Stop spam in iCloud Mail and Apple Mail

Spam in an @icloud.com or @me.com inbox is frustrating in a particular way. There's no dial to turn up, no filter to train on your iPhone, and Block Sender only works until the spammer picks a new address.

The Spam Blocker connects to your iCloud mailbox directly and learns from your decisions. Spam is moved out of the way before it reaches your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, nothing is deleted, and the sender is never reported.

Stop spam in iCloud

Why Apple's filters let it through

iCloud Mail filters spam on Apple's servers before it reaches you, and that's all you're told. There's no strictness setting, no allow list you can edit, and no way to see why one email was caught and another wasn't. Marking a message as junk helps a little, but only for that sender.

Apple Mail on the Mac has its own junk filter, and it does learn from you. The catch is that it only learns on that Mac. Your iPhone and iPad don't see any of it, so the same spam that gets caught on your desktop lands in your pocket.

On iPhone and iPad, the Mail app has no spam filter settings at all. You can Block Sender and that's it. Hide My Email is great for new signups, but it does nothing for the address you've been giving out for ten years.

How to stop it with Leave Me Alone

The Spam Blocker scans every new email as it arrives in your iCloud mailbox and decides whether it belongs in your inbox. It works on the mailbox itself, so one setup covers every Apple device you check mail from. It takes about two minutes.

1. Create an app-specific password for Leave Me Alone at appleid.apple.com. It takes 30 seconds, and it means we never see your real Apple password. Our iCloud setup page walks you through it.
2. Connect your iCloud account and turn on the Spam Blocker. From then on, spam and cold outreach are moved to a blocked folder the moment they land.
3. Rescue anything we got wrong. Open the blocked list, click Rescue, and the email goes back to your inbox. We'll trust that sender from now on.

Blocked email goes to a folder we own, not iCloud's Junk folder. Apple never sees a report, the sender never learns your address is live, and nothing gets deleted after 30 days like it does in Junk.

Because it works over IMAP on the mailbox itself, the blocked folder shows up on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac at the same time. No more training a filter three times over.

Block spam in iCloud now

What about the spam already in your inbox?

The Spam Blocker handles new mail from the moment you turn it on. For the pile that's already there, run the Unsubscriber first. It lists every newsletter and mailing list in your iCloud account and unsubscribes you with one click.

Anything that ignores your unsubscribe gets caught by the mailing list blocker automatically. If you'd rather do it by hand, we've written a guide to blocking emails on iCloud.

Apple's filters vs the Spam Blocker

They work together. iCloud keeps catching the obvious stuff, and the Spam Blocker catches what's left.

	iCloud and Apple Mail	Spam Blocker
Learns from	Apple's servers, plus your Mac only	Your decisions, on every device
Reports the sender	Yes, when you mark as junk	Never
Settings on iPhone and iPad	Block Sender only	Full control from any browser
Catches new sender addresses	Only if Apple has seen them	Yes, based on how the email behaves
Custom rules	iCloud.com rules, one at a time	Block by address, domain, or pattern

FAQ

Why is my iCloud spam filter not working?

Apple's filter runs on its servers with no settings you can change, so when spam gets through there's nothing to adjust. It's also built to avoid false positives, which means anything that looks vaguely like a newsletter tends to be let in.

Does this work on my iPhone?

Yes. The Spam Blocker works on your iCloud mailbox, not on any one device, so blocked mail disappears from your iPhone, iPad, and Mac at the same time. You don't need to install anything.

Does this report senders to Apple?

No. Blocked email is moved to a separate blocked folder in your account. It never touches iCloud's Junk folder, and Apple never receives a report. The sender gets no signal that your address is real.

Does it delete anything?

No. Blocked mail stays in the blocked folder for as long as you want it. iCloud empties Junk after 30 days, we don't. You can check the list any time and rescue anything that shouldn't be there.

Why do I need an app-specific password?

Apple doesn't let third-party apps sign in with your real password, which is a good thing. An app-specific password only works for mail, can't be used to sign in to your Apple account, and can be revoked from appleid.apple.com whenever you like. Our iCloud setup page has the steps.

Does it work with @me.com and @mac.com addresses?

Yes. They're all iCloud Mail accounts, and the Spam Blocker works the same way for each.

What happens if it blocks a real email?

Rescue it from the blocked list and it goes straight back to your inbox. Rescuing also teaches the Spam Blocker to trust that sender, so it won't happen twice.

How much does it cost?

The Spam Blocker is part of the Leave Me Alone Hero plan.