Main @mac.com email address not working

Check out this page: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4597

Specifically, this bit:

Basically, you need to sign up for iCloud and then your @mac.com email address will work on the new system.

If you've migrated to iCloud, your main address will be me.com. The .mac addresses will be aliases to the me.com address.You must also go to the mail prefs at the iCloud site under the Accounts tab and check to send and recieve messages for the aliases.

Since the .mac addresses will be aliases to the main account, all mail will appear in the iCloud account. The iCloud account will set up manually when you sign into iCloud via System Preferences>iCloud. So, you don't need the manually set up accounts.

I have a bad connection at the moment, so I can't search anything. But that's what I thought. I could be wrong. Does the .mac address show as a full account in iCloud, or alias. Do you have separate login for each? I look when I get my internet fixed, but right now I'm at a crawl. Don't even know if this will go through.

Paul Tansley wrote:

Thank you for the replies - but neither really helps.

I migrated to iCloud months ago. Everything has worked fine up until 2 days ago. So that's not the issue.

I've been using my @mac.com address for my iCloud account - and its worked fine up until now. It is my login for my iCloud and my apple ID. I've not actually read anything about the @me.com being the main address, although I know apple persuades new users to this address. Personally, as I've always had a @mac.com address since it was launched - I'd like to keep it. As I also said, my other @mac.com address is working just fine. Just not my main one.

Glenn - you mention that there is a setting in Mail prefs to send and receive from aliases. However, my @mac.com address is not strictly an alias. Its an account in its own right. In fact, if I log into iCloud, it states EMAIL ADDRESS and lists both my @me.com and my @mac.com underneath it. So both are acceptable - so far as I have always understood it.

Any other ideas anyone?

You are correct, your .mac address is not an alias, same for me, I started with .Mac and stayed with that address all the way thru Mobile Me to iCloud. As to the password issue, if your password does not meet these (minimum) requirements for iCloud, change it.

8 character minimum, 1 number and 1 uppercase letter minimum. It may well be non-complaint and working yesterday, but that was yesterday or whenever.

I must have read that wrong or just don't remember. I can't find that article. It was a while back.

But I'm curious. If you have more than one .mac or .me address listed in iCloud, do both show up as separate accounts in Mail and are they both created automatically when singing into iCloud???

Only one shows up (.Mac) in Mail, both show up on the website, .Mac first, both listed as eMail addresses. I login to iCloud with .Mac (perversely Mobile Me used .Mac as my address but required that I use .Me to login) mail addressed to .Me reaches me. I have no aliases listed, go figure.

Well I'm thinking if only one shows in Mail, but you can recieve both accounts messages there, then it must be treating one as an alias.

My first account is the .me. It's the main account. My second is an alias. When I select it, I have a box to check to send and recieve from that address. It is an alias I created. If yours are truely full addresses, then you shouldn't have that choice. But then again, maybe the migrated .mac accounts don't show as an alias, but are still treated like one in the system.

I don't have a .mac address, so I can't test or verify. But when I first signed up for iCloud, they gave me the me.com address. I seem to remember it saying that if I had a .mac address, I could also transfer it and continue to use it as an alias to the me.com address. Since it has been so long, I can't remember for sure.

I never used MMe before, so maybe it was POP at one time. The IMAPs I used were able to be POPed, like GMail. But iCloud is strictly IMAP. If you transfered the addresses to iCloud, then I don't see how they worked that way. Maybe they are still transisitioning.

I understand you and CS are saying the addresses don't show up as an alias, but that's exactly how they are acting. Both addresses show up in one mailbox. That's exactly how an alias works on other accounts. I said I read an artlcle, but the more I thought about it, I believe what I was refering to was what I read when I actually signed up with iCloud. But I really can't be sure anymore.

So, I curious to see the outcome and what information comes from this if any. If I come upon any information, I'll post back.

I have a @Mac.com and a @me.com address. When I got the email the other week telling me that an iCloud address was reserved for me, I activated it.

Now, the only address that shows up as my email address is the @iCloud.com. The @Mac.com and @me.com show up as aliases. Also, a third alias, the exact same one as my @iCloud.com shows up in the list of aliases.

I get all of my email and I can send from any of the addresses, but I cannot add an alias; and, I don't understand why iCloud lists my @Mac.com and @me. com as aliases rather than as full accounts.

What's strange about this is that I also activated my husband's @iCloud.com address when he got notified. But, he retained his @me.com together with his new iCloud address, and he has no aliases. (He never had an @Mac.com address.

Does anyone understand this? Can this be explained by Glenn Leblanc's understanding that the addresses are acting as aliases whether or not they show up as aliases, or is there some other explanation?

You can only have 3 aliases at one time. If you delete one, it takes some time for it to delete from the system before you can add another.

I can't explain why your original .mac or .me addresses show up as aliases. Not sure you could have had both as the main before. If you never transfered them to iCloud before the deadline in July, that might explain why they show up as aliases and not main addresses. All the addresses will be usable and all will show up in the iCloud mailbox.

I did transfer them before the deadline, and they were not listed as aliases. They only became aliases when I responded to the email that had an iCloud address reserved for me, and I added that @iCloud address.

All are usable, so that is not the problem. What bothers me is that (1) my @iCloud address is not only listed as my email address, but it appears as an alias as well; and, (2) because my @Mac.com and @me.com are now aliases, I cannot add a separate alias since for some reason as I just noted, my @iCloud is also listed as an alias as well as my regular email. It's not a bad problem, just a troubling one. It takes away a degree of freedom I would like to have.

First, it's strange that you had to respond to an email. The email I got only listed instructions how to use the new address. The addresses were automatically added without me having to do anything. I didn't have a .mac address, so I don't know how that would affect anything. Possibly all .mac address became aliases, but someone else would have to comment on that. Also, my main Apple ID that my .me address was attatched to was an outside address, but I don't know if that has any affect on any changes.

When I go to the iCloud website and open mail's account preferences, the iCloud account shows my .me address and the added address (non alias). When I click on the alias I had before, it also has the .me alias and an iCloud alias for that address. Those are the only 2 in the account list though. Also, the add button shows I have 2 aliases remaining that I can add.

If I understand you correctly, the only main address you have is the iCloud.com with an alias for it in the alias box. When you click the iCloud icon in the list within the Account tab, does it show only the iCloud address. Under the iCloud icon, does it show 3 seperate aliases, or do you have to click on one to see the other addresses?

Note: As I said previously, iCloud will only allow 3 aliases to an account. Since you have 3, you can't add another until you delete one. After deleting one, I think you have to wait about a week or a little more before it completely deletes so you can add another.

There may be some glitch with your Apple ID that you may need to speek with Apple about if you want to solve the issue. But it really doesn't matter what you consider as a main address, in reality they all go to the same inbox and you can't configure different iCloud mailboxes to accept different addresses from the same Apple ID. The only way you can do that is to create a new Apple ID seperate from the original and add a second iCloud account to the Mail sys prefs pane as a seperate login. The only way to seperate them into different mailboxes is with rules or smart mailboxes.

Glenn,

Thank you for your explanation. I think I misstated myself. What I meant by saying I responded to the email is that I followed the instructions to start using the new address (compose and send an email using the iCloud address, which I then did).

Since my above posting, I have noticed something that makes me think the problem might not be a problem after all, and that I became concerned when I need not have.

When I check my account on Mail, I find all three addresses listed as aliases. The alias box has up and down arrows and the other two accounts show up. At the same time, the box labled email address has my iCloud address although it is grayed out. However, if I click on edit aliases (when I open the alias drop down) it takes me to iCloud, which lists all three addresses as my email addresses, and it does say I can have 3 aliases. So, although there is a discrepancy between Mail and iCloud, I suspect or at least hope that everything is o.k.

One thing that shook me up is that when I checked my husband's account to see if it was listed in the same manner as mine, it was not. He was never on .Mac, only MobileMe. And, he had both his email addresses listed in the box for email address in Mail preferences, and nothing listed as an alias. However, he is on Lion and I am on Mountain Lion and possibly that may be part of the difference.

In any case, I thank you for trying to help me, and I apologize for making what may well be a non-issue into an issue. And, since as you indicated they all do come to the same inbox, and since I have not had a problem sending or receiving mail, I suspect there will be no problem if I try to create an alias on iCloud. I thought Apple might still have .Mac and MobileMe servers up although the programs are themselves defunct. I now suspect I am wrong.

Many thanks,

Sara