Email remains a great way to keep in touch with people and exchange information that feels too long for a text or WhatsApp post. Sadly, many companies and colleagues also want to share their latest news with you, which might not always be so welcomed in your inbox.
Here’s how to unsubscribe from circulars, newsletters, and other junk mail.
Use the in-app ‘unsubscribe’ option
Apple Mail does a decent job of trying to decipher whether the messages you receive are from individuals or companies, especially if the latter appears to be part of a general mail-out rather than a response to something you’ve asked.
It’s a distressing truth that we can inadvertently sign up to mailing lists without meaning to, when joining new online services or retail outlets. Should you forget to click the box forbidding partners of the site to send updates and news, then you’ll start receiving a barrage of emails from outlets you may have no interest in at all.
To stop the daily tips from Peat-Bog Experts or Dog Walkers of Albania, simply open the latest email from them and you should see a message at the top of the page saying ‘This message is from a mailing list’. Underneath is the option to Unsubscribe.
Tap this and you’ll see a dialog box appear, notifying that Mail will send a message from your email account to unsubscribe from the list. To agree with this, tap the Unsubscribe option.
Blocking senders
A feature in iOS is being able to block individual users from sending you emails. This is handy if you find that the unsubscribe option is being ignored, which can often be the case.
To block someone sending you email, open the Mail app and find one of the messages from the person in question. Tap their email address, tap View Contact Card, then tap Block this Contact.
Changing the Blocked Sender settings
There are a few different ways that you can tell the Mail app to treat messages from blocked contacts. To find them, open the Settings app, tap Apps, then tap Mail and scroll down to Blocked Sender Options.
In here are the Mark Blocked Sender switch and two options: Leave in Inbox and Move to Trash. Tap the one that meets your preference and Mail will now automatically deal with any messages you receive from someone on your Blocked list.
If you accidentally block someone, then you can restore them. Go to the Settings app on your iPhone. Tap Privacy & Security, then tap Blocked Contacts. Select a Blocked Contact, scroll down, then tap Unblock Contact.
