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

[NightFox]

Now resolved, was able to add wife’s email address and it’s working on her devices.

I've tried again today on my wife's account, and no error message this time (it was OK for a bit last night too, but then returned). So I've been able to set up her wifesname@mydomain.com alias as well as my own myname@mydomain.com alias.

Trouble is, although I can now receive (and send) emails on my alias, any sent to her result in a message delivery failure:

Host or domain name not found. Name service error for name=[mydomain] type=A: Host not found

So even though we've set up her email address alias under her iCloud account which should register the Host [wifesname], it looks like for some reason that's not worked properly despite everything working fine with mine.

 

[d-m-z]

If someone on my family plan wants to add a domain, do I need to add the custom domain so it shows up for them in beta.iCloud.com? Or can they add the domain directly themselves?

They can add it themselves. (I haven't tried it, but my wife has the option to add an additional domain. Or use the one I added. Or both.) And when they add it, they can specify if it's just for them, or if others in the iCloud Family can use it too.

 

[d-m-z]

Edit: Seems like another problem. I had "wifesname@domain.tld" set up on my own iCloud over the weekend. I removed it from my account, but when trying to add it to my wife's account, the error comes up. Other addresses work, but not the one she actually needs.

Is it just a matter of waiting a bit for the removal to work its way across all the Apple servers?

 

[jozeppy26]

It seems like people are no longer getting a “too many hops” error whenever they attempt to send me email. However, I’m also just not receiving any of the emails. It disappears into the void.

 

[samwa3]

Is it just a matter of waiting a bit for the removal to work its way across all the Apple servers?

Likely. But it has been like almost 6 hours now. In the meantime, I was still getting some of her mail in my inbox, so it definitely seems like slow propagation. I just would really like to know how long I have to wait, because otherwise there's the possibility of mail getting lost.

Of course, these things are to be expected with a Beta product. 100% my responsibility here.

 

[NightFox]

It seems like people are no longer getting a “too many hops” error whenever they attempt to send me email. However, I’m also just not receiving any of the emails. It disappears into the void.

Trying to get my wife's email address set up on my domain, I set her up with two different email aliases (on the same domain iCloud account). Mails sent to both from my email account fail, but one with 'host not found', but the other with 'too many hops' - while the same domain on my own email account is set up and working fine.

So three things set up the same, all with different results.

 

[jozeppy26]

Trying to get my wife's email address set up on my domain, I set her up with two different email aliases (on the same domain iCloud account). Mails sent to both from my email account fail, but one with 'host not found', but the other with 'too many hops' - while the same domain on my own email account is set up and working fine.

So three things set up the same, all with different results.

Whelp, I guess when they said ”beta” they really really meant it.

 

[LutzRFrank]

It seems like people are no longer getting a “too many hops” error whenever they attempt to send me email. However, I’m also just not receiving any of the emails. It disappears into the void.

Still getting on mine …
Family members are fine. Even if one of them sets the domain up

 

[Gdemonta]

You are so lucky! I first had the error when adding a family member until I read your messages, now when I added my wife’s address I get the address in use or something like this error, even though I changed each of our Apple ID from my domain email address to iCloud.com address on Saturday… but it works perfectly for me !

 

[Gdemonta]

Likely. But it has been like almost 6 hours now. In the meantime, I was still getting some of her mail in my inbox, so it definitely seems like slow propagation. I just would really like to know how long I have to wait, because otherwise there's the possibility of mail getting lost.

Of course, these things are to be expected with a Beta product. 100% my responsibility here.

When you change your DNS records, make sure to use the lowest TTL you can so that it is instantaneous.

 

[samwa3]

When you change your DNS records, make sure to use the lowest TTL you can so that it is instantaneous.

Oh my problem is not about DNS propagation. I setup the DNS entries on the 25th and haven't touched them since then (I also have setup many mail servers myself in the past, so no understanding issues for me there). It's just basically I deleted "abc@mydomain" from my own iCloud account and then wanted to add "abc@mydomain" on my wife's iCloud account via Family Sharing. But it doesn't let me, and e-mails to that alias are actually still popping up in my inbox. So there's some kind of delay there -> propagation between Apple's mail server infrastructure. Not sure how long that'll take but the TTL on my DNS records definitely doesn't affect any of it, sadly

 

[Gdemonta]

Oh my problem is not about DNS propagation. I setup the DNS entries on the 25th and haven't touched them since then (I also have setup many mail servers myself in the past, so no understanding issues for me there). It's just basically I deleted "abc@mydomain" from my own iCloud account and then wanted to add "abc@mydomain" on my wife's iCloud account via Family Sharing. But it doesn't let me, and e-mails to that alias are actually still popping up in my inbox. So there's some kind of delay there -> propagation between Apple's mail server infrastructure. Not sure how long that'll take but the TTL on my DNS records definitely doesn't affect any of it, sadly

I actually also added my wife’s email as an alias for myself so this is probably why I cannot add it for her … damn me !

 

[ajhard]

I‘ve experienced exactly same … at least up until this afternoon where the deleted/re-added custom email address suddenly also started reappearing on my iOS 15 beta devices again. This means that I’m now able to send emails from this particular address using Mail.app on all my devices (iOS 14 and iOS 15 beta) … the only odd exception is beta.icloud.com where it’s still not available to use in Mail.

Is this working reliably for you now? I have done the same - ie deleted my domain and then re-added, a new address I added appears, but my original one is not showing...hoping it will appear at some point!!

 

[Elektrofone]

Has anyone found a solve to their account not appearing in the "Accounts" preferences panel on beta.icloud.com? It was there originally, but doesn't show up now after I removed and re-added the domain.

 

[fwmireault]

Has anyone found a solve to their account not appearing in the "Accounts" preferences panel on beta.icloud.com? It was there originally, but doesn't show up now after I removed and re-added the domain.

I have the same issue. My custom domain name has been successfully added to my iCloud account, but I don’t see my email account anywhere in the settings, so I can only receive emails for now. I’ll wait, as it’s still a beta feature, but if anyone have a fix for that, I would be happy

 

[RamGuy]

Reverted my domain back to Microsoft 365.

Wanted to test it out to see how it was. Especially considering that it's "free" as I have Apple One. Was pretty much as I expected. Easy setup and everything is rather straightforward and seamless as long as you are using Apple hardware and software.

But once you toss Windows devices into the mix it becomes a mess. Using the iCloud for Windows software does not take your custom domain into consideration whatsoever. It's early, and it's BETA so this behaviour might improve but as for right now the only way to get my custom domain working in Outlook 2021/365 on Windows is by having iCloud for Windows installed so it gives me my @me.com e-mail, calendar and contacts. Then I have to configure my custom domain as a IMAP account manually and change the username from my custom domain into my @me.com account for it to be able to authenticate.

This results in the e-mail existing twice, one for @me.com and one for my custom domain so I have to fiddle with manual rules for notifications so I don't get each and every notification twice.


Why do I have to do it like this? Because Apple doesn't provide any details on how to configure calendar or contacts manually. All they provide is IMAP and SMTP details. This gives me e-mail, but no calendar or contacts. Only way for me to get the calendar and contacts going is by using iCloud for Windows with it's automated process but that will only give me my @me.com account without any capability of sending e-mails using my custom domain. So I have to do this hack combining both options with all the drawbacks this entails.

iCloud doesn't mix with Outlook very well to begin with, even with the iCloud for Windows plugin. Apple is using the Sent Messages and Deleted Messages folder by default which is not showing in Outlook. Outlook is using Sent Items and Deleted Items by default. The result is having Sent and Deleted Messages being spread over different folders, and the Sent Messages and Deleted Messages aren't showing in Outlook at all so all e-mails going into these folders by default when using Apple Mail on iOS, iPadOS and macOS is not viewable in Outlook. I had to manually re-configure on beta.icloud.com and in Apple Mail so it uses Sent Items and Deleted Items folders created by Outlook as defaults instead.

Notifications are worse with iCloud which is relying on IMAP compared to Microsoft 365 / Hosted Exchange that is using Exchange Active Sync. Notifications of new e-mails is not arriving at the same time on my devices. My iPhone might receive the notification several seconds or even minutes before my mac or iPad or the other way around. When deleting a mail or marking a mail as read on one device my other devices might not notice until several minutes later. Notifications on iOS and iPadOS is not clearing based on whether I have read the notification and even marked the mail as read on another device. Exchange Active Sync is far better at handling all of this stuff.

 

[Elektrofone]

I have the same issue. My custom domain name has been successfully added to my iCloud account, but I don’t see my email account anywhere in the settings, so I can only receive emails for now. I’ll wait, as it’s still a beta feature, but if anyone have a fix for that, I would be happy

Mine works on my iPhone and my mail app on my MacBook Air but not on the site or my MacBook Pro.

 

[petvas]

My custom email domains and addresses appeared about 4 days after setting them up in all of my devices, independent of macOS version. I don't know why it took so long, but now it works.

 

[petvas]

Reverted my domain back to Microsoft 365.

Wanted to test it out to see how it was. Especially considering that it's "free" as I have Apple One. Was pretty much as I expected. Easy setup and everything is rather straightforward and seamless as long as you are using Apple hardware and software.

But once you toss Windows devices into the mix it becomes a mess. Using the iCloud for Windows software does not take your custom domain into consideration whatsoever. It's early, and it's BETA so this behaviour might improve but as for right now the only way to get my custom domain working in Outlook 2021/365 on Windows is by having iCloud for Windows installed so it gives me my @me.com e-mail, calendar and contacts. Then I have to configure my custom domain as a IMAP account manually and change the username from my custom domain into my @me.com account for it to be able to authenticate.

This results in the e-mail existing twice, one for @me.com and one for my custom domain so I have to fiddle with manual rules for notifications so I don't get each and every notification twice.


Why do I have to do it like this? Because Apple doesn't provide any details on how to configure calendar or contacts manually. All they provide is IMAP and SMTP details. This gives me e-mail, but no calendar or contacts. Only way for me to get the calendar and contacts going is by using iCloud for Windows with it's automated process but that will only give me my @me.com account without any capability of sending e-mails using my custom domain. So I have to do this hack combining both options with all the drawbacks this entails.

iCloud doesn't mix with Outlook very well to begin with, even with the iCloud for Windows plugin. Apple is using the Sent Messages and Deleted Messages folder by default which is not showing in Outlook. Outlook is using Sent Items and Deleted Items by default. The result is having Sent and Deleted Messages being spread over different folders, and the Sent Messages and Deleted Messages aren't showing in Outlook at all so all e-mails going into these folders by default when using Apple Mail on iOS, iPadOS and macOS is not viewable in Outlook. I had to manually re-configure on beta.icloud.com and in Apple Mail so it uses Sent Items and Deleted Items folders created by Outlook as defaults instead.

Notifications are worse with iCloud which is relying on IMAP compared to Microsoft 365 / Hosted Exchange that is using Exchange Active Sync. Notifications of new e-mails is not arriving at the same time on my devices. My iPhone might receive the notification several seconds or even minutes before my mac or iPad or the other way around. When deleting a mail or marking a mail as read on one device my other devices might not notice until several minutes later. Notifications on iOS and iPadOS is not clearing based on whether I have read the notification and even marked the mail as read on another device. Exchange Active Sync is far better at handling all of this stuff.

If you use Windows a lot, then it makes sense to stay with O365. I am sure it is the more professional mail service..I have my business mail domain on O365 and I will not move it to iCloud. All my personal domains though have been moved to iCloud.

 

[prisonernumber6]

Still seeing the “too many hops” error on a Fasthosts domain….

 

[LutzRFrank]

Made an interesting observation.
the Apple ID of wife and son are based on their domain emails and have their iCloud.com address listed as reachable under, marked as to be hidden…
Both work flawless after they added the apple email domain.

Mine arepurely based on @icloud.com/ @me.com and I can add the domain email but they can’t receive (famous hop error).
I‘m tempted to change one and retry …

 

[bilbo--baggins]

Does anyone know how iCloud Custom Email Domains handle shared mailboxes, or shared email addresses? Can an email address be assigned to two or more family members - or does it have to be assigned to only one with rules to forward to others? (Do server side rules work for this in iCloud?).

 

[bilbo--baggins]

For me it's two things: removing unnecessary dependency on an email host/forwarder, and more importantly recipients of my emails seeing them sent from my domain, rather than an iCloud email address.

Plus it removes an extra point of failure, and eliminates any unnecessary delay.

 

[lazyjj1]

Also curious @bilbo--baggins !

Also also... is the only way to get your custom domain emails working in Big Sur is through beta.icloud.com?

 

[jozeppy26]

I am still getting the hops error. Sometimes my emails are lost in the void. One thing is certain, I am not receiving any email to my address. My wife’s email that was set up through family sharing is sending and receiving mail perfectly fine however. Weird.