In iOS and iPadOS, tap the person’s name so it turns into a blue link, tap it again to reveal their contact card, tap Block this Contact, and confirm your decision. On the Mac, open a message from the offending person, hover the pointer over their name, click the down-pointing arrow, and choose Block Contact. For such people, Apple provides blocking. But what if you never want to see email from a particular person ever again? Perhaps it’s an angry ex-housemate, your embezzling ex-business partner, or someone who just won’t stop forwarding politically offensive memes. Muting is about conversations, not people. In iOS and iPadOS, it’s a per-account option in Settings > Mail > Accounts > accountName > Account > Advanced, under Move Discarded Messages Into. On the Mac, look for that setting in Mail > Preferences > Viewing > Move Discarded Messages Into. The “archive or delete” wording may seem confusing, but Apple lets you choose whether “discarding” a message archives it (removes it from your Inbox) or deletes it (moves it to the Trash mailbox).

On the Mac, in Mail > Preferences > General, select “Archive or delete muted messages.” In iOS and iPadOS, go to Settings > Mail > Muted Thread Action, where you can choose between Mark as Read and Archive or Delete. To unmute a conversation, repeat these steps, but pick Unmute instead.ĭo you never want to see those muted messages at all? You can discard them automatically. In Mail, a little bell icon with a slash through it reminds you that the conversation is muted. Messages will continue to flow in, but if you normally get notifications of Mail messages, you won’t get notifications for the muted conversation. You can also swipe left on the message, tap More, and tap Mute.

On an iPhone or iPad, touch and hold the message until you get a popover, then tap Mute. On the Mac, select the conversation and choose Message > Mute or click the Mute button in the toolbar. To help you quiet a too-chatty conversation, Apple added the Mute feature to Mail. However, since it’s just a ton of addresses on the Cc line, there’s no way to remove yourself, even though you don’t need to be notified of all the back-and-forth.

It’s a huge email conversation about the annual holiday party at work, but you can’t go, and more people keep weighing in. Here are three that you might find useful in different situations: mute, block, and unsubscribe. Apple is fully cognizant of the issue, too, and has built features into the last couple versions of Mail-on the Mac, iPhone, and iPad-to help out. Complaining about getting too much email is like complaining about bad traffic-we brought it upon ourselves, and while it’s impossible to escape entirely, it’s worth knowing how to reduce it.

Apple mail addresses