Nuisance calls are a feature of the world of technology, with many techniques employed to prevent them coming in. One of the most common is to block these phone numbers so that they will no longer ring. But how do you transfer blocked numbers to a new phone?
Blocked numbers are generally saved on the phone or the SIM and so can be transferred to a new phone without doing much. Performing backups using functions like iCloud, Google Account or other backup devices like the Samsung account.
Let’s explore how best to transfer blocked numbers, how blocked numbers are saved and how to manually move them to a new device or phone, including for WhatsApp.
Do Blocked Numbers Transfer to a New Phone?
Generally blocked numbers are saved on the device or the SIM card, so it will matter how you transfer all your data to your new device whether the blocked numbers will come too.
Many major brands like Samsung and Apple offer tools to help with the transfer of all data on the phone.
For example, Apple uses the iCloud system to create backups which can then be transferred to a new device, or you can use Finder or iTunes.
For Samsung devices, it will be called Samsung Smart Switch, and for other Android based phones you can use the backup system.
Are Numbers Blocked on the Phone or the SIM?
For many phones you can select whether blocked numbers are saved to the phone’s internal memory, an SD card or to the SIM itself.
If you use an Apple device, by default it should be saving everything to an iCloud account, whereas for other devices you can save such data to cloud accounts like Google, Samsung or many others.
To check on an Android device, you can go open the Contacts app and then tap on the More button represented by three dots.
Select Manage Contacts and then tap on Export/Import Contacts. Tap on Export Contacts to SIM card and then select the contacts that you would like to save. You may also select the Select All button to include all of them.
How to Transfer Blocked Numbers to a New Phone Manually?
Generally, it is not very easy to export a list of blocked numbers manually.
You can export all your blocked numbers to a SIM card or an SD card and then transfer this to the new device.
This is best achieved via a medium such as the iCloud account backup, Google account, Samsung account or other option as offered in your device.
How to Transfer Blocked Numbers to a New Phone on WhatsApp?
WhatsApp blocked numbers will be saved if the number and thus account stays the same. This means that you can install WhatsApp on a new phone and your blocked numbers will come with the account and be synchronized fine.
You should do a backup for WhatsApp before trying to transfer it by tapping the three dots in the top right of the app, then tap on Settings. Tap Chats, then Chat backup at the bottom and then you can configure your WhatsApp backup settings.
You can set this to a Google Account if you wish.
What Happens to Blocked Numbers When You Change Numbers?
The blocked number behavior is going to depend heavily on how you blocked them.
If you’ve blocked them by blocking them on the SIM, then if you change your number you’ll likely also swap out your SIM for the new SIM with the new number. This means that your blocked numbers will all disappear.
If you’ve blocked the numbers by saving it to the device’s memory, then even if you switch out a SIM card you can carry over these blocked numbers to your new number.
This goes the same if you’ve synchronized all your contact details to a backup like iCloud or a Google account and then use it with your new number.
How Long Do Numbers Stay Blocked on Android?
Numbers will stay blocked as long as they are saved somewhere on the device, be that via the phone’s internal memory, the SIM card or via an inserted SD card.
How Long Do Numbers Stay Blocked on iPhone?
An iPhone will keep numbers blocked as long as they are blocked on the device, be that via the iCloud account, SIM or saved to the phone’s own memory.
Blocking numbers is meant to be a permanent exercise, so you’ll have to be the one to go back into the device and unblock the number manually if you find out that you actually do need to contact that number.
Does Blocking Numbers Help with Spam?
The reality of spam calls is that it is in itself a numbers game. Spammers know that they just have to keep calling and preferably call from different numbers.
This is even more so when the scammers know that the number is legitimate, and scammers pass this sort of information around, or better yet, sell it.
So you may find that blocking spam or scam calls is a constant process and your block list may get quite long, but eventually such activity will wind down, particularly if you never answer the calls.
In the end, spammers are using auto dialing machines that try millions of numbers, with only a tiny proportion of people ready to talk to you if you do pick up, as the call will get passed to a scammer and there is not always one available.
Other Methods to Deal with Unwanted Calls
One of the best methods is to get software or an app that specializes in blocking spam calls. Often called a call-blocking app, these can be free or the premium versions require a monthly fee.
These apps tend to do analysis on the number, and either stop it ringing all together, cause it just to ring silently, display a warning or just get sent straight to voicemail.
The analysis looks for common spam numbers as well as strange calling locations or number formats, and compares them against known spam numbers. This is why you may get a message on your phone informing you of ‘scam likely’.
The general advice is to not answer calls from blocked or unknown numbers unless you know for certain someone you know is calling you.
Make sure you set up voicemail on your cell phone so that people can leave a message if they do call from a strange number, as then at least they have some option of contacting you.
As social engineering techniques have been perfected by spammers who are reading off a script, be wary of any call that starts asking you lots of questions that can be answered with ‘yes’.
If a company representative is claiming to have called you, get a name off them and hang up and then look up the public number for that company and call back to confirm whether it is legitimate or not.
Common openings for spam calls include calling you by your full name or other information that can be publicly accessed. If the call starts with some variation of, “Hello, can you hear me?” this is almost certainly a scam.
This is also the case when a call immediately asks you to press a number to connect to someone, as this is again working on the principle that they are fishing for someone to answer, and then hope you will press the number so that you get connected to a scammer.
If you find yourself on the end of a lot of spam messages, forward the message to 7726 (spelling ‘spam’) and this is a specialist service that can look at the hallmarks of the message and take actions to prevent further instances of it.
