Report spam and block senders on Mac
You can report spam messages to Apple, recover messages from the Spam folder that were incorrectly marked as spam, and block specific contacts to stop receiving their messages.
Report spam messages
When you use iMessage, you can report spam messages to Apple.
Go to the Messages app
on your Mac.Do one of the following:
If you haven’t opened the message: On a trackpad, swipe left with two fingers on the message, click
, then click Delete and Report Spam.If you’ve already opened the message: A Report Spam link appears at the bottom of any message from any unknown sender. Click Report Spam, then click Delete and Report Spam.
Note: You can’t report a message after you’ve replied to it.
If you don’t see the option to report SMS, MMS or RCS spam messages forwarded from your iPhone: Contact your service provider. See the Apple Support article Wireless service provider support and features for iPhone.
If you received the message with iMessage, it’s sent to Apple with the sender’s information, and the message is permanently deleted from your Mac.
If you accidentally report and delete messages, you can recover them.
Reporting spam doesn’t prevent the sender from sending messages. To avoid receiving their messages, block the contact.
To avoid getting incoming messages from new numbers, you can screen and filter them.
Recover messages in the Spam folder
When spam is detected, it’s moved to the spam folder and doesn’t appear in your conversation list. You can check to see if messages are inadvertently marked as spam.
Go to the Messages app
on your Mac.Click
at the top of the sidebar, then click Spam.Go to the conversation that isn’t spam, then click Not Spam. You can also click Add to add them to your contacts.
The conversation moves to the conversation list, where you can send a reply. Click
, then choose Messages.
Spam filtering is on by default. To turn it on or off, click , click Manage Filtering, then select or unselect “Filter spam”.
Block messages from a specific person or phone number
When you block a specific contact or phone number, messages from that person or number aren’t delivered. The person sending the message doesn’t know their messages are blocked.
Note: When you block a contact in Messages, that contact is also blocked in Mail, Phone, FaceTime, Calendar and other apps. See Prevent contacts from communicating with you.
Go to the Messages app
on your Mac.Select the conversation with the person you want to block.
In the menu bar, choose Conversation > Block Person, then click Block.
Tip: You can’t block a group conversation, so instead of blocking all the senders in a group conversation, you can simply leave it or stop its notifications.
Check who you blocked
If you’re not getting someone’s messages, you can check if they’re in your Blocked Contacts.
When you block a contact in Messages, that contact is also blocked in Mail, Phone, FaceTime, Calendar and other apps.
Go to the System Settings app
on your Mac.Click Privacy & Security, then click Blocked Contacts. (You may have to scroll down.)
Do one of the following:
Block a contact: Click
, select a contact, then click Block Contact in their contact card.Unblock a contact: Select a name or number in the list of blocked contacts, then click
.
A sender can’t find out if they’re blocked.
Tip: Another way to prevent unwanted messages is to allow your contacts only when you set up communication limits.
To change how the notifications appear and more, you can set your notification options.
To pause notifications from Messages, turn on Do Not Disturb or another Focus.
To learn about other ways you can report and prevent unwanted messages, see the Apple Support article Recognise and avoid phishing messages, phoney support calls and other scams.