When Is It Time to Block a Sender?
You may receive hundreds of electronic messages per day. However, most of these fall into the spam or junk messages category. With so many messages in your queue, it’s hard to quickly assess what’s important and what just needs to go into the trash.
Thankfully, most email providers now offer filtering methods to help you put spam where it belongs. Yet some messages can break through the most powerful spam filters, so what do you do then?
If you notice messages from the same address keep ending up in your Hotmail inbox even though you’ve flagged previous messages as spam, it may be time to learn how to block on Hotmail.
How to Block Someone on Hotmail
Since Microsoft's Outlook.com has taken the place of Hotmail, the process of blocking emails on Hotmail is identical to blocking emails on Outlook. However, these guides will provide step-by-step instructions on how to block emails in Hotmail through webmail, how to block email on Hotmail on iPhone, and how to block Hotmail emails using the Clean Email app.
How to Block Email on Hotmail Using Outlook.com
You can access your Hotmail inbox through https://outlook.live.com/. Therefore, these directions will help you block emails for your Hotmail account if you log in through the web.
- Go to your Hotmail inbox through Outlook.com.
- Select the sender you wish to restrict. Click the three dots (More options) at the top action bar, and click Block.
- Confirm by pressing OK.
💡 Note: If you're using the Apple Mail client for Mac to access your Hotmail account, you'll find our guide on how to block emails on Mac useful.
If you need to remove someone from your list of blocked email addresses or make adjustments, you can access your Hotmail block list by following these steps:
- Login to your Hotmail account at https://outlook.live.com/.
- Click on Settings.
- Select Mail, then select Junk email.
- You can now see your blocked addresses. Click the trash can icon near the address you’d like to take off the list.
📌 Tip: If you’ve blocked an address by mistake, read this guide to learn how to unblock emails on Outlook.
Block Hotmail Emails Using Clean Email Easier
Although you can absolutely block emails on Hotmail through the help of Outlook, Clean Email makes blocking senders in Hotmail even more straightforward. Sign up for free and start exploring the app's benefits by following these steps:
- Go to https://app.clean.email and connect your Hotmail account.
- Select Senders from the tools in the lefthand menu.
- In the center pane, you will see a list of senders for your email. Click to select the sender you wish to stop.
- You will now see options to Block, Mute, or Create Rule. Select Block from the options.
- Choose whether you would like to move the existing messages to Trash and then Confirm the selection.
Block an entire domain in Clean Email
Sometimes blocking a single email address isn't enough, and your Hotmail inbox continues to be overwhelmed by spam from various addresses within the same domain. Clean Email has a solution for this situation too because you can restrict an entire domain. Here’s how:
- Launch the app and click on Auto Clean in the left menu.
- Click the + icon at the top to create or the Create Rule button if you are doing it for the first time.
- You will now see the Rule Creation dialog box. Click the dropdown for Any sender or recipients and select Sender Domain.
- Start typing the domain you wish to restrict. As you type, the app will generate matching domains.
- Select the correct domain. You will see the domain in blue, which means it has been added. You can continue this process to add more domains or move to the next step.
- Click Apply Action, then select Trash from the drop-down menu.
- From here, you can choose some other settings.
- When you are done, click Create Rule to create the Auto Clean rule.
How to Block Emails on Hotmail on Phone
If you're accessing your account on iOS, here’s how to block email in Hotmail on iPhone:
- Open the Outlook mobile app and go to your Inbox.
- Tap on a message from a sender you wish to stop.
- Tap the three dots in the upper right corner of the message.
- Choose Report Junk from the menu options. Then choose Block Sender.
- Click Block Sender again to confirm. Now all messages from that sender will go straight to your Junk folder.
💡 Note: These directions assume you are using the Outlook app to access Hotmail on your mobile device. If you are using the mobile device’s native Mail applications, you may need to learn how to block an email address on iPhone or read more about blocking emails on Android.
Unfortunately, the mobile app does not allow you to make changes to your blocked senders list or even access your Hotmail block list. If you accidentally block an address or want to view your blocked senders list, you must follow the above-mentioned steps for Outlook.com through your mobile web browser.
Another drawback is that the Outlook mobile app allows blocking only one sender at a time. If you're looking for an easier and more advanced approach for your phone, using Clean Email's Screener tool is your best option, as it stops messages from new senders before they reach your inbox.
You can try Screener and explore its advantages for free:
- Download the Clean Email app and sign in with your email account.
- In the left side panel, choose Screener in the tools section, then tap on the Enable Screener button.
- When new emails arrive, you'll have the option to allow, unsubscribe from, or block them. Once you block a sender, the app automatically filters out their future messages from your inbox.
💡 Note: After signing up for Clean Email, you will be able to clean up to 1,000 emails at no cost. Additionally, the app offers free unsubscription from 25 newsletters and grants you access to test the Screener, Auto Clean, and other premium features during a 14-day trial period.
What to Do When Blocking Emails on Hotmail Isn’t Enough
Sometimes using the Hotmail block sender feature isn’t enough to keep spam messages from mixing with your other messages. In this case, you may need to flag messages as spam to help train your spam filter to keep these messages out of the primary inbox.
To mark messages as spam, open your Hotmail account at https://outlook.live.com/. Then you can simply select the message you’d like to flag, then choose Report from the top toolbar and click Report junk. Or, as we will mention below, you can also use Clean Email to keep unwanted messages at bay and organize your inbox.
Unlock Your Inbox's Potential With Clean Email
Taking the time to block Hotmail emails can help clear out some of the clutter in your mailbox. However, knowing how to block Hotmail email won’t be enough to help you reach inbox zero or maintain a well-organized mailbox. This is why mailbox management tools like Clean Email exist—they give you all the tools you need to organize messages, stop spam, and help you spend less time checking your email.
As previously mentioned, the Auto Clean tool can help you block entire domains in just a few clicks. However, the tool actually does much more than that. With Auto Clean, you can establish automated rules that delete unwanted messages after a specified period, move messages that meet certain criteria into dedicated folders, and more. Also, you can spend less time moving messages around and reclaim hours of your life.
What’s more, tools like Unsubscriber help you block out unwanted messages without the need to manually unsubscribe from each mailing list or engage in blocking senders in Hotmail by hand. This convenient tool helps you keep clutter out of your mailbox so you can look through the messages that matter without sifting through junk to find them.
Other tools, like Smart Folders, make it easy to look at emails that share similar criteria (e.g., Online shopping emails or Productivity tools). This feature groups messages based on the contents of the messages, how long its been in your inbox, and more. Then, it becomes easier to quickly browse through and manage these emails (e.g., moving them to Trash if they are no longer needed in your mailbox).
With the latest update, Clean Email now enables users to compose, reply to, and forward emails directly within the app, eliminating the need to access your Hotmail account through a different app whenever you need to write a quick response or forward a message. Now, you can manage all your email interactions through the Clean Email app.
All these and other tools make Clean Email the ultimate mailbox management app for anyone who wants to keep their Hotmail inbox organized and safe. The app is secure to use, and will never collect or sell your data to any third parties.
💡 Note: The app will not work on messages from other providers like Yahoo or Gmail that you choose to add to your Outlook desktop client. To manage these messages, you will need to sync your Clean Email account with each individual email address separately.
How to Block Emails on Hotmail - FAQs
How to block an email address on Hotmail?
To block an email address in Hotmail, log in to Outlook.com, select the unwanted sender, click the three dots for more options, and choose "Block." For an easier method, use Clean Email to efficiently manage and block unwanted senders or domains directly.
Why can't I block emails in Hotmail?
Within Hotmail, you can add senders to a Safe Senders list, which disables blocking. You may need to go into your Safe Senders list and remove an address if you can’t easily block it.
Why is Hotmail blocking my emails?
Like most other email providers, Hotmail has default spam settings to help protect your inbox. If you notice it is blocking too many messages, you can go to Junk → Junk E-mail Options to change these spam settings.
How to block spam emails on Hotmail permanently?
When you block Hotmail emails, they go into the Junk folder by default. There is no way to prevent them from going there without using an inbox management tool like Clean Email.
How to stop spam emails Hotmail doesn’t detect as junk?
To stop receiving emails that are not automatically detected as junk, manually add the sender's email address to your blocked sender list through the "Junk email" settings, or use Clean Email to filter and block the unwanted messages more effectively.
Why am I still getting emails from blocked senders Hotmail?
Sometimes a single domain uses several individual email accounts to send messages. You may need to block the domain instead of just a specific sender to stop unwanted messages from entering your inbox.
