Block a sender
Blocking keeps someone out of your inbox. Their new mail goes straight to Trash, without a notification.
Windows, web and phoneBlock or spam?
- Report spam moves the messages you selected to your Spam folder.
- Block is about the future. From then on, every new message from that sender is moved to Trash as soon as it arrives, before you see it, and it never notifies you.
Nobody can stop an email from being sent to you, so blocked mail lands in Trash, where you can still find it if you need to. The sender is not told.
Block someone
- Right-click one of their messages and choose Block followed by their name. You also find it under More above an open message, and in the bar when several messages are selected (“Block 3 senders”).
- Leave Also delete the messages already here on to move their existing mail to Trash too, or turn it off to keep it.
- To block a whole company, turn on Block everyone at followed by its domain. This is offered for one sender at a company address, never for shared services like gmail.com or outlook.com.
- Select Block. A note says “Blocked Jane Doe”, with Undo if you change your mind. Undo removes the block and puts the moved mail back.
Bottle Mail checks the sender’s real email address, not the name they show. A block covers every account on this PC.
See who is blocked, or unblock someone
- Open Settings, then Inbox & labels, and go to Blocked senders.
- Find the person. When the list is long, use the search box.
- Select Unblock. The note that follows has Undo too.
On this PC, or on your mail server
Each blocked sender in Settings says where the block works:
- Blocked on the mail server. Many mail servers accept filters. On those, Bottle Mail adds one filter of its own, so the block also works while Bottle Mail is closed and in your other mail apps, such as the one on your phone.
- Blocked on this PC. Bottle Mail moves the mail itself. Your other mail apps do not know about this block.
Bottle Mail never changes filters you made yourself. If your server already has your own filters, the block stays on this PC. Gmail and Outlook accounts are blocked on this PC for now. When an account cannot use the server, Settings says why in one short line.
On your phone and in the web app
On your phone, open a message, select More and choose Block followed by the sender’s name. To block several senders, touch and hold a message, select the others, then choose More and Block. In the web app, use Block in the bar above an open message or above the selected messages.
The same questions follow: delete the messages already here, and block everyone at the company. To see the list or unblock someone, open Settings and select Blocked senders.
Blocks made on your phone or in the web app are kept by the Bottle Mail service, so new mail from that sender goes to Trash on every device, even while the app is closed.
Questions
Does the sender find out?
No. Bottle Mail sends nothing to them. Their mail is simply moved to your Trash.
Can I block someone in the web app?
Yes, when you sign in to the web app with a Bottle Mail account. A guest session (signed in with just your mailbox) keeps nothing after you sign out, so it cannot keep a list of blocked senders. A block that runs on your mail server still applies to the mail you see there.
Will blocked senders still show up when I write an email?
No. Blocked senders are left out of the address suggestions in the composer.