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

[Eightarmedpet]

Hi all, dont know if anyone can help clarifying this feature for me...

I was really looking forward to it so I could bin of my hosting package, but I don't see how this will enable that.
I have domians with TSOHost Godaddy and Squarespace, with TSOHost I also have hosting so can create all the emails I want, great stuff!

With Godaddy and Squarespace if I try and create an email I have to sign up to a Google/Office subscription, which makes sense as emails need to be hosted somewhere right?

So as I understand it, I will need to bring all URLs into my hosting on TSOHost so I can set up an email the usual way and then update the DNS to put it through iCloud+ or have I got that wrong? Feels an odd way to do things with no massive advantage apart from iCloud security and privacy? Or have I missed something?

 

[Eightarmedpet]

Can anybody help me set up the custom domain feature DNS settings on godaddy? The instructions I was sent dont seem to relate to what godaddy shows me…

Specifically I can’t seem to get past the MX verify step. As far as I can tell I am following the instructions properly, but I am seriously stuck.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Can you at me if you get a reply solving this? I dont even understand how to set up an email on Godaddy without signing up to Office email service?

 

[Eightarmedpet]

Same for me with a GoDaddy Domain I created to test this out. The verification is done ok and the entries seem to be sound but when I send a test mal it bounces with "too many hops"

There were some people having success with GoDaddy - could you post your zone file (remove your domain first of course).

thnx & brgds

Are you paying for email in Godaddy too? I don't understand how to set up email without signing up to MS services.

 

[IGI2]

getting the hop error too

Diagnostic code: smtp;554 5.4.0 Error: too many hops
Remote system: dns;smtpout.mac.com

deleted and reinstalled the emails, no help ... but strange enough this time it didn't create the alias to my custom domain in (beta-) icloud, Settings, Accounts as it did the first time.
Seems still very buggy ...

I’m getting the too many hops error. I’ve tried three domains on three different DNS hosting providers (GoDaddy, AWS Route 53, CloudFlare). The error is an internal error on Apple’s side. I don’t think there’s any config change we can make to fix this.

Anyone found a solution to the too many hops error???

Recipient address: xxxxx@xxxxx.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|172.17.0.2|57277|10.112.84.233|25) (iCloud SMTP - mr85p00im-zteg06021901.me.com 3.5.0 [2116B30-0009dff0785a])

Like many people here, I get an error "too many hops" when I try to send to the newly made iCloud domain. Sending works fine. I would love to know what generates the too many hops error. It is coming from the iCloud SMTP server so it might be just a bug on Apple's side. This was sent from iCloud @iCloud.com account to the custom domain.


--------------
This is a system-generated message to inform you that your email could not be delivered to one or more recipients. Details of the email and the error are as follows: <owner@example.com>: host mx01.mail.icloud.com[17.57.154.23] said: 554 5.4.0 Error: too many hops (in reply to end of DATA command) Reporting-MTA: dns; pv50p00im-zteg10021301.me.com X-Postfix-Queue-ID: 2C2CDCC03CA X-Postfix-Sender: rfc822; account@icloud.com Arrival-Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2021 21:08:49 +0000 (UTC) Final-Recipient: rfc822; owner@example.com Original-Recipient: rfc822;owner@example.com Action: failed Status: 5.4.0 Remote-MTA: dns; mx01.mail.icloud.com Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 554 5.4.0 Error: too many hops

Another batch of people with "smtp;554 5.4.0 Error: too many hops" error.

Well, I've reported it via http://feedbackassistant.apple.com

 

[nostra999]

For what it's worth with the too many hops error;

I have also reported it on feedback
I am an older user with an @me.com address

 

[Cylon007]

After completing my setup here are two issues that I am facing

1. Like others, cannot get my custom email address to show as a "from" anywhere. This happened after I deleted domain once it was setup and then re-added it. I can receive email to this address without issues, just cant send.

2. I also want this custom email address to be my Apple ID (currently it is name@icloud.com). But this seems to be not allowed as I get an error which I have never seen before when changing Apple ID - "Email address not vetted.".

Has anyone been able to switch from an iCloud Apple ID login to custom domain email address?

 

[Cylon007]

*double post*

 

[LutzRFrank]

For what it's worth with the too many hops error;

I have also reported it on feedback
I am an older user with an @me.com address

reported too

me.com & iCloud.com addresses and local mail.de as own Domain

 

[David Menzel]

After completing my setup here are two issues that I am facing

1. Like others, cannot get my custom email address to show as a "from" anywhere. This happened after I deleted domain once it was setup and then re-added it. I can receive email to this address without issues, just cant send.

2. I also want this custom email address to be my Apple ID (currently it is name@icloud.com). But this seems to be not allowed as I get an error which I have never seen before when changing Apple ID - "Email address not vetted.".

Has anyone been able to switch from an iCloud Apple ID login to custom domain email address?

To your first point. Same here. I’ve already reported this issue of not being able to send emails from addresses I re-added … what is very unfortunate.

But I’m also experiencing problems with other addresses in iOS Mail. They suddenly disappear and reappear after a while.

 

[Jeaz]

Are you paying for email in Godaddy too? I don't understand how to set up email without signing up to MS services.I

No, you aren’t supposed to setup the MS Service.

Here’s a step-by-step for GoDaddy

1. Go to https://account.godaddy.com/products and sign in with your credentials
2. Ignore all of GoDaddys nags and so on about setting up emails etc and scroll down to “All Products and Services“ and under domains find your domain and click DNS.
3. Now you should see a page with Records. If you don’t, or they say your DNS is managed by them, you need to change so you use GoDaddys nameservers. You can change to the default GD ones at the bottom of that same page.
4. Under records, make sure you don’t have any other MX entries before you begin. The others are fine to leave.
5. Then add the ones based on the info you got from Apple. It should look something like this.
   
6. After that you are done on the GoDaddy side. It may take a while for it all to populate properly.
7. Then you setup things on https://beta.iCloud.com and add your email alias.
8. A few notes: your Apple ID can’t be using the custom domain as the domain you now intend to use.
   Eg. If your Apple ID is papasmurf@smurfhaven.com then you can’t use smurfhaven.com as a custom domain. You’ll have to change your AppleID to another domain or use icloud.com (or me.com/mac.com if you have access to those). Changing your AppleID is done at https://AppleID.apple.com
9. Also, family accounts doesn’t seem to work yet.

Finally, remember, this is a beta product so things may just be broken. And I wouldn’t recommend using it for your most important email address for now.

 

[Cylon007]

your Apple ID can’t be using the custom domain as the domain you now intend to use.

Is this confirmed to be true? Would have loved to have my custom domain for my Apple ID as well so that there is no need to use @icloud anymore.

 

[shansen2412]

No, you aren’t supposed to setup the MS Service.

Here’s a step-by-step for GoDaddy

1. Go to https://account.godaddy.com/products and sign in with your credentials
2. Ignore all of GoDaddys nags and so on about setting up emails etc and scroll down to “All Products and Services“ and under domains find your domain and click DNS.
3. Now you should see a page with Records. If you don’t, or they say your DNS is managed by them, you need to change so you use GoDaddys nameservers. You can change to the default GD ones at the bottom of that same page.
4. Under records, make sure you don’t have any other MX entries before you begin. The others are fine to leave.
5. Then add the ones based on the info you got from Apple. It should look something like this. View attachment 1823940
6. After that you are done on the GoDaddy side. It may take a while for it all to populate properly.
7. Then you setup things on https://beta.iCloud.com and add your email alias.
8. A few notes: your Apple ID can’t be using the custom domain as the domain you now intend to use.
   Eg. If your Apple ID is papasmurf@smurfhaven.com then you can’t use smurfhaven.com as a custom domain. You’ll have to change your AppleID to another domain or use icloud.com (or me.com/mac.com if you have access to those). Changing your AppleID is done at https://AppleID.apple.com
9. Also, family accounts doesn’t seem to work yet.

Finally, remember, this is a beta product so things may just be broken. And I wouldn’t recommend using it for your most important email address for now.

Thanks, looks like mine - but I'm affected by the "too many hops" issue - as this is beta right now there are really some kinks and problems to be expected...

Wait and see

 

[kaardowiq]

Is this confirmed to be true? Would have loved to have my custom domain for my Apple ID as well so that there is need to use @icloud anymore.

I have this setup working here. So it works...

 

[NightFox]

Can anyone help me out with what I'm doing wrong here - my host (LCN) doesn't like the CNAME value, or am I getting something wrong (I've obscured my domain with [domain] below, but it's just a simple word, no symbols or anything)?

Thanks,

Neil

 

[Puntoboy]

I set this up a couple of days ago now. It was fairly painless, as I have experience setting this up already, but needs some work to be more user friendly.

I have been using G Suite Legacy accounts for nearly 10 years now, but slowly over the years Google has been adding new features to personal Google accounts that the new "Google Workspace" accounts couldn't use, like YouTube Premium Family and use of Google Home.

My Apple ID account was already using my custom domain email address and I didn't have any issues adding the domain to iCloud. In fact I never received a verification email as it just said verified immediately. So far my email has been working great, however I have had issues using third party apps (such as Outlook for iOS and Mailbox on my PC). If I use my custom domain email as the login it fails, even when generating app-specific passwords. If I use my old iCloud email address (username@icloud.com) it logs in fine but then I can only send as that email address, not my custom one.

I think there might be two reasons for this:

1) as you have to use beta.icloud.com the main IMAP server for iCloud.com doesn't know about custom domains.
2) the apps aren't geared up to support custom email domain addresses when setting up an iCloud account.

 

[Cylon007]

So it works...

Cool! This gives me hope. Did you do anything specific with your setup to get it to work? You changed your Apple ID login after setting the custom domain?

 

[Eightarmedpet]

No, you aren’t supposed to setup the MS Service.

Here’s a step-by-step for GoDaddy

1. Go to https://account.godaddy.com/products and sign in with your credentials
2. Ignore all of GoDaddys nags and so on about setting up emails etc and scroll down to “All Products and Services“ and under domains find your domain and click DNS.
3. Now you should see a page with Records. If you don’t, or they say your DNS is managed by them, you need to change so you use GoDaddys nameservers. You can change to the default GD ones at the bottom of that same page.
4. Under records, make sure you don’t have any other MX entries before you begin. The others are fine to leave.
5. Then add the ones based on the info you got from Apple. It should look something like this. View attachment 1823940
6. After that you are done on the GoDaddy side. It may take a while for it all to populate properly.
7. Then you setup things on https://beta.iCloud.com and add your email alias.
8. A few notes: your Apple ID can’t be using the custom domain as the domain you now intend to use.
   Eg. If your Apple ID is papasmurf@smurfhaven.com then you can’t use smurfhaven.com as a custom domain. You’ll have to change your AppleID to another domain or use icloud.com (or me.com/mac.com if you have access to those). Changing your AppleID is done at https://AppleID.apple.com
9. Also, family accounts doesn’t seem to work yet.

Finally, remember, this is a beta product so things may just be broken. And I wouldn’t recommend using it for your most important email address for now.

Amazing, thanks so much for the detailed reply! Really appreciate it.
Sorry if this sounds stupid, but how do you actually create the email address? iCloud asks to send a confirmation email to myname@myurl.com but if I do it as per your instructions the email won't exist?

 

[NightFox]

A few notes: your Apple ID can’t be using the custom domain as the domain you now intend to use.
Eg. If your Apple ID is papasmurf@smurfhaven.com then you can’t use smurfhaven.com as a custom domain. You’ll have to change your AppleID to another domain or use icloud.com (or me.com/mac.com if you have access to those). Changing your AppleID is done at https://AppleID.apple.com

I really don't understand this limitation given that IIRC Apple IDs are arbitrary and although they take the form of an email address, there's no apparent connection between an Apple ID and any of its associated email addresses/aliases.

I hope this is something that disappears once this moves out of beta.

 

[kaardowiq]

Cool! This gives me hope. Did you do anything specific with your setup to get it to work? You changed your Apple ID login after setting the custom domain?

My AppleID is a custom one since several years, just added my domain as custom domain, now.

 

[user1234]

Can anyone help me out with what I'm doing wrong here - my host (LCN) doesn't like the CNAME value, or am I getting something wrong (I've obscured my domain with [domain] below, but it's just a simple word, no symbols or anything)?

View attachment 1823949
View attachment 1823950
View attachment 1823951
Thanks,

Neil

Change [domain].com to whateveryourdomainis.com and it should work.

 

[NonEuclidianSandwich]

No, you aren’t supposed to setup the MS Service.

Here’s a step-by-step for GoDaddy

1. Go to https://account.godaddy.com/products and sign in with your credentials
2. Ignore all of GoDaddys nags and so on about setting up emails etc and scroll down to “All Products and Services“ and under domains find your domain and click DNS.
3. Now you should see a page with Records. If you don’t, or they say your DNS is managed by them, you need to change so you use GoDaddys nameservers. You can change to the default GD ones at the bottom of that same page.
4. Under records, make sure you don’t have any other MX entries before you begin. The others are fine to leave.
5. Then add the ones based on the info you got from Apple. It should look something like this. View attachment 1823940
6. After that you are done on the GoDaddy side. It may take a while for it all to populate properly.
7. Then you setup things on https://beta.iCloud.com and add your email alias.
8. A few notes: your Apple ID can’t be using the custom domain as the domain you now intend to use.
   Eg. If your Apple ID is papasmurf@smurfhaven.com then you can’t use smurfhaven.com as a custom domain. You’ll have to change your AppleID to another domain or use icloud.com (or me.com/mac.com if you have access to those). Changing your AppleID is done at https://AppleID.apple.com
9. Also, family accounts doesn’t seem to work yet.

Finally, remember, this is a beta product so things may just be broken. And I wouldn’t recommend using it for your most important email address for now.

This was extremely helpful, thank you so much. One final question: now that I am up and running thanks to your settings, how does one choose which domain (custom or default) the emails send from? Also, it seems like all emails filter into a single inbox. Is there any way to have one inbox for my default email, and one for the custom domain? Or to choose on the fly which domain I wish to send from?

Thanks again!

 

[NonEuclidianSandwich]

Further to my above reply, when I try to access iCloud mail in my browser, I cannot see anything there that eve suggedts my custom domain exists. I can see options to set up aliases (says 0 of 3 set up) but nothing suggesting custom domains. I can successfully receive mail at my custom domain (comes Through to my inbox) but I have:

- no way to choose sender
- no way to separate inboxes

I used to have these options with aliases. How do I do this with custom domain addresses?

 

[srbNYC]

Other than tech-setup challenges: How are folks who successfully set this up enjoying it? Is your email life better? (I currently have my Squarespace-generated, Google-admiinstered email running as its own account in Mac Mail, iOS Outlook, etc.) Are you finding this better than that sort of set-up? Was it worth the trouble, however much trouble you had setting it up?

 

[Puntoboy]

Further to my above reply, when I try to access iCloud mail in my browser, I cannot see anything there that eve suggedts my custom domain exists. I can see options to set up aliases (says 0 of 3 set up) but nothing suggesting custom domains. I can successfully receive mail at my custom domain (comes Through to my inbox) but I have:

- no way to choose sender
- no way to separate inboxes

I used to have these options with aliases. How do I do this with custom domain addresses?

When you go to preferences (gear icon under iCloud Mail) do see the emails listed under accounts?

Also, when you create a new email, you can click the from address and it should give you a list of accounts to send from.

 

[Puntoboy]

Other than tech-setup challenges: How are folks who successfully set this up enjoying it? Is your email life better? (I currently have my Squarespace-generated, Google-admiinstered email running as its own account in Mac Mail, iOS Outlook, etc.) Are you finding this better than that sort of set-up? Was it worth the trouble, however much trouble you had setting it up?

Better, no, but not worse either. There's still some kinks to work out. I can't setup Outlook for iOS or Windows to use the custom domain name (I have managed to get Mailbird working though). Other than that it's working exactly how my G Suite Legacy email worked but with the added bonus that I can soon delete my Google Workspace account and use a personal Google account for YouTube etc.