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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

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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

Brian.Black Author

Level 1

18 points

Apr 5, 2014 4:24 AM in response to ezradallas

I'd you're asking about the janedoe+calendar@gmail.com addresses you can send to, those aren't aliases that require any setup--they should just work if sent to.

If you're saying that sometimes iCloud invites sent to accounts at work don't get delivered, I'd wager that's going to be a case of them sometimes being blocked by anti-SPAM software. I'm pretty sure the iCloud calendar invites are sent from an automated machine address rather than your actual iCloud address, and this will sometimes set off some flags in anti-SPAM products.

May 6, 2014 7:34 AM in response to Brian.Black

I was having same issue. All I did to fix was log out of my apple and then log back in. Then my "invite" option on my calendar showed up.

1. on my phone go to itunes

2. click on apple id and logout

3. then log back in

Now when I go back into calendar the invite option appears.

foodsage

Level 1

4 points

Jul 10, 2015 9:01 AM in response to PatrickNL

Patrick - am having this problem now and that box: Uncheck "use icloud for incoming inviations" is no longer present on iCloud so I cannot uncheck it!! What or how do I stop this blocking of invites from happening?

svonrump

Level 1

0 points

Dec 4, 2015 11:55 AM in response to DavidATX

Dave, Brian, you guys are badass! I spent hours trying to figure this out, and when I logged into iCloud (for the first time ever; I don't even use it) sure enough, the email notification was unchecked. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Dec 16, 2015 7:28 PM in response to svonrump

Unless I am mistaken, I don't think this solves the underlying problem.

I do not use iCloud for calendar but I work with someone who does.

When she sends me an invite, I never receive it (because of the problems identified in this thread - my email address was used to register for iCloud).

If I change the "Advanced" setting in iCloud - for the calendar I had never even looked at - I should now see the invites via email.

So if I understand this correctly, the user that wishes to use iCloud for calendar must either know or try to work out whether a person to whom she sends an invite also uses iCloud for Calendar or not or if, like many, they have used their email address to register with iCloud but don't use iCloud for Calendar. In other words, this is not something the sender can control and must rely on the recipient knowing that they have to make a change...?

Am I understanding this correctly?

If yes, I'd be curious to understand how business users have solved this without having to contact each of their customers.

Thanks,

John

tiajjm

Level 1

9 points

Jan 21, 2016 6:43 AM in response to Brian.Black

Has there been an update on this? I have found that not only do gmail users but Hotmail or any other email address won't receive my iCloud invitations if they used that same address to sign up for iCloud in the past. And there's no way anyone can give me that information prior to me sending invites. I've tested this extensively and to date, aside from changing gmail to googlemail, (what to do for Hotmail or any other provider??) then this is the lone reason I won't use iCloud invitations.

zinacef

Level 10

88,407 points

Jan 21, 2016 7:10 AM in response to tiajjm

tiajjm wrote:

Has there been an update on this? I have found that not only do gmail users but Hotmail or any other email address won't receive my iCloud invitations if they used that same address to sign up for iCloud in the past. And there's no way anyone can give me that information prior to me sending invites. I've tested this extensively and to date, aside from changing gmail to googlemail, (what to do for Hotmail or any other provider??) then this is the lone reason I won't use iCloud invitations.

Has been working well for me thus far. My wife's Apple ID is an @gmail address and sends me invitations which I receive, and vice versa, I have an @gmail address for my Apple ID and I send her invitations which she also receives.

Sep 21, 2016 9:11 PM in response to DavidATX

Ya, once I had a chat with apple why my daughter couldn't email or send us a garage tune she composed so we could use it as a ring tone. The apple rep said he couldn't help that it was embedded "deep, deep inside" I think apple is getting high on something - let me just tell them one word: there was Kodak, soon: HP, guess whose turn it will be, apple???

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