iCloud+'s New Custom Email Domain Feature Now Available in Beta

[PlayFriik]

It looks quite buggy right now.
I created TEST@example.com (notice the uppercase) and then I deleted it a few minutes later.
After about an hour I decided to send an email to that address, and it still received the emails somehow.
Later on I decided to recreate test@example.com (notice the lowercase), but instead the old email address appeared (TEST@example.com with uppercase).

 

[Saturnine]

Relies heavily on your hostmaster having enabled Apple's/iCloud's name servers. The Danish DK Hostmaster, has not, so I can't change my domain name servers to iClouds instead of one.com that I use now.

"Relies heavily on your hostmaster having enabled Apple's/iCloud's name servers. "

Nope. Not at all. I don't know even know what 'enabling Apple's name servers' means and I've been working with DNS daily for 20 years.

"so I can't change my domain name servers to iClouds instead of one.com that I use now."

You're not supposed to change your nameservers. You're supposed to add DNS records to your existing nameservers. Usually via a portal hosted by the provider of your nameservers.

 

[dsgjax]

Same here. It won't let me add the "." at the end. It's giving me "Not a valid host name".

Any suggestions?

No joy for me on Cloudflare either. It will save the TXT record but strips the trailing period from ".com." Clicking finish in iCloud then throws an error.

 

[samwa3]

No joy for me on Cloudflare either. It will save the TXT record but strips the trailing period from ".com." Clicking finish in iCloud then throws an error.

Cloudflare has to look like this.

1.) MX records

2.) SPF (which is a TXT record)

3.) DKIM (which is a CNAME record)

4.) And finally the validation TXT record

You don't need dots at the end.

And very important: Always choose "Only DNS". If you have orange clouds somewhere in these records then you're doing something wrong. (Only enable Cloudflare for your other stuff where you know you want it, like your website server.)

Also make sure you don't have any other MX records other than the two for your domain, and also no other TXT records for SPF. It's fine to have other records for DKIM, you don't need to delete them right away.

 

[Brammy]

So, I figured out my problem. My DNS is not managed by Hover like I thought but by Wordpress.

That said, I am going to wait until this is out of beta and Montery is released before I use it.

 

[slyronit]

Yes. I

I had problem at first and couldn’t remember the TXT and CNAME records anymore (which were only shown to me via a pop-up; I didn’t received an email or anything else) … so I deleted and added my domain and custom email address in account setting. So far so good … the domain configuration went well, but the problem I’m facing now is that I cannot get the very same email address - which I initially used - to show up in mail. All I can do is setting up another custom email address. Is someone else having the same issue?

Yes. It is a bug. If you add and then remove an email, it doesn’t show up in aliases anymore and you can’t send emails from it.

 

[fwmireault]

I successfully add my MX and CNAME records, but when trying to add TXT records, my domain server said that I needed to setup SPF, and when doing so, the TXT records that is automatically added doesn’t match the one that Apple give. When I try to complete the setup on beta.icloud.com, it says to check my SPF setup. I don’t see any Apple documentation on SPF settings and my knowledge on that is pretty limited. Can anybody help me?

 

[David Menzel]

Yes. I

Yes. It is a bug. If you add and then remove an email, it doesn’t show up in aliases anymore and you can’t send emails from it.

Thanks … oh no … so this probably means that we have to sit and wait. Great.

BTW Is there also a way to submit bugs for iCloud.com (Beta)?

 

[Drachir2000]

What mail settings do we use in Apple mail to test?

 

[srbNYC]

I'm so sad; nightmare so far. I use Squarespace for domain, and Google Workspace for email. Changed all the DNS listings (which only seemed to "take" with no periods), and no email at all came through. Really got scared my email account (and its current emails) were disappearing entirely. Went back into Squareapce and set everything back to their defaults for Google Workspace. Emails are coming through (although delays on some of them from yesterday re-populating). No idea what I did wrong, and relieved that I'm getting my emails the old way—but no idea why I can't make this work.

 

[Kaptajn Haddock]

"Relies heavily on your hostmaster having enabled Apple's/iCloud's name servers. "

Nope. Not at all. I don't know even know what 'enabling Apple's name servers' means and I've been working with DNS daily for 20 years.

"so I can't change my domain name servers to iClouds instead of one.com that I use now."

You're not supposed to change your nameservers. You're supposed to add DNS records to your existing nameservers. Usually via a portal hosted by the provider of your nameservers.

DK hostmaster is where I pay for my domain name. One.com is my webhotel, which I would like to skip to save money, so I assumed I had to add mx01.mail.icloud.com to my domain name host and not my webhotel.

 

[iphonehype]

All working with Namecheap.

 

[Xtir]

O.k. this looks nice, but when I later on decide to change (email)provider will Apple release my domain? Or am I adding more symptoms to the apple-locked-in-syndrome?

 

[davesim]

I can't tell if this product is still half-baked (because it's in beta) or if I'm doing something wrong. I entered everything accurately on GoDaddy, but when I send an email to the new email address nothing happens. No new email. No alert from my other account that the email didn't go through. Anyone else having this problem? Even better, anyone else know how I might be able to fix this?

 

[Jeaz]

I'd point out that it's much better for security to have an email address you don't actually use anywhere as your Apple ID. I used to get people trying to log into my iCloud account when my username was the email address I typically use for personal stuff, and it all stopped when I just went with my default iCloud address.

You are probably right, also if you have any issues with your domain or registrar, you at least will have access to your iCloud account uninterrupted.

 

[IGI2]

Has anyone found what's the issue?

I have the same error:

Would someone who uses Google Domains be kind enough to post a screenshot of their DNS settings?

My outgoing mail works, but incoming mail fails. And I can't for the life of me figure out what I entered wrong. 😩

View attachment 1823255

I've completed the custom domains setup, can send email from my custom domain, but getting the too many hops error when trying to send email to the custom domain. Did anyone get to the bottom of this issue?

Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients:

Recipient address: email@mydomain.com
Reason: SMTP transmission failure has occurred
Diagnostic code: smtp;554 5.4.0 Error: too many hops
Remote system: dns;smtpout.mac.com (TCP|172|54985|) (iCloud SMTP - pv50p00im-ztbu10011701.me.com 3.5.0 [2a])

Similar issue here:

Reason: SMTP transmission failure has occurred Diagnostic code: smtp;554 5.4.0 Error: too many hops

Everything setup able to send - DNS looks good looking at MX etc but appears to be borked - meanwhile emails are going missing hah. Beta's eh!?

Would be good if anyone has managed to resolve

 

[Jeaz]

I can't tell if this product is still half-baked (because it's in beta) or if I'm doing something wrong. I entered everything accurately on GoDaddy, but when I send an email to the new email address nothing happens. No new email. No alert from my other account that the email didn't go through. Anyone else having this problem? Even better, anyone else know how I might be able to fix this?

I'm using GoDaddy and it works fine, both receiving and sending.
I'd do another check with your DNS settings, like make sure your MX posts have priority to them. And check you don't have any interfering DNS entries.

 

[dsgjax]

Cloudflare has to look like this.

1.) MX records

View attachment 1823581

2.) SPF (which is a TXT record)
View attachment 1823582

3.) DKIM (which is a CNAME record)
View attachment 1823583

4.) And finally the validation TXT record

View attachment 1823584

You don't need dots at the end.

And very important: Always choose "Only DNS". If you have orange clouds somewhere in these records then you're doing something wrong. (Only enable Cloudflare for your other stuff where you know you want it, like your website server.)

Also make sure you don't have any other MX records other than the two for your domain, and also no other TXT records for SPF. It's fine to have other records for DKIM, you don't need to delete them right away.

Thanks. It was the proxy setting for DKIM.

 

[anthonymoody]

Anyone use register.com? I can't get the various fields provided by Apple to align with register.com's dashboard.

 

[AltecX]

If you can get an e-mail service with custom domain support for $9 a year I'd love to know where please!

You didn't say email service. You said Owning a domain.

Just get 365 Personal. $70/yr + $9 for domain. Connect it to Outlook.com. Done.

 

[Jeaz]

O.k. this looks nice, but when I later on decide to change (email)provider will Apple release my domain? Or am I adding more symptoms to the apple-locked-in-syndrome?

You still own the domain at every step. If you swap, you just change the details at the domain registrar, Apple have absolute zero control over that. Your email will be on iCloud though, so you'll need to transfer your existing mails.

 

[thesheleys]

Thanks … oh no … so this probably means that we have to sit and wait. Great.

BTW Is there also a way to submit bugs for iCloud.com (Beta)?

I have the same issue. I just submitted feed back using the FeedBack App on iOS. I selected iOS and then in their you can select iCloud.

Don’t know if that’s the right place but that’s what I did.

 

[e.clinton]

I'd assume they'll allow people to purchase domains too? Otherwise it isn't very consumer friendly.

 

[NYCValkyrie]

So I know this isn’t made for small businesses….but would it work? What are the drawbacks, what should I consider, and would I lose leaving google for work?

I would wait until they have things a bit more sorted before you move work email over. It's going to be buggy for a minute. The changes should only be the differences between Apple & Google services - tags vs folders, calendars, Drive/iCloud, etc. You'd need to find a way to download or copy all your old emails so that you don't lose those when you move your service to Apple and close your Google account.

But the bigger question is, do you have employees that need email service with this domain? If YES, then no, you should not use Apple's personal domain email service.

 

[fwmireault]

Can someone help me to point out what I did wrong? For an unknown reason I can’t add v=spf1 redirect=icloud.com directly as a TXT record, it says I have to setup SPF, but I see nowhere a place to add this record to SPF. Any clue?