Blocked Contacts Limit Reached

Ever since I upgraded my 17 Pro Max to 26.1 I have not been able to block even one number, while my wife who purchased same time has no issues & its driving me batty. I had hoped the follow up upgrade 26.2 would work and it did not. Now I just updated to 26.6 and I finally get a reason why, I have reached my limit of blocked contacts & it sent me to go delete some. I also searched online and it mentioned 20,000 or even 8,000 blocked will have issues, I only have 3,282 blocked contacts.

Sadly I can only do it one at a time, which stinks. I have unblocked 10 to see if I can any of the new spam calls blocked and it did not work, so I have to delete many more of them one at a time. Does anyone have an idea of how many are acceptable to start blocking again?

[Edited by Moderator]

iPhone 17 Pro Max

Posted on Aug 3, 2026 11:07 AM

Top-ranking reply

Mac Jim ID

Community+ 2026

Level 10

104,860 points

Posted on Aug 3, 2026 2:43 PM

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.

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68 replies

Sep 18, 2026 11:24 AM in response to MZM_FL

MZM_FL wrote:

Since I saw this post, I decided to try to delete my blocked contacts because I have received that message before. And then, instead of saving the blocked contact, I’ve just been deleting them all. But that probably doesn’t help at all. I would like to check if there’s a way to delete blocked contacts without re-adding them to your contacts before deleting??

If you delete numbers from the blocked list, they are no longer blocked.

buberly

Level 1

8 points

Sep 28, 2026 3:28 PM in response to lobsterghost1

Who cares about your teachings? I'm only interested in removing blocked contacts, which is impossible except one by one, which is ridiculous. Also, the number allowed was suddenly arrogantly decreased by Apple, as now I have to suddenly remove a thousand or more.

Katana-San

Level 10

123,061 points

Oct 26, 2026 10:27 AM in response to LoveMostlyHateAppleAfterJobs

LoveMostlyHateAppleAfterJobs wrote:

Regarding every change in Apple User Interface updates: 🤬

[Rhetorical] Why do they keep making it worse with each new release!?

Hello~ That would seem to me a matter of opinion…

~Katana-San~

Oct 26, 2026 11:37 AM in response to LoveMostlyHateAppleAfterJobs

LoveMostlyHateAppleAfterJobs wrote:

Regarding every change in Apple User Interface updates: 🤬

[Rhetorical] Why do they keep making it worse with each new release!?

That has certainly not been my experience. In this case, making the limit explicit is an improvement. Before, even though the limit existed, it was not clear, and people kept blithely hitting the block button, unaware that things weren't getting blocked. No real harm in most cases as blocking spammers is an exercise in futility. But, if suddenly, someone needed to block a stalker, it could have been a problem.

Aug 3, 2026 4:46 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

Because I am bombarded by these calls,

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

[Edited by Moderator]

Aug 3, 2026 2:03 PM in response to lobsterghost1

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

Pmdarby

Level 1

14 points

Aug 9, 2026 6:26 PM in response to Chris Winkler1

Why is there a limit? This needs to be addressed and changed immediately!

Aug 13, 2026 12:39 PM in response to Chris Winkler1

My contact list was blocked after Apple sent me an upgrade. It’s another software bug that Apple.com is becoming famous for. **** sad. Time to switch phone manufacturers.