Gmail - Blocking Email Address

March 19, 2019 4:16 AM

Looking to block someones email address in Gmail.

I need to block someone from emailing me. I use Gmail and I have done some Google searching and it seems easy if you have the email sender in your Inbox (you can use a drop down option and just select to Block them).

However, I don't have any of thier emails in my Inbox. I have some emails in my Sent folder and Trash, but the option is not there to block them.

Is there a way to quickly block an address in Gmail when they are not in your Inbox???

I have also read of ways to send an auto message to the sender so they know its not received...however, I would love to figure out how to block them.

Thanks!

posted by dbirchum to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Settings > Filters and blocked addresses > Create a new filter

You can block (or assign numerous other actions to) any email address that you like.
posted by cincinnatus c at 4:28 AM on March 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

Have you tried moving an email back to the inbox and blocking it there?
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 4:28 AM on March 19, 2019 [6 favorites]

Depending on why you want to block this person, I would suggest it's possibly prudent to make a filter where the mail is put into a folder and marked as read and you never see it in your inbox. If this is a harassment situation, it may be to your advantage to have copies of emails that the person is sending you, but obviously mentally better for you if you don't read them, other than to check to see if anything is there every now and again.
posted by Medieval Maven at 6:08 AM on March 19, 2019 [7 favorites]

On my machine, messages in the bin have an icon consisting of 3 vertical dots at far right at the top of the message. Click on that gives a list of actions, one of which is "filter messages like these". The filter can archive or delete them sight unseen.
posted by epo at 6:08 AM on March 19, 2019

I have also read of ways to send an auto message to the sender so they know its not received.

This is also done with the same filter mechanism in GMail. You can set up a single filter to send the email to the trash *and* send a "canned response".

Follow these instructions here to compose one (although in the new Gmail interface, the 'arrow' is now 'that three dot thingy'), then inside the filter setup you can choose a canned response to automatically be mailed to the sender.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:41 AM on March 19, 2019

This is also done with the same filter mechanism in GMail. You can set up a single filter to send the email to the trash *and* send a "canned response".

Worth noting that the last time I tried this (June 2018) it didn't work.

In short, sending a canned response works great but as soon as you add the "delete" action then it stops being sent. Separating them into two different rules doesn't work either.
posted by mr_silver at 12:33 PM on March 19, 2019