Block a sender in Yahoo Mail directly from your inbox

To block someone in Yahoo Mail, open the email from that sender, click the three-dot menu icon in the top right of the message, and select Block. Yahoo will move that sender's future emails to your Spam folder automatically. You can also block someone without opening their email: right-click the message in your inbox list and choose Block from the menu.

Once you block a sender, you will not see their emails in your inbox, but they will still be able to send them — the messages just go to Spam. The sender will not receive a notification that you blocked them. If you change your mind, you can unblock them later by going to Settings and finding the blocked senders list.

Blocking works for individual email addresses. If someone uses multiple addresses to contact you, you will need to block each one separately. This is the fastest way to stop seeing messages from a specific person without deleting your account or changing your email address.

Key Takeaways

  • Click the three-dot menu on any email and select Block to send that sender's future messages to your Spam folder.
  • Blocked senders can still email you, but you will not see their messages unless you check Spam.
  • The person you block will not know you blocked them.
  • You can unblock someone at any time through your Yahoo Mail settings.
  • If someone uses multiple email addresses, you must block each address separately.

Find and manage your blocked senders list

To see who you have blocked, log into Yahoo Mail and click the gear icon in the top right corner. Select Settings, then click the Security and privacy tab. Scroll down to find Blocked addresses — this shows every email address you have blocked.

From this list, you can unblock anyone by clicking the X next to their name. Unblocking means their emails will return to your inbox instead of going to Spam. You can block and unblock the same person as many times as you need to.

If you have blocked many people and want to find one specific address, use your browser's search function (Ctrl+F on Windows, Command+F on Mac) to search the blocked list by name or partial email address.

What happens when you block someone

When you block an email address in Yahoo Mail, all future emails from that sender go directly to your Spam folder. You will not see a notification when they email you. The blocked sender cannot tell that you blocked them — from their side, it looks like their email was delivered normally.

Emails that arrived before you blocked someone stay in your inbox. Blocking only affects new messages going forward. If you want to remove old emails from that sender, you can delete them manually or use Yahoo's search to find all messages from that address and delete them in bulk.

Blocking in Yahoo Mail does not prevent the person from seeing your emails if they send you a message first. It only stops their incoming messages from reaching your inbox. If you want to prevent someone from contacting you through other channels, you will need to block them separately on those platforms.

Block someone before they email you

You can block an email address in Yahoo Mail even if you have never received a message from them. Go to Settings, click Security and privacy, and find Blocked addresses. Click Add an address and type in the email address you want to block. That address will be blocked when ready, and any emails from them will go to Spam.

This is useful if you know someone's email address and want to prevent them from contacting you before they try. You can add multiple addresses this way without waiting for them to send you anything first.

Move blocked emails to Spam or delete them

By default, blocked emails go to your Spam folder where they sit until Yahoo deletes them automatically after 30 days. You can check your Spam folder at any time to see what blocked senders have tried to email you, though most people never need to look.

If you want to delete blocked emails when ready instead of letting them pile up in Spam, you can manually delete them. Open your Spam folder, select the emails from the blocked sender, and click Delete. They will move to your Trash folder and stay there for 30 days before Yahoo removes them permanently.

Yahoo does not offer a setting to automatically delete blocked emails instead of moving them to Spam, so manual deletion is the only way to remove them faster than the 30-day window.

Block someone if they are using a different email address

If someone keeps contacting you from new email addresses after you block them, you will need to block each address separately. There is no way to block an entire domain (like all addresses ending in @example.com) or to block based on a person's name — Yahoo only blocks specific email addresses.

When you notice a new address from the same person, block it the same way you blocked the first one: open the email, click the three-dot menu, and select Block. Keep adding addresses to your blocked list as they appear. If this becomes a pattern, consider changing your email address or reporting the person to Yahoo for harassment.

If the person is harassing you across multiple platforms or using many addresses to evade your blocks, take screenshots of the messages and report them to Yahoo's abuse team at the email address listed in your account settings. Yahoo can investigate patterns of harassment that go beyond straightforward blocking.

Unblock someone and restore their emails

To unblock someone, go to Settings, click Security and privacy, find Blocked addresses, and click the X next to their name. They will be unblocked when ready. Their future emails will go to your inbox instead of Spam, but emails they sent while blocked will still be in your Spam folder.

If you unblock someone and want to see the emails they sent you while they were blocked, check your Spam folder and move those messages back to your inbox manually. You can select multiple emails at once and move them together.

Unblocking does not restore emails that Yahoo deleted from Spam after 30 days. If too much time has passed, those messages are gone permanently.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will the person know I blocked them?

No. The person you block will not receive any notification. Their emails will appear to send normally from their side, but you will not see them in your inbox. They would only know you blocked them if they checked your blocked list, which they cannot access.

Can I block someone if I have never received an email from them?

Yes. Go to Settings, click Security and privacy, find Blocked addresses, and click Add an address. Type in the email address and click Block. That address will be blocked when ready, even if they have never contacted you.

What if someone keeps emailing me from different addresses?

You will need to block each address separately — Yahoo does not have a way to block an entire domain or all addresses from one person. If this becomes harassment, report it to Yahoo's abuse team with screenshots of the messages.

Can I see emails from blocked senders if I want to?

Yes. Check your Spam folder to see all emails from blocked senders. You can read them there or move them back to your inbox. Unblocking the sender will also return their future emails to your inbox.

How long do blocked emails stay in Spam?

Yahoo keeps emails in Spam for 30 days before deleting them permanently. If you want to remove them faster, you can manually delete them from Spam, and they will move to Trash for another 30 days before being removed.