I am having difficulty in setting a Custom Email Domain on iCloud+

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Level 1

20 points

I am having difficulty in setting a Custom Email Domain on iCloud+

I think I might be out of my depth here. I've tried to follow the instructions here HT212524, but I have met several stumbling blocks.

1) My current host does not allow dots (.) at the end of an entry in the relevant fields as required according to Apple's instructions.

2) Should the specified TXT entry include the quotes, i.e. " v=spf1 redirect=icloud.com"

3) I can't see any way to enter the required cNAME values -

host: sig1._domainkey

points to: sig1.dkim.[example.com].at.icloudmailadmin.com.

(see attached screenshot of the entry fields in my hosting manager)

4) I don't understand Point 5 in the instructions regarding adding a Personal TXT Record. I can't find anywhere that that was given to me during setup.

My current hosting service is not being at all helpful, probably because they don't want to lose the revenue from hosting my email. Hopefully someone here can guide me.

Posted on Nov 13, 2021 12:37 AM

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Answer 1

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teztas Author

Level 1

20 points

Nov 13, 2021 11:58 PM in response to Eric--F

Thanks Eric~F,

Point 4 of the instructions to Change your DNS records states:

Enter the new MX, TXT and CNAME records for the iCloud Mail servers. Enter your domain name without brackets where it says [example.com], and make sure you include the trailing periods.

However, I found instructions for moving to a different hosting service that said some domain hosts don't support the trailing dot (period) or quotes, so leave them out. That gave me comfort.

I went ahead and re-entered the values and for the CNAME, I took a punt at simply pasted the HOST data into the "subdomain" field and the POINTS TO data into the "Alias For" field. I then went and checked the setup in iCloud settings, and all was good!

Within a few minutes I was able to send and receive emails from my custom domain email accounts.

One downside to this new service is that all the emails go into the default iCloud inbox. I can work around that with Smart Mailboxes in MacOS Mail, but not in iOS. All in all though, I'm happy!

Thanks again for taking the time to help out.

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Answer 2

Eric--F

Community Specialist

Nov 13, 2021 7:03 PM in response to teztas

Hi teztas,

We understand you have questions about adding a domain to your iCloud account. We're happy to offer some guidance.

We'll address your questions in the order you listed them:

We're not sure where in the instructions you're seeing that is it required to add a "dot" to the end of an entry. Are you talking about the examples listed under the Change your DNS records section, like this?

MX:

host: [example.com].

points to: mx01.mail.icloud.com.

priority: 10

TTL: 3600

If so, those are just periods there for grammar purposes. For the host section you would just type in the address, you would not use the [ ] or period at the end.

2. No, you would not include the quotes in the address you enter for that field.

3. To add a CNAME, you would click the blue +Add CNAME Record button towards the top of the page, then enter your information in the fields.

4. You'll have to enter all your domain information, then Apple will send you an email to the original domain email (not your iCloud email address) with the info for the Personal TXT Record. When you receive that email, you just enter that information to finish the setup.

If you need additional assistance with setting adding a domain, we'd recommend contacting Apple: Get Support

Hope this helps. Cheers!

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I am having difficulty in setting a Custom Email Domain on iCloud+

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