have a Mac that uses the same Apple Account, you can bulk delete blocked contacts there and they will sync to your phone. Blocked contacts are linked to your Apple Account, not to any specific device or number.

If you would like to send Apple a feature request for bulk deletion on the iPhone, like what is available on the Mac, you can do that here. It could be a Clear All button or an Edit button where you can select multiple contacts to delete at once.

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

Chris Winkler1 wrote:

How do I sync between phone & Mac? I don't use my phone for mail, just for calls and the contacts are synced.

On your Mac, open the Mail app and go to Mail > Settings > Junk Mail > Blocked. Everything is listed there including the phone numbers and email addresses you have blocked on your phone and as long as the same Apple Account is used on both devices, anything you delete from that list will also delete from your phone. Bulk deleting is done by selecting the first one you want to delete, the Command - Click the last number to select the range to be deleted. Just press the "-" button or the Delete key, and they will also be removed on your phone.

dannakari wrote:

I’ve eliminated 800 blocked numbers, but I still can’t add a spam number. It always says I’ve reached capacity.

You have to get below 3000 to add any more blocked contacts. Please read the thread. If you do, you'll find out that blocking Spam numbers is a total, utter, complete waste of time.

deejme wrote:

lobsterghost1 & IdrisSeabright, it’s not just phone numbers, it’s emails, too—which adds up to THOUSANDS easily. And fyi, the only two options on iPhone are 1. Block and 2. Report Spam & Block—if there was a way to ONLY report spam, we would do that, but those of us who have reached our limit, selecting Report Spam & Block gives us the same notice of reaching our blocked limit so who knows if it’s actually being reported for spam? If there was a way to easily delete in bulk on iPhone, that would be ideal for those of us who do not have a Mac. LONG before we knew that it was useless to block a phone number or email (and we were getting dozens of spam a day), we were told to block (that’s why it’s even an option), so we blocked people, and it adds up quickly over years.

So, unless there’s a way to bulk remove blocked contacts on iPhone, deleting one by one to remove thousands is not gonna happen, and like Chris Winkler1, I have no idea what my limit is I’ve reached because I deleted 20+ so far and I still can’t block somebody I want to. IMO, there shouldn’t even be a limit to blocking if we want to, to help keep down the spam and deter them from trying.

No one is being condescending to you or anyone else. I honestly don't appreciate the insinuation. Clearly moderation didn't like it either as it's been removed. We're simply explaining the folly of blocking spam calls. I once thought it was what to do, but once I learned it's totally a waste of time, I not only stopped doing it, I deleted ALL of my blocked numbers.

I don't block emails on my iPhone. I block them on my computer using the email providers blocking options. Honestly, blocking spam email messages is for the most part completely useless too. Spammers spoof phone numbers and email addresses just as easily.

I'm sorry you're not happy with how this came to be. But we users only, on this user to user only forum had nothing to do with this. And while Apple has not publicly suggested the maximum number you can have, we've come to see it is 3000. Until you get below 3000, you won't be able to block more. Again, if you're blocking spam numbers, you're wasting your time.

If you have a Mac, you can delete blocked numbers and emails in multiples or all. Thats what I did.

Otherwise, instead of telling us what Apple should do, which gets you nothing, tell Apple what you want using this link --> Product Feedback - Apple

They capped it at 3000. I have over 4k blocked numbers so anything over 3 k is removed one at a time. Apple support shut me up last month with a promise it would be fixed with the next update. Well they lied again. It doesn’t affect them so I guess it’s not a high priority. Meanwhile thousands dont have the ability to block new numbers . The further we advance the worse it gets

On an iPhone, blocked phone numbers have to be removed one at a time. There is currently no option to select multiple blocked numbers and unblock or delete them in bulk.

On a Mac, however, you can manage your blocked contacts more efficiently and remove multiple blocked numbers at once. This makes the Mac a much more convenient option if you have a long list of blocked numbers to clean up.

So, if you need to remove several blocked numbers, it is considerably quicker to do it from your Mac rather than your iPhone. See the pic below

For blocked email addresses, however, the situation is different because blocking is usually handled by the individual email service. Simply sign in to your email account through its web browser interface—for example, Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, etc.—and open the service's Blocked addresses / Blocked senders settings. Many email services allow you to select multiple blocked addresses and remove them in bulk, which is much faster when you have a long list.

So, for a large number of blocked email IDs, it is usually best to manage them through the email provider's websiterather than through the Mail app on your iPhone or Mac.

Kanepa wrote:

Blocked contacts limit reached. I have deleted many numbers and it still says full

The limit appears to be 3000 so you need to delete enough to go below that.

Why do you think that the limit was decreased? Previously you were still able add a contact to the list, but it did not work to block any contact above the limit. This was verified through many support posts right here on this site. Most users had no idea, because spammers are just spoofing the numbers and you would not even get another call from that same number again anyway. Combine that with the misinformation from AI results that claim the limit is a variety of numbers, simply because the data is trained on Reddit posts and others that simply say how many blocked contacts they have, no knowing theirs were not working beyond the limit either. This bug was fixed, so now you see the message saying you cannot add another contact.

The teachings by lobsterghost explained the reason why blocking spam callers is not effective, and by following that direction you would not end up with thousands of blocked contacts. The only real purpose for blocking a contact is for a friend, family, or known number where you want to temporarily or permanently block that communication. If you have several thousands of those, then there is something else going on for you needing to block that many contacts.

As for bulk deleting that has only been an option on the Mac, where it would then sync to your iPhone. There has never been a bulk delete option on the iPhone, so those wanting to submit a Feature Request to Apple so the iPhone has the same feature of the Mac, they were given the Feedback link. You can do that too.

IdrisSeabright is 100% correct. Blocking spam calls is a waste of time and completely ineffectual. Spam calls are spoofed numbers and they change every time they call. What hasn't changed is YOUR number, so these calls just keep rolling in. But trying to block them won't reduce their frequency. I don't block them. I delete them and report them as Spam, which doesn't add to your blocked caller list.

That said, if you own a Mac, you can remove blocked callers in one fell swoop, by opening the Mail App > Settings > Junk > Blocked Contacts and use command A to clear the list.

Chris Winkler1 wrote:

Because I am bombarded by these calls, Bro.

Sister, everyone is bombarded by spam calls. It's one of the great annoyances of modern life. Start by checking to see if your carrier has a spam filtering app. Mine (Verizon) does. It has both a free and a paid tier. Second, use Settings>Apps>Phone>Screen Unknown Callers to mitgate the problem. I've found that "Ask Reason for Calling" does a pretty good job. Also, Settings>Apps>Phone>Call Filtering>Unknown Callers>On.

How am I suppose to know what is a real number or not?

If it's a spam call, it's not a real number.

Chris Winkler1 wrote:

I have two lines, one for personal and an eSim for business that does not get a lot of calls and I sure do not want that to screen unknown callers that might affect any business calls. What is the workaround for the eSim?

That's where the option to have the person give the reason for the call is useful. It won't screen out humans who need to speak to you, but it will get most of the robo calls (occasionally, they sneak through). As far as I know, the screening is done on a device basis but I don't have a second number so I can't test that.

Chris Winkler1 wrote:

There were only 9 contacts & 1400 unknown in Mail blocked, and it did not touch the 18 contacts and 3,151 phone blocked. I deleted 1 of the known contact in mail, and it did not delete in phone blocked contacts.

Is there any other way to get them off the phone besides 1 @ a time?

Nope. One at a time is the current method directly on your iPhone. To tell Apple you'd like a better way, you can provide feedback to Apple here --> Feedback - iPhone - Apple