Using alias as default email instead of main iCloud address

Here is what I did to compose and send emails using my Alias on my iPhone 4S. Hope it works for you too.

Go to your iCloud account online. https://www.icloud.com/

Enter your main account username and password in the silver iCloud box that opens.

Click on the blue Mail icon.

Click on the "Show Action Menu" icon in the upper Right side of your icloud mail. It looks like a black gear or wheel.

Click on Preferences.

Click on Second Tab "Addresses" icon.

Check to see if your Alias names are listed on the left side column.

If Alias names are not there, click on on "+Add Alias".

Then Check-Mark the box "Receive mail and Send mail using this Alias.

Choose a Color for your Alias if you wish to assign emails by color.

Then Click on Done

Then click on the Composing icon, and look for the Identity section half way down, and from the pulldown menu, you can select which alias you wish to use in the "Send New Messages From".

*You will be able to change this "sent from" in your iphone 4S Mail App as you compose each email.

Add a Signature if you wish.

Then Click on Done.

Sign Out of your Online iCloud account.

As this account info goes up into the Cloud, your iphone 4S will then show your Alias choices when you begin to compose your email.

Create an email on your iPhone 4S, then in the "From" pull-down menu, select the Alias you wish to use when sending this email.

Works like a charm.

*Remember, 1st you must ensure your Alias is correct in iCloud online*.

Your iPhone 4S will add it "auto-magically"!

Good Luck to you

Although that is correct, that doesn't allow you to set it as a default. I am in the same position as the original poster. I want my alias to be my default "from" address. Changing it for every email is annoying and cumbersome. Since it's doable in the web based client, it should be doable on the mobile devices.

Set up iCloud on your iOS as normal.

Now switch off mail in iCloud on your iOS device. You now need to create a separate imap account for your iCloud mail.

Create a new email account 'other'.

Use the following settings

Email address: enter your default email alias as address no.1, then list all aliases you also want to use separated by a comma. You don't need to include your iCloud logon which means you can prevent ever revealing it. E.g. icloudalias1@me.com, icloudalias2@me.com

Host name: imap.mail.me.com

Username: your iCloud logon

Outgoing server: smtp.me.com

n.b. outgoing server will need your iCloud logon credentials to send

This also allows you to use secure email certificates with the default email alias, as the current implementation restricts use of a cert to the default address on your account (normally your iCloud logon).

Simples!

.....i so wish apple would hurry up and implement a default alias on ios......but they are awesome and will eventually get round to it.

Will this still allow iCloud synchronization across all devices, ie iPhone, iPad and MacBook? I don't want to have to open mail on all three devices...

Short answer, yes, everything is synced.

iCloud mail is simply IMAP mail wrapped up in the iCloud interface for usability. All changes are enacted on the server.

So when you delete an email, create an email folder etc ....all clients will see it, whether that be the MacBook, iPad, iPhone etc.

You don't need to have Mail logged in on your MacBook to sync the changes. Just log on your Mac as normal and you'll find any changes from your iPhone will be actioned.

snowboardblack,

You helped me a lot so far, but 1 final question: can I use a different full name per alias in ios5?

I can sent using different e-mail adresses (aliases), but the receiver still sees the same name.

eg. Me <me@me.com> and Me <someoneelse@me.com> is what happens on the iPhone.

If I sent from OS X mail this is what happens:

Me <me@me.com> and Someoneelse <someoneelse@me.com>

The last thing is what I also want on my iOs devices

Happy to help.

That's a good question. Real ninjacraft required here....

Here's my best guess at this one. It's probably not the perfect solution, it's a workaround, but should work if you're careful about what address pops up when you hit reply.

So, Follow my guidance above for creating your IMAP account. Except what you're going to do is create a separate IMAP account for each alias.

So.....Account/alias 1

=======

Create a new email account 'other'.

For the following fields enter

Name: Me

Email address: me@me.com

Complete all other fields as per the above post, remembering to use your actual iCloud name for the login, actualme@me.com

=================

Onto account/alias 2

================

Create a new email account 'other'.

For the following fields enter

Name: Someoneelse

Email address: Someoneelse@me.com

Complete all other fields as per the above post, remembering to use your actual iCloud name for the login, actualme@me.com

=============

And so on.......

So now when you send email from your different aliases, you'll have a different name identified with each alias as you would normally through iCloud. You're just doing it manually rather than using the server version.

The one problem with this method is that it will download two copies of your mail as you've technically set up two duplicates of your email inbox.

To mitigate you can do two things

First: In Mail, on ios, don't use 'all inboxes'. If you do you will see duplicates for each IMAP box that is added

To correct this, Select one of your aliases as the inbox that you work in. It should receive all mail sent to any of your aliases so you'll still see all mail.

Second: go into settings, select mail and select the 'Fetch New Data' option. Now tap advanced.

For the primary inbox you selected just above, set it to 'Push' or 'Fetch'. Leave your contacts, calendars as push as well.

For the others, set them to 'Manual'.

This will reduce the amount of data you download and, for most of the time, ensure that only one of your IMAPs is downloading all your new mail......as opposed to all the IMAP inboxes downloading duplicates

Phew.

Hope that helps.

Thanks again, but I already tried your suggestion. Apple won't allow me to create a second account with alias 2. When I try to, it says my iCloud account is already present.

For now I've sloved it by removing my full name in my iCloud account on my iOS devices. When I sent mail using an alias from an iOS device, the receiver now only sees the e-mail adress without a name. I can live with that.

Ruud

Wierd. It worked on mine when I tried it.

Did you disable Mail in your iCloud account setting on ios.

On my device, I use all my iCloud email exclusively through IMAP accounts.

If you have Mail switched on in the iCloud settings then maybe that's the reason....Either that or maybe there's some difference in the ios 5 variants?

Hey there, what do you think about this:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4122115