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Brian.Black Author

Level 1

19 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

Top-ranking reply

Brian.Black Author

Level 1

19 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

DL123

Level 1

0 points

Mar 3, 2012 9:37 AM in response to Brian.Black

Brian,

Thanks for this - i've been trying to figure this out, on and off, for several weeks - it was VERY frustrating but I'm grateful you solved it.

Thanks

AFear

Level 1

0 points

Jun 28, 2012 5:03 PM in response to aklick

I have this same exact problem as everyone else. My primary AppleID is my gmail account and when my wife sends me calendar invites they dont show up.

Apple please fix this.

MacMarkT

Level 1

0 points

Sep 24, 2012 7:35 PM in response to o1sowise

Interesting place to hide a 'feature' 🙂

Any option to change it in-app from OSX or IOS?

Thank you!

us326787

Level 1

0 points

Mar 10, 2013 1:50 PM in response to us326787

Sorry..dont understnad why the above does not show up correct.

Solution...in your invitation replace gmail.com with googlemail.com

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 😁

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'

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.

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

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

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