What blocking does, in plain terms
A block on Medium is a relationship change between two accounts. It is not a publishing control. Your public stories stay public; the block affects how the blocked account interacts with you and your content while signed in.
Medium provides Block this author in the profile menu and a blocked-users list in account settings. Source
That two-part structure matters for the task. The block action lives where the author appears, and the record of who you have blocked lives in your settings. If you later want to confirm or reverse a decision, the settings list is the place to look rather than the author’s profile.
Step 1: Block from the author’s profile menu
- Sign in to the Medium account that should apply the block.
- Open the profile of the author whose account you want to block.
- Open the profile menu and choose Block this author.
- Confirm the action if Medium prompts you.
A blocked user cannot follow or view the blocking author’s content while logged in; the user may see that they have been blocked. Source
The claim above defines the logged-in scope. It describes what happens while the blocked user is signed in; it does not promise that the person can never encounter your work elsewhere, such as when signed out or through a shared link. Treat the block as an account-level boundary, not a guarantee of invisibility.
Step 2: Review the blocked-user list in settings
The profile menu is where you act; account settings are where you review. Open your account settings and find the blocked-users list to see which accounts you have blocked. Use it when you are unsure whether an earlier block was applied, or when you want a single view of the accounts you have cut off.
Keep the list as a record, not a scoreboard. Removing someone from it is a separate decision from blocking them, and this guide does not document an unblock procedure beyond the existence of the list itself. If you cannot find the list in your current version of the interface, check the settings area directly rather than assuming the block failed.
What the blocked account may still see
A block is visible in one direction: the blocked person may be told or may infer that they have been blocked. Plan for that. If your goal is a quiet boundary, a block is still a boundary, but it is not a silent one.
Blocking also hides that user’s content and responses from the blocker; mentions can still occur without triggering a notification. Source
The claim above describes the reverse direction: blocking also hides that user’s content and responses from you, and mentions can still occur without a notification. In practice, this means a block reduces mutual visibility in the signed-in experience rather than erasing a person from the platform.
A communication boundary is not an unpublishing tool
These are neighboring but different tasks:
| Task | What it changes | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|
| Block an account | The signed-in visibility and interaction between two accounts | Remove or hide your published stories from the public web |
| Unpublish or retire a story or profile | The publication state of your own content or account | Stop a specific person from encountering your work elsewhere |
If your actual concern is that something you published should no longer be public, blocking the person who found it does not address that concern. Blocking changes the relationship; unpublishing changes the publication. The reviewed claims here cover only the block mechanics, so treat any unpublishing steps as a separate task to research in Medium’s own help materials rather than as part of this workflow.
Common failure paths
- You blocked the wrong account. Handles and display names can resemble each other. Confirm you opened the intended profile before choosing the block action, and use the blocked-users list to check the result.
- You expected the person to see nothing at all. The blocked user may see that they have been blocked, and the block is scoped to signed-in viewing and following. It is not a confidentiality setting for public stories.
- You wanted to stop seeing someone, not stop them seeing you. The same block covers both directions in the signed-in experience, so decide which outcome you actually need before acting.
- You treated a block as account recovery or identity proof. It is neither. A block does not verify who operates an account, and it does not recover access to an account you have lost.
Where username lookup fits, and where it does not
A public username search can surface profiles that use a name, but it is a lead, not proof of ownership, and it does not control Medium’s block settings. If you are trying to understand how visible your own accounts are across platforms before deciding what to lock down, see review your public account footprint.
If your situation is really about retiring an old profile rather than limiting one person’s access, the adjacent task is covered in the related account-control guide. Keep the two tasks separate: one is a boundary between accounts, the other is about the lifecycle of an account or its content.
A reasonable order of operations
- Decide whether you need a boundary (block) or a publication change (unpublish or retire). They solve different problems.
- If it is a boundary, block from the author’s profile menu while signed in to the account that should apply it.
- Review the blocked-users list in settings to confirm the account appears there.
- Expect that the blocked person may notice the block, and do not rely on it to keep public stories confidential.
- If your concern is broader visibility, audit your public footprint separately and keep a recovery method you control until any account closure is complete.