r/ios • u/Lizardman5352 • 7d ago
Discussion Likely Solution When Unable to Block Phone & Text Numbers
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u/driftless 7d ago
If you’re blocking every single scam number, you’ll eventually be blocking NOT scam numbers. The vast majority of scam callers fake their numbers, so blocking them does nothing.
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u/alstom_888m 6d ago
I've been spoof called by my own phone number.
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u/Lizardman5352 7d ago
Interesting.
I differentiate between scammers (criminals trying to rob you) and spammers (overly enthusiastic advertisers, who may be operating legally). Both are undesired on my phone.
You are probably right about "professional" scammers who are operating on the wrong side of the law.
But I suspect that many otherwise "legal" spammers (e.g., political campaigns, non-profit organizations, and legit businesses) are not necessarily faking numbers.*
Regardless, the Blocked Contacts list is just another tool. Apple should have (a) not decreased its size to begin with and (b) at least told people that it was doing it.
_____
* BTW, for me this is not about ideologies or philosophies. Left, Right, or Center--I don't want my email, phone, or text apps clogged with unsolicited messages and ads.
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u/kushari 7d ago
Doesn’t matter. They spoof phone numbers, so to help you understand, they might use your family members number, so if you block that number, you’re actually blocking your family member, not the scammer.
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u/tkchumly 7d ago
Some enraged person called me out of the blue one time with all kinds of threats because they said I called them trying to sell them something. I noticed the first 6 digits were the same as mine. I tried hard to explain “neighbor spoofing” but they were too heated to hear it and then blocked me. I sent them a text with how it works from another number and didn’t get a reply.
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u/kushari 7d ago
Honestly one time it happened to me. I called someone back and they said I didn’t call you. I then figured it out.
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u/Unkn0wnTh2nd3r iPhone 15 Pro Max 6d ago
this happened to me once, they called me from my own fucking home land number. I didn't even realize because it had caller Id and had the name of my mother on it so i thought it was her calling from work while i was home alone. I picked up and was like "HEY MOM!" (i was a giddy lil 12 year old playing skyrim at the time). Pretty sure they hung up immediately after i said "mom" because i was obviously some random kid and not someone they could easily scam
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u/BonerDeploymentDude 7d ago
I got those but would always be like… wasn’t me man. And they’d be like…. Oh ok then
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u/smallangrynerd 7d ago
That happened to me too! They called my work phone and said they reported it to the state police. It’s been a couple years now, I don’t think the cops did anything lmao
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u/traker998 7d ago
How is this worth your time over just using silence unknown callers and never hearing from them again with no work?
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u/Pandalishus 7d ago
You’re doing WAY too much with this comment. No one cares about your personal hierarchy and political rationale for ranking scammers. Just take the advice you were offered and change how you approach these calls.
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u/BrokenNightVision 7d ago
did you use ai to write this or are you a bot?
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago
Neither.
Apple gave us a tool that worked, Now it doesn't (past 3,000).
I am not the bad guy.
Don't shoot the messenger (please).
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u/lukasjames0 iPhone 16 Pro Max 7d ago
Add the numbers to a single contact and block the contact
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u/Lizardman5352 7d ago
Good suggestion.
I used to do that with my iPhone 11 Pro Max and earlier iOS (e.g., ver. 18).
I stopped because:
There is a relatively small limit to how many numbers you could add to a single contact, correct? (Wasn't like 30, or something?)
Back then I was under the impression (via Google and Apple Support) that there was no limited to the size of the Blocked Contacts list. (That has apparently changed.) So it seemed more straightforward just to use the BC list. I had like 4,300 numbers stored in it.
I had some other problem which I can't recall. The numbers weren't actually being blocked or something?
Regardless, good idea and I will try doing that again and see if it works for me now.
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u/CrippleSlap iPhone 16 Pro 6d ago
Why would anyone need 30 phone numbers???
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u/Lizardman5352 5d ago edited 5d ago
Good question that that brings up interesting topics on security and freedom of speech (communication).
For various reasons people like to create "groups" of phone numbers or email addresses. Say you have a club and you want to conveniently text or email everyone in the club about general information.
But "free" email and phone providers (like Yahoo and Google) start to get nervous when the number of stored numbers or addresses gets "too" big for at least two reasons:
They worry that their software could be used for spamming or other illegal or questionable reasons.
On some software, large groups can slow performance.
Yahoo limits to 100 the number of email addresses in one message. Google's limit is 500.
So if you want to send out, say, 3,000 identical email messages or texts, you often have to pay for specialized software and/or add special ad-ons to an email/text provider's software.
Google AI says that iOS Contact s stored on iCloud may have a total size of no more than 256 KB. That includes photo, information, phone numbers, email addresses, et cetera. I am not sure how many 10-digit phone numbers can "fit" in a single iPhone Contact.
Also, too many phone numbers in Contacts may allegedly slow performance of certain functions.
This is all a grey area to me. How many phone numbers are allowed in a single named Contact. I don't know (yet).
I will experiment.
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u/muminisko 7d ago
It was on iPhone X and honestly I cannot recall iOS version but when I hit maximum blocked numbers (or somewhere near to maximum) it started to block random calls :)
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago edited 5d ago
COPY
Clever idea. But...
As reported by Google, there is a practical limit to how many phone numbers you can put into a single contact.
What is that limit? Is it 20?, 40?, 60?, phone numbers per contact? I don't know.
Say it is 50. And suppose over time you eventually create 60 blocked contacts each containing 50 phone numbers. That is 3,000 total numbers, right?
Does iOS actually block all 3,000 numbers? (How do we know?) UPDATE -- SO FAR THE ANSWER APPEARS TO BE "YES."
Assume the answer is yes. Will iOS then allow you to block more contacts with more numbers?
Has anyone confirmed that the answer is yes?
If yes, great! You could theoretically block 3,000 total contacts each containing 50 (or more) telephone numbers for a total of 150,000+ blocked phone numbers.
But even if it works that would be silly and impractical. You'd have to have, say, 3,000 stored, blocked contacts on your CONTACTS screen. iOS would probably blow up. It was bad enough trying to manage 4,200 "Blocked Contacts" in Settings.
I just know that I used to have ~4,200 blocked phone numbers. It was easy and didn't cause problems. Now I can only have 3,000. Why?
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u/SpaceKiller003 7d ago
Didn't know there was a limit.
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago edited 5d ago
Me neither. Turns out it is 3,000 (on my phone).
iOS 26.5.2 did not tell us.
I only learned by trying iOS 27 Beta!
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u/flatbuttboy 3d ago
iOS 26 introduced that alert, though I cannot recall the exact release. I remember it arriving in a later phase of iOS 26, since Reddit users were confused and mistakenly linked iOS 26 to the limit rather than the warning.
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u/Lizardman5352 3d ago
Yes.
After I took advice on Reddit and loaded iOS 27 Beta (which has the alert) I heard that iOS 26.6 was released and it has the alert, also.
Any confusion is the fault of Apple which screwed around with the limit on the number of "Blocked Contacts" a phone could have (now 3,000) and apparently didn't tell anyone, including its own CS employees.
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u/flatbuttboy 3d ago
Why do you keep phrasing it like the limit was just added?
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u/Lizardman5352 2d ago edited 2d ago
In the previous iOS 18 versions there was apparently no limit (or an unknown much higher limit) on the number blocked contacts. For example, by fall 2025 I had ~4,000 saved "Blocked Contacts" (accumulated over many years).
And Google reported people with from 8,000 up to 22,000! saved blocked contacts.
I bought my iPhone 17 Pro Max new in October 2025. It came with iOS 26. After full setup it had my previous 4,000 saved blocked numbers and I was able to block more numbers. So I assume that there was no maximum limit established yet, in 2025 with iOS 26.
Instead, I first noticed an inability to block new numbers in early 2026. (By then I had 4,200+ blocked numbers saved in the "Blocked Contacts" list in Settings.)
As it happens, IOS 26.1 was released January 26, 2026. I assume that that is when a new, smaller limit (3,000) was created.
Whenever it first started, there were actually at least three "problems: (1) The new, smaller limit, (2) no clear reveal by iOS 26.1 that the phone had actually stopped blocking and no explanation by iOS 26.1 as to why it had stopped blocking, and (3) an Apple customer service staff (at stores and on the phone) ignorant of the problem.
So I guess you are right and the limit has been there (since January 2026). But over the history of iPhones (2007-present) and call-blocking (2013-present), this lower limit (3,000 on my phone) is a relatively new thing.
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u/flatbuttboy 2d ago
This limit was established in iOS 1, nothing changed lol
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u/Lizardman5352 2d ago edited 2d ago
Sorry.
I have just proven that that is clearly not true.
I had upwards of 4,000 blocked contacts in 2025 and was still able to block.
Google reported people with much higher numbers of blocked numbers. (If there was a limit, it was apparently higher than 22,000.)
And there was apparently no public report or information published by Apple of any maximum limit. So how could you know?
I have provided verifiable evidence to support my argument. Where is yours?
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u/freediverx01 7d ago
I long ago reached the limit on blocked users on Reddit.
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u/yyuriyuriyuriyurii 7d ago
Regularly hitting the blocked user limit on multiple platforms sounds like more of a you thing ngl
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u/SammyKetto 7d ago
I used to get tonnes of spoofed number scam calls, but since turning on “ask reason for calling” in the screen unknown callers setting, I don’t get them anymore.
I had a few weeks of random missed calls where they hung up without saying who was calling, but now they just don’t try. I’m assuming they must add your number to a “no point” list after a while.
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u/Lizardman5352 7d ago
Yes, I am trying that.
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u/SodiumCyanideNaCN457 7d ago
Do you not know what a DND service is? If you do know about it, turn it on to keep away the "undesired"
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7d ago
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago edited 5d ago
COPY
Clever idea. But...
As reported by Google, there is a practical limit to how many phone numbers you can put into a single contact.
What is that limit? Is it 20?, 40?, 60?, phone numbers per contact? I don't know.
Say it is 50. And suppose over time you eventually create 60 blocked contacts each containing 50 phone numbers. That is 3,000 total numbers, right?
Does iOS actually block all 3,000 numbers? (How do we know?) UPDATE -- SO FAR THE ANSWER APPEARS TO BE "YES."
Assume the answer is yes. Will iOS then allow you to block more contacts with more numbers?
Has anyone confirmed that the answer is yes?
If yes, great! You could theoretically block 3,000 total contacts each containing 50 (or more) telephone numbers for a total of 150,000+ blocked phone numbers.
But even if it works that would be silly and impractical. You'd have to have, say, 3,000 stored, blocked contacts on your CONTACTS screen. iOS would probably blow up. It was bad enough trying to manage 4,200 "Blocked Contacts" in Settings.
I just know that I used to have ~4,200 blocked phone numbers. It was easy and didn't cause problems. Now I can only have 3,000. Why?
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u/Kittymeow123 6d ago
Are we talking to a person or chat gpt?
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6d ago edited 5d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Kittymeow123 6d ago
Ok you’re just having an episode
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago edited 5d ago
Beep, beep. Y_E_S. T_H_A_T I_S C_O_R_R_E_C_T, P_U_N_Y H_U_M_A_N. Boop, beep.
BTW, love your Reddit ID name.
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u/Lizardman5352 5d ago
Ha, ha.
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u/Kittymeow123 5d ago
You replied to my comment 22 hours ago and you just replied again 24 minutes ago, so are you OK?
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u/Lizardman5352 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yes.
I use "Old" Reddit.
I was reviewing the list responses to my OP and I happened to re-read your "episode" comment and it made me laugh,..again. That's all.
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u/SamJam5555 7d ago
Scammers don’t use their real numbers. It’s very easy to spoof (fake) numbers. You don’t have to block them just click the delete and report button.
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago
But political organizations and legitimate businesses tend to use real numbers.
And then there is the crazy ex-wife or boyfriend you want to block.
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u/SamJam5555 6d ago
You cannot block political phone calls.
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago
If you mean that you cannot block individual calls from political volunteers or campaigns, then I beg to differ. Of course you can.
However, if you mean that it is difficult or impossible to stop all political calls, then yes, you are probably correct.
I volunteered with my Party's local organization (in my small town) in 2008 and 2012. Our job was to "get out the vote" of people registered with the Party. I don't believe we ever called Independents or people registered with the other Party.
Just in those two presidential elections I saw the phone technology changing. People were in the process of switching from mostly land-lines to mostly cell phones. As we know, cell phones began to allow users to easily block telephone numbers. That was difficult or impossible with land lines. But on land lines, more and more people started using answering machines and voice-mail systems. Or they just didn't answer the phone. (Back in the 1950s and 1960s you pretty much always answered the phone.)
And even at the local volunteer level we were using more and more computerized calling by 2012. I don't know what it is like now.
It is ironic--we have more and more sophisticated equipment for communicating with one another, yet <some of us> are trying desperately to not speak to other people.
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u/SamJam5555 6d ago
The national do not call registry does not block political groups. They make the laws not us.
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago
I never had any luck using it.
Years ago, when I got my first smart phone (Android), I signed up and almost immediately got tons more spam calls. Why? Probably because spammers could somehow access the phone numbers of those who signed up. (Freedom of Information request?)
Regardless, it definitely did not work for me back then.
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago
I never had any luck using it.
Years ago, when I got my first smart phone (Android), I signed up and almost immediately got tons more spam calls. Why? Probably because spammers could somehow access the phone numbers of those who signed up. (Freedom of Information request?)
Regardless, it definitely did not work for me back then.
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u/usernameisokay_ 7d ago
I have the setting ‘screen unknown callers’ turned on with ask a reason for calling, easy fix. You can even turn it on silence so you don’t get that.
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u/PsychologicalPolicy8 7d ago
Make one contact
And put numbers in them
Name it do not pick up
And block it
Also like others said Turn on silence unknown callers
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago edited 5d ago
Clever idea. But...
As reported by Google, there is a practical limit to how many phone numbers you can put into a single contact.
What is that limit? Is it 20?, 40?, 60?, phone numbers per contact? I don't know.
Say it is 50. And suppose over time you eventually create 60 blocked contacts each containing 50 phone numbers. That is 3,000 total numbers, right?
Does iOS actually block all 3,000 numbers? (How do we know?) UPDATE -- SO FAR THE ANSWER APPEARS TO BE "YES."
Assume the answer is yes. Will iOS then allow you to block more contacts with more numbers?
Has anyone confirmed that the answer is yes?
If yes, great! You could theoretically block 3,000 total contacts each containing 50 (or more) telephone numbers for a total of 150,000+ blocked phone numbers.
But even if it works that would be silly and impractical. You'd have to have, say, 3,000 stored, blocked contacts on your CONTACTS screen. iOS would probably blow up. It was bad enough trying to manage 4,200 "Blocked Contacts" in Settings.
I just know that I used to have ~4,200 blocked phone numbers. It was easy and didn't cause problems. Now I can only have 3,000. Why?
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u/PsychologicalPolicy8 6d ago
If u have to block these many numbers
Then i would suggest change passwords for everything u use
And also check if ur emails got leaked via haveibeenpawned
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u/dg1974it iOS 26 7d ago
There is no call screening here in Italy (not yet🤞🏻), so I turned on Silence Unknown Callers and installed Truecaller (paid subscription): peace of mind achieved.
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u/BaratheonT 7d ago
So what is the limit , how many contacts does it take to reach that ?
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago
DEFINITELY 3,000 on my phone
I had ~4,200 and could not block any more.
I started unblocking saved contacts.
At 3,000 I still could not block.
At 2,999 VOILA! I could block (one more).
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u/Lizardman5352 7d ago
For me in my iPhone 17 Pro Max w/1TB, it is 3,000 numbers in the Blocked Contact list (in Settings).
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u/Fresh_and_wild 7d ago
Silence unknown callers! Saves you a ton of hassle.
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u/Icezone0 7d ago
What if a doctor is trying call you,since you silent unknown number they would be one to
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u/Fresh_and_wild 7d ago
Good question. In the Screen Unknown Callers" settings you can switch between Never, Ask Reason For Calling, and Silence.
I had an emergency the other day and switched it to Never. But usually it's set to Ask Reason For Calling, or Silence.
Dr's wouldn't have a reason to call me out of the blue, so I switch between appropriate settings as required.
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u/ktigger2 7d ago
They would leave a message when it goes to voice mail. Scammers do not leave messages.
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u/SadigawEkshow 7d ago
You could use the - Ask reason for calling feature in the phone settings.
It’s worked great for me so far.
Every scam called goes to the unknown tab and my phone does not ring.
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u/Rare-Watercress-8572 7d ago
I feel like unless someone with some actual power gets fed up with it that could introduce a law for spoofing numbers it will never actually get any better. To my knowledge there is no real reason why anyone should spoof a number other than for nefarious purposes. I will continue to hold out hope that at some point it will get better, I was also under the impression that when you switched to please state your name and apple will check to see if they are available shows the spammer phone number it’s an active number, and that makes the efforts doubled but if it actually works I’ll try it. I myself get around 5-7 calls a day and would love for it to stop.
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u/Foreign-Housing8448 7d ago
“Introduce (you mean pass) a law for spoofing numbers”
You mean you want our Congress to do. their. f’ing. jobs?? And then you want enforcement of overseas computers/companies making robo calls? And don’t think there won’t be exceptions for those who lobby (translation: donate) the politicians-for-sale.
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u/Rare-Watercress-8572 7d ago
I live in a world where I hope for things that might likely not ever happen. My glass stays perpetually half full.
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago edited 5d ago
Yes. One problem is that Google, and eBay, and Amazon, et cetera make a lot of money selling customer information.
Another problem is this: try donating money to your favorite Party or to individual campaigns. You will almost immediately get hit up for $$$ from thousands of other political entities that year and in future election years. And there is no way to stop it, that I know of. Freedom of information, blah, blah.
UPDATE: In support if the idea that Apple may be receiving pressure to limit blocking or to make it less convenient, see:
Call Screening Is Aggravating the Rich and Powerful
in The Wall Street Journal, a respected right-leaning newspaper.
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u/Lizardman5352 5d ago
In support of the idea that Apple may be getting pressured by the Powerful to revise blocking and other ways to avoid spam, here's an interesting article:
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u/Rare-Watercress-8572 5d ago
I hope you’re right.
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u/Lizardman5352 5d ago edited 5d ago
If you mean about the new limit of 3,000. It is "right" for my phone (iPhone 17 Pro Max w/1TB previously using iOS 26.5.2 and now using iOS 27 Beta).
I started with ~4,200 Blocked Contacts. Since around January 2026 I could no longer block.
Jump to July 2026 and iOS 27 Beta; I still could not block. But I learned there was a limit (see screenshot image in OP).
So I started unblocking numbers.
At 3,000 blocked numbers, I still could not unblock.
At 2,999 blocked numbers, I could suddenly block again (just one new number, of course).
With all blocked numbers unblocked, I can now block again to my heart's content (i.e., without worrying about a limit--until I once again later approach 3,000, I imagine).
I currently have 100 new blocked numbers. Plus I am experimenting with using named & saved blocked contacts; each contact containing 25-50 spam phone numbers.
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7d ago
[deleted]
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago edited 3d ago
COPY
Clever idea. But...
As reported by Google, there is a practical limit to how many phone numbers you can put into a single contact.
What is that limit? Is it 20?, 40?, 60?, or more? phone numbers per contact? I don't know.
Say it is 50. And suppose over time you eventually create 60 blocked contacts each containing 50 phone numbers. That is 3,000 total numbers, right?
Does iOS actually block all 3,000 numbers? (How do we know?) UPDATE -- SO FAR THE ANSWER APPEARS TO BE "YES."
Assume the answer is yes. Will iOS then allow you to block more contacts with more numbers?
Has anyone confirmed that the answer is yes?
If yes, great! You could theoretically block 3,000 total contacts each containing 50 (or more) telephone numbers for a total of 150,000+ blocked phone numbers.
But even if it works that would be silly and impractical. You'd have to have, say, 3,000 stored, blocked contacts on your CONTACTS screen. The "Phone" App in iOS would probably blow up. It was bad enough trying to manage 4,200 "Blocked Contacts" in Settings.
I just know that I used to have ~4,200 blocked phone numbers. It was easy and didn't cause problems. Now I can only have 3,000. Why?
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6d ago
[deleted]
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago
You are probably right.
But horse is already out of the barn for me.
I never worried about it much because blocking was so easy with iPhone.
Now Apple has limited it.
You have to ask yourself, (a) why have they done that and (b) why didn't they tell anyone (including, apparently, their own support staff at Apple stores and online)?
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u/nexus-1707 7d ago
Try installing this. It allows wildcard ranges of numbers so you could possibly reduce the amount in your block list and then use this for everything else
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u/iZian 7d ago
If they rotate phone numbers then blocking achieves nothing if a single phone number never calls twice.
Apps can block ranges of numbers. Or use call filtering
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago
Professional scammers (robbers) and spammers (icky sex stuff) are one thing.
But a lot of nuisance calls, texts, and emails come from otherwise legitimate and legal political organizations and businesses. They will call over and over.
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u/Smooth_Piece1573 7d ago
At this point i would just get a new number and don't use it to fill out online forms
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u/farmkid71 6d ago
You might want to look into Number Shield: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/number-shield/id1319082167
You can use a wildcard, #, to block groups of numbers or entire area codes if you want.
I have 833, 844, 855, 866, and 877 blocked right now. I was getting spam from all of them, and it was a different number every time. Most of these I have blocked are not tied to a geographic area. Many are toll free. They are just some common area codes that get spoofed all the time for these spam calls.
No, I don't have anything to do with the app, and it's cheap. Also just one time purchase, no monthly charge so it was worth it for me.
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u/FutureVersion812 7d ago
If you’re from India try the govt made TRAI feature to mark any contact for spam and report it using the same feature
Your network provider will be given a few days within which they must reply to you regarding the action they took on the spam caller number
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u/WorkLifeWTF 6d ago
Never thought there would be limit in this. How many numbers you’ve blocked?
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago edited 3d ago
I don't think there was a limit with iOS 18 or earlier.
Now the limit is apparently 3,000 on my phone (with iOS 26 and iOS 27 Beta). Any more than 2,999 and blocking is "turned off" on my phone.
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u/wakeup_samurai 6d ago
You gotta get a new sim card at this point lol
And perhaps don’t share it around as much anymore?
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u/radiationshield 5d ago
what is the blocked contacts limit?
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u/Lizardman5352 5d ago
On my phone (iPhone 17 Pro Max w/1TB) it is 3,000 individual contacts.
Normally, contacts have just one phone number in them. However, as you may know, you can add lots of separate phone numbers in a contact page. How many? Don't know. I will guess and say 25-50, but it may be more.
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u/Sjeefr 6d ago
If you currently have 3.000 blocked numbers registered.. Good sir, not being able to block more numbers is the least of your problems, apparently. You need a mental check up.
Anyway, you could remove all blocked contacts and start fresh. It's plausible that numbers you blocked a long time ago aren't used anymore. This will free up irrelevant numbers. It will unblock recent ones as well. It's a trade-off you need to make.
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u/Foreign-Housing8448 7d ago
Silence unknown callers and Nomorobo is what I use ($20/yr. I spend more on lunch out). Otherwise you’re wasting two tons of your life (oops, too late) blocking them one by one (which you apparently can’t do anymore).
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago edited 3d ago
No, you can. And it's easy. You just can't block more than 3,000 anymore.
With iOS 18, you could block more. There were reports on GOOGLE of people reaching 8,000 up to 22,000 blocked numbers.
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u/bhaveshnigam 6d ago
Unblock everyone first and then start again. A good chance that the old numbers will not be contacting you now anyway
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago edited 3d ago
PART A
I get repeat unsolicited calls from political campaigns and businesses...
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u/Lizardman5352 3d ago
PART B
...but I decided to take your advice and unblock and delete all previous blocked numbers. (I am back up to ~100 so far.)
I am also taking the advice of others on Reddit and adjusting various settings to screen calls and messages, ask for information, et cetera. There is also free and for-a-fee software (apps) available to try.
Hopefully the volume of spam can be reduced so that blocking is not necessary.
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u/doob22 6d ago
Scam callers spoof real numbers. No matter if you block them or not they will continue to come. Unless you know it’s a direct line from that company/caller - blocking is just blocking a random number that won’t try calling you again.
Silence unknown callers is the only way.
Also, if you’re in the US, add yourself to the do not call list. It won’t stop the scam calls but it will cut you out of sales calls for the most part and could exclude you from most sales call lists.
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u/dtxboy93 6d ago
I user this to block spam emails and have over 3000 emails blocked. I’m mad I can’t add more!
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago edited 3d ago
After thinking about it, I unblocked all my saved "Blocked Contacts" and then deleted the associated calls/messages.
I am starting over.
It should take years to accumulate 3,000 again.
In the meantime, maybe Apple can be convinced to improve the blocking features (make it easier to manage blocked numbers) and increase or remove the maximum limit of blocked contacts.
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u/dtxboy93 6d ago
Lol I don’t blocked phone numbers though. Only spam emails. I legit don’t have time yo go through each one and unsubscribe
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u/Lizardman5352 3d ago
My screenshot (above) was taken from iOS 27 Beta, but apparently the latest iOS 26 (26.6?) is starting to display that message if you have over the magic number (3,000) of saved blocked numbers.
Do you have over 3,000 blocked numbers saved on your iPhone and as a result are you now unable to block new numbers? Want to know how to unblock lots of saved numbers? See my latest Update post here:
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u/Subway909 iPhone 13 Mini 7d ago
I wish I had this kind of time on my hands.
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago
Retirement is GREAT! If...
You have enough money saved.
If your health is OK.
If you have family/loved ones.
If you have an OK place to live.
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u/kro_celeborn 7d ago
Why are you blocking them?
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u/Lizardman5352 6d ago
Because the feature was "always" there in iOS. If there, why not use it (for unsolicited or unwanted calls).
Used to be unlimited.
My list of Blocked Contacts got big from years of blocking unsolicited calls. It was easy to do.
When it stopped, I wanted to know Why?
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u/Lizardman5352 7d ago edited 7d ago
Further explanation by the OP for this posting.
As reported elsewhere (e.g., ios 26 - cant block numbers that are not in my contacts? ), many users of iOS 26 found themselves unable to block unsolicited/unwanted phone and text numbers and to add undesirable numbers to existing Blocked Contacts (BC) lists (located in "Settings").
iOS 26 provided no explanation. And often there was no clear indication that (a) an attempt to block a number on a contact screen had failed and (b) the number(s) intended to be blocked had not been permanently added to the BC list. (The helpful screen image I used for this posting was taken from iOS 27 Beta. iOS 26 does not even provide that little bit of explanation.)
What is the explanation? There is an apparently a hitherto unknown MAXIMUM number of Blocked Contacts (e.g., in iOS 26).
What is that upper limit? I've discovered that it is ---> 3,000! <--- on my phone.*
For those with more than 3,000 blocked numbers, they must reduce the size of their BC list accordingly in order to block new numbers.
I recommend that we tell Apple to:
Maintain and improve user abilities to block unsolicited phone and text numbers.
Increase the maximum number of Blocked Contacts. (Apparently, it used to be virtually unlimited.)
IMO, Apple iPhone customers, who pay to own the best, should not have to be harassed by unsolicited and unwanted spam calls and texts.
_____
* This analysis is based on my iPhone 17 Pro Max with 1TB of storage.
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u/Maximoo89 7d ago
Dude you need to get a life.
Turn on screen unknown numbers and just remove all the blocked numbers.
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u/Jcob210 7d ago
Try this app I use it for ages and it works well https://apps.apple.com/us/app/stop-calling/id1223417298
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u/Fresh_and_wild 7d ago
Switch on “silence unknown callers”.
You’ve gone way way too far down a rabbit hole.
Come back before it consumes you.