User level: Level 1 (4 points)I've had a notification saying my blocked list has exceeded its limit amount. I don't want to unblock everyone so how am I supposed to clear it so I can add more without unblocking the existing ones?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: Blocking issue
Posted on Oct 16, 2026 2:55 AM
User level: Level 9 (55,707 points)Oct 16, 2026 3:48 AM in response to amy-lee273
What you are asking isn't possible. You cannot block more individual contacts than the limit allows. There is no magic incantation that will let you unblock a contact and block it at the same time.
My understanding is that there was always a limit on the number of blocks that phone would actually enforce. If you exceeded the limit, the phone would let you keep adding contacts, but would simply fail to tell you that it was not blocking all of the contacts you thought were being blocked.
What's new is that
If you are adding blocks each time that you get a new spam or scam call, that is a losing game of Whack-a-Mole. Scammers and spammers routinely use fake calling ID information and change the real, or apparent numbers, that they are calling from just to get around blocks like yours. (Sometimes a particular spammer will keep calling from the same number that can be blocked, but that is the exception to the rule.)
It makes more sense to do something like having the phone ask unknown callers the reason for calling. (When you use that setting, and someone who isn't in your contacts list cals, the phone doesn't ring. If the caller fails to leave a message - and most scammers and spammers don't – you get an entry in your Recents list and nothing more.)
Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256377132