Signature syncing in Apple Mail

Greetings all…

I’m having the same issue (or I was anyway) and have found a sub-optimal way around this problem.

I’ll outline the steps involved

1. On the Mac, go into the Mail app
2. If you’ve already created the email signature of your dreams, skip to step 7
3. Tap Mail at the top of the window and then select Settings…
4. You’ll see a menu bar at the top of the screen which lists General / Accounts / Junk Mail etc.
5. Tap Signatures
6. From here, you can slide in whatever you want - like company logos, etc. and you’ll then make the signature however you like it, fonts, colors, etc.
7. Hopefully, you have two email accounts but this might work if you have one
8. On the Mac, send an email containing your new email signature to another account that you can check on your iPad (in my case) or your iPhone
9. You’re now done with your Mac
10. On your iOS device, check the email you just received from yourself (you sent this in step 8)
11. Select the text / graphics from the signature of that test email by highlighting it
12. Tap Copy
13. Open the Settings app up on the iOS Device
14. Select Mail and then Signatures
15. Select the account you wish to use with your new signature
16. Paste the signature into that field and you’re good to go… I’m fairly certain

Unlike the way the Apple people make it out to be, I’ve followed the instructions about syncing with iCloud, but like many of you, that didn’t work for me.

Hope this works for you guys

Hello ryane77 - I just got off two calls with Apple Tech support, and a senior advisor told me this is not possible. You're right - it DOES say it should work in the link you provided, but multiple attempts have failed. Would you be able to post a screenshot of icloud Mac Mail signatures on one device that appeared as a result of syncing Mac Mail / iCloud Drive?

Hi David_Rahman,

Thank you for participating in the Apple Support Communities. We understand you'd like to sync your Apple Mail signatures across devices. Yes, you can. This article explains more about this: Create and use email signatures in Mail on Mac.

"Depending on how a recipient’s Mail server handles signatures, your signature may appear as an attachment or image to the recipient.

If you use iCloud Drive on your Mac and other devices, and have Mail selected in iCloud Drive options, your signatures are automatically updated and available on those devices. See Use iCloud Drive to store documents."

This article explains how to set up iCloud Drive if needed: Store files in iCloud Drive on Mac.

"Set up iCloud Drive

If you haven’t yet set up iCloud Drive on this Mac, you can do it now in iCloud settings.

1. On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > System Settings, then click [your name] at the top of the sidebar. If you don’t see your name, click Sign in with your Apple ID to enter your Apple ID or to create one.
2. Click iCloud on the right, click iCloud Drive, then turn on Sync this Mac.
3. If Sync this Mac isn’t shown, click Turn On.
4. Click Done."

Take care.

Hi David_Rahman,

Thanks for following up. The information above is verifiable in the Apple resource Create and use email signatures in Mail on Mac, so if you're finding your signatures do not sync, there might be other things to consider. It sounds like you already double-checked the requirements in the post above.

To clarify a few other points, are you using iCloud mail, or a third-party email address?

Also, can you fill us in on exactly what's going on? Are you creating a signature on your Mac and it doesn't appear under Settings > Mail > Signatures on your iPhone, or something else? Knowing the details may help point toward steps you can try.

As a general rule, it's a good starting point to ensure you're running the latest software on any devices involved. We recommend backing up before updating:

Update your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

Update macOS on Mac - Apple Support

Cheers.

Yeah, I have this issue too. In my scenario, I have an HTML code signature created using the process outlined here: https://www.daretothink.co.uk/html-email-signature-in-apple-mail/

I've been using signatures created from those instructions for almost 10 years. I recall that I had to do something different to get it to work in iOS when emailing from my phone but I think it was a simple as copying & pasting the signature on my phone from a sent message. I say 'recall' because that has continued to work without issue since I did it the first time and survives through iOS upgrades and new devices without fail. Huzzah and kudos there, Apple. You'd think that the process would be that simple on desktop OS, but it's not. Seriously don't understand how Apple hasn't figured that one out yet... Boo. Hiss.

And syncing? Pffft, THAT is, as far as I can tell, the root of the problem that I still haven't figured out how to work around.

Everything was fine as signatures go until I put another Mac into service. The moment I set up signatures on the new Mac Studio, the ones on my MacBook Pro stopped working. The named signature was still present, but it reverted to the generic "Name, sent from my ______" nomenclature that the OS plugs in by default when you create a new signature. And when I fixed it on my MacBook Pro using the same process, the signature on my Mac Studio was overwritten to the default text. I've gone back forth until I decided I just couldn't have a proper signature on one of devices. How very Windows 95 of you Apple.

When you create an HTML signature, you have to use TextEdit to put the info into an existing signature (again, why Apple????) but if you don't lock the document, the moment you launch Mail it will overwrite whatever you put in there with that default text. I have a sneaking feeling that the OS is doing some SUDO black magic when syncing accounts that allows it to overwrite whatever signature you created regardless of whether it's locked or not. But why? Who knows...

This whole process makes is seem like Apple has no idea how professionals use their products. But that's nothing new (#finalcutprodevteam).

ryane77,

I am having the same or similar problem. I just got a new M2 max Macbook Pro and when setting up the mail app all of my signatures disappeared after I set them up. My icloud drive is set to sync mail but each time I add a signature it is removed when I close and reopen the mail app.

my prior computer also has the setting on, and is holding all the correct signatures, but they are not coming over to the new computer. everythign else is sync'ed over from documents and icloud info, that I can find so far, except the mail signatures.

do I just need to turn off the sync here?

Well… never mind. Where “Signature” in the Settings app shows my logo, any email I create now only shows filename.png and not the actual logo.

I worked with Apple Mail years ago and came to the realization that this is not a professional email program, so went to Outlook. Came back to try this and while they have made some needed improvements, the Mail program is deficient for business use. Outlook functionality is very far ahead still. I’ll give it another 10 years and try it again

When I got my iMac in 2003 (let's not discuss my IIe), I was amazed at how wonderful the OS and apps environment were—a sheer joy to use. It is time for Mr. F (with his 9-figure net worth) to move on and let someone who cares manage the OS and apps ecosystem. There are dozens of these brain farts throughout the OS and Apps. I ended up creating a text replacement for my signature with the obvious drawback of no formatting. But hey, better than wasting yet more of my valuable time trying to resolve this. Maybe VisonOS resolves this. ROFLMFAO. I feel ya Vince!

The bain of my existence. I can’t understand how this is still an issue.

.

Amazingly, signatures on iOS 17.3 work great. No over-writing.