Apple makes it pretty easy to block people on your iPhone from calling or texting. But when it comes to Mail, things aren’t as simple. If you use the Mail app on your Mac and continue to receive unwanted emails, it’s not a quick push of a button to block those senders. However, there is a fast workaround.
Here’s how to block an email address in Mac Mail with a delete rule, so you never have to see those messages again.
Block an email on Mac by automatically deleting it
In order to “block” an email sender in Mail on Mac, you’ll actually have to set up a rule to delete those messages. This will automatically delete unwanted emails before you see them in your inbox.
1) Click Mail > Preferences from the menu bar.
2) Select the Rules tab and click Add Rule.
3) Give your rule a name.
4) Select the condition type for the rule in the If section beginning with the Any or All drop-down box. This selection is for if you are setting up more than one condition and either want any condition to apply or all of them.
5) Choose your conditions. Select From in the first drop-down box, contains in the second, and then enter the email address you want to block in the third.
Tip: If you have an email selected from the recipient you want to block when you open these settings, their email address will pop in automatically.
If you would like to set up more than one condition, click the plus sign and then add the details for the second one. Remember, some businesses use more than one email address, so you may need to add others here.
6) Next you’ll pick your action. Select Delete Message from the drop-down box.
7) When you finish, click OK.
8) You’ll then be asked if you want to apply your new rule to the messages in your inbox currently. So, select either Don’t Apply or Apply, per your preference.
If you choose Don’t Apply, you can still go to your inbox and apply the rule. Select the emails you want to run the rule for, either right-click or choose Message from the menu bar and select Apply Rules.
Rules will apply to emails in the order which you have them. So, if you need to, you can reorder your rules by selecting and dragging them to different positions in the list.
If your rule does not appear to work, note Apple’s statement on rules as it may apply to you:
Mail stops applying rules to a message when it encounters the Stop Evaluating Rules action, or when a message is transferred to another mailbox by rules used on a mail server or computer or device synced to your computer.
Wrapping it up
Although there isn’t a button to push to stop receiving emails from certain senders, there is a workaround that actually works well to delete those messages automatically.
Are you going to use this trick to block an email address in Mac Mail? Let us know!
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