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Level 1

18 points

iCloud calendar doesn't send invitations to Gmail users...

To clarify on the above post title: iCloud calendar invites sometimes send calendar invites to Gmail users, but not always.

It appears that if the user's Gmail account is associated with an AppleID account, then that user will not receive an iCloud calendar event invitation email. I discovered this when I began looking into why my wife did not receive an invite at her Gmail account, which also happens to be her primary AppleID for iTunes/AppStore purchases.

I found that my own primary AppleID, also associated with a Gmail account, did not receive invites, either. However, a test Gmail account I have, that has never been associated with Apple/iTunes/iCloud/etc., receives invites just fine. Also, MS Exchange mailboxes receive the invites properly, as do Yahoo accounts.

Any ideas as to what the secret is here? I cannot believe Apple would decide to prevent invites being sent out to 3rd party addresses that happen to also be AppleIDs on their own system, as that'd be quite ludicrous.

Posted on Nov 1, 2011 5:22 AM

Best reply

Brian.Black Author

Level 1

18 points

Posted on Nov 1, 2011 8:04 AM

Okay, so I've found something:

Until now, there have been many, many Apple product users who've created AppleIDs associated with external email accounts, including Gmail. Now that iCloud has been released, many of them have turned on portions of iCloud or perhaps gone so far as to create iCloud email addresses/aliases under their primary AppleID.

Here's where it gets weird: there's a setting in iCloud calendar preferences turned on by default called "Use iCloud for incoming invitations". What this does is, if an invitation is sent to that primary AppleID (which is most often an external address) or its associated, newly-created iCloud address, it'll get routed to iCloud, preventing (blocking) the invite from being forwarded to that external address.

For example, a user's primary, pre-iCloud AppleID is john1234@gmail.com. iCloud is opened to the public, he enables it on an iDevice or Lion OS X and it asks if him to enter his AppleID credentials (john1234@gmail.com) and asks if he wants to create an iCloud address, which he does, john1234@me.com.

From now on, let's presume he's continuing to use his john1234@gmail.com account, because he's not really sure yet that he wants to make the switch to iCloud for email, etc. At this point, if another iCloud user sends him a calendar invite at his primary email, john1234@gmail.com, Apple has decided it'll route this invite directly to his john1234@me.com iCloud alias, never letting it send out to his Gmail account.

So, assuming he's not yet using iCloud email/alendar, he'll be clueless as to why he never received the invite OR, if he is using iCloud email/calendar alongside his primary Gmail account, he'll probably wonder how in the world an invite sent from a friend to his Gmail account is now showing up in his iCloud inbox/calendar.

Why Apple's enabled this by default is beyond me. At this point, it's preventing me from going to iCloud full-time because I can't be sure invitees will get my calendar events!

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68 replies

Apr 7, 2013 5:50 PM in response to us326787

That works! use @googlemail.com instead of @gmail.com. (It also works for normal email.)

Wow. Thanks; now I won't have to get a divorce after all 😁

chip.r

Level 1

38 points

Apr 18, 2013 7:34 PM in response to Pittstown113

Interesting, I'm having this problem. Here are the details:

3 GMail users not receiving invitation.

1 work domain email address hosted at Google also not receiving invitation

1 GMail user did receive the invitation.

I've tried several things so far without success. Trying the "Receive iClound notifications..." option now.

Jun 1, 2013 8:12 AM in response to Brian.Black

Fixed the problem for REAL!!!

I have a gmail email account that is also my Apple ID. I had put my email address as the Recovery email for my girlfriend's Apple ID. Big mistake! Somehow Apple recognized this and wouldn't let me send invites to her email or anyone else's for that matter. I removed the gmail address from her account and I had partial success with invites. I could send her an invite, but she couldn't send me one. INVITES SENT TO A GMAIL APPLE ID WON'T WORK. I deleted My Vcard information in Contacts and then reentered the info, unchecked automatically retreive CalDAV invitations from mail (iCal preferences), and then logged into iCloud on Web and went to Calendar>preferences>advanced and selected send invites to Email instead of in App. Now all invites go to my email address where I can then accept and enter them into iCal. Wheww! Apple has made this complicated...just like a Windows problem...ouch.

bman7888

Level 1

0 points

Aug 6, 2013 5:48 AM in response to Brian.Black

Just experienced the same problem...my wife (who had a gmail account) did not receive an invitation. So I created an iCloud account instead, and the calendar received the invitation. It seems that iCloud stopped being able to utilize non iCloud accounts to communicate.

NZBred

Level 1

4 points

Sep 18, 2013 6:34 PM in response to aklick

Hi AKlick,

Just wanted to say thank you so much for your solution.

I have gmail as my main email/calendar and use iCloud for everything else i.e. reminders, contacts, tasks, etc.

For a few months now, all my calendar invites were coming up as iCloud even though I had GMail set up as my main calendar in my iPhone/iPad and iCloud was turned off. It as a pain because even though I changed the invite to gmail on my ipad, it wouldn't let me send an 'accept' or 'decline'.

Following instructions re: logging into www.icloud.com and changing 'use icloud for invitations' to 'use gmail for invitations', it works now and no more errors when I accept.

Thanks so much..

NZBred

Level 1

4 points

Sep 18, 2013 6:39 PM in response to NZBred

....sorry, that last part should have said that I clicked the advanced tab in calendar setting and then chose "send invites to Email' - which was my gmail - instead of 'In App'

troy186

Level 1

0 points

Oct 10, 2013 9:53 AM in response to DavidATX

This soultion worked for us, but the only problem i still see is anyone that has created a itunes/icloud account that has the wrong setting, tha does not use icloud as there primary calander will never get the invites,

is there any work around?

DavidATX wrote:

Brian,

This is now working correctly for me. I went to icloud.com, selected Calendar, Preferences, Advanced, and unchecked "Use iCloud for incoming invitations". Now it works perfectly - I now get an iCloud users calendar invite to my gmail.

Thanks again for the troubleshooting. I'll have AppleCare update my ticket so they have record of this solution.

Dave

blueOrbit

Level 1

104 points

Oct 17, 2013 6:58 AM in response to Brian.Black

I was having a similar problem, but it went a little deeper. My wife could not receive calendar invites at her Gmail address because her Gmail address is also her iCloud login. My Gmail address is (was) also my iCloud login. I have it working now with a fairly simple workaround. Here are the steps I took:

-I changed my iCloud login to a different e-mail address (outlook.com) and that didn't solve it.

-I created an entirely new iCloud login, but she still could not receive invites

-I tried sending invites to other e-mail services, like Yahoo, and those worked fine

-I tried sending to her throwaway Gmail address and that worked fine

OK, so at this point it definitely appears to be related to the fact that her Gmail address was also her iCloud login. The way I saw it, there were three solutions. Either she had to change her iCloud login, or use a different e-mail for calendaring, or I had to stop using iCloud calendar.

I like iCloud despite its quirks so I didn't want to stop using it. While she might be willing to change her login because she loves me, that's not really practical because there are sure to be other people out there that have the same issue. Asking all of your friends, family, and colleagues to change their iCloud logins because you can't send them calendar invites is kind of crazy. Then I remembered that Gmail allows modifiers for e-mail addresses. You can put periods ( . ) anywhere in the address and/or a plus symbol ( + ) at the end plus a combination of characters.

-So if her e-mail was janedoe@gmail.com, and that was also her iCloud login, then I can send the calendar invite to jane.doe@gmail.com or janedoe+calendar@gmail.com or jane.d.o.e@gmail.com and she'll get the invite.

The trick there is that those other e-mails addresses are not, as far as Apple is concerned, her iCloud login, but they are, as far as Google is concerned, her e-mail address.

eik517

Level 1

0 points

Dec 5, 2013 1:43 PM in response to blueOrbit

Thank you so much for writing this out -- you helped my husband and me immensely.

Mar 19, 2014 6:54 AM in response to blueOrbit

excellent solution BlueOrbit for getting those invites to gmail users. I also am having an issue where I am only getting invites sent to me via email. I have the settings correct via the icloud.com website "in-app notifications." I have to sift through my email and then manually add the event to the calendar.

I have seen other post where users have changed their appleID to fix this problem, but since my appleID is @icloud.com, it cannot be changed. Any solutions?

blueOrbit

Level 1

104 points

Apr 3, 2014 4:06 PM in response to mattopotamus11

Matttopotamus,

Sorry about the late reply. I'm note sure I understand what you're trying to describe. Are you saying that calendar invites sent to your iCloud account from people not using iCloud don't show up as a calendar invite in your iOS or Mac calendar?

Apr 3, 2014 4:46 PM in response to blueOrbit

Correct. Even though I have in app notifications enabled it still comes to my email. I then have to click the attachment and add it to my calendar manually. I cannot change my Apple ID either since it is an icloud address

Brian.Black Author

Level 1

18 points

Apr 3, 2014 5:21 PM in response to mattopotamus11

I believe what you are describing is the intended behavior. Only when another iCloud email user sends you a calendar invite will it use the Calendar app's in-app notifications. Otherwise, it'll just get sent as an email with attached calendar invite. This difference in behavior is just like you might experience with a corporate email environment with calendar invites sent from other users in your organization vs. sent from external third parties outside your business.

Apr 4, 2014 4:01 AM in response to Brian.Black

oh, good to know. It was seriously driving me insane. Thanks!

Apr 4, 2014 9:44 PM in response to blueOrbit

Thank you! So I assume that user has to set the alias up in their gmail account. Sorry if this is a stupid questions. Any thoughts on them not getting to my companies outlook accounts, some get them and some do not. Wonder if it is the same thing.

iCloud calendar doesn't send invitations to Gmail users...