451 4.5.3 Too many rejections; try again later.

I'm having exactly the same problem here in Japan for more than a week.

I have my Gmail automatically forward incoming emails to me.com account, but messages are randomly rejected or delayed by Apple's server. This random delays completely ruined the chronological order of my me.com inbox.

Perhaps I should consider to quit using me.com emails. I originally started using it as a means of getting notifications on my iPhone 3G. At that time, the dedicated Gmail app didn't even exist, so forwarding Gmail to me.com was the only reliable way to get notifications in my country. Now that Gmail app has been working (almost) flawlessly, I can stop the forwarding anytime. But something in me doesn't want to fiddle my primary Gmail account on my iPhone...

Same issue here. I work at a small company and for the past 5 years we've used a gmail address to send out nightly group emails to select contractors and freelance employees...with no issues. Suddenly last week many of our clients with mac.com, me.com and icloud.com email addresses started bouncing back with the same message. Will report to Applecare now - crossing fingers they can end this headache soon.

I too have been ripping hair out of my head over this until I found this discussion. I was expecting this to be trending on Twitter by now, which seems to be the only way to get corporations to act on their responsibilities these days. I'll add to the litany of complaints here, but I doubt that it will do much to get Apple to acknowledge and fix this. And apparently, neither does calling support, a Genius bar (do those still exist) or Apple Care where you only get the runaround.

For there record: I also auto-forward mail from my Gmail to my me.com / icloud.com account which worked well for years and suddenly started acting up a few days ago.

I don't have Twitter because I'm old and tired but anybody on this thread who DOES have it should keep inundating Apple and Gmail. They really only listen to people when it looks like their business could be hurt.

I'm sure you kids on Twitter are already doing it but, if not, please start!

Just called Applecare to lodge a complaint. I'm having the same issue. Got disconnected, but she logged the issue prior to the disconnect.

These boards are for DIY solutions; Apple doesn't read them.

How to fix this problem: Call Apple. It's pointless to ask here, this is a problem between email servers.

This is the main thread about this issue: Gmail emails are delayed or not sending to iCloud

and based on their conversations with Apple, they're saying everyone should call Apple to report it.

800-275-2273

Make sure you tell Apple that you're experiencing this across all devices (so it's an iCloud problem, not a device/software problem) and that it is specific to Gmail emails only, and it doesn't matter if the emails contain only one word of text or large attachments.

I just called them and got a case number. Spoke to a supervisor who said I was only the second person he had heard from with this problem, so unless more people call, they don't know it's an issue.

Thank you for that number. I just called and they were very unaware. I don't have AppleCare but it sent me to a person anyway and I opened a case with them.

Thanks again for sharing, I'll make sure others I know call as well!

Just spoke to Apple support too. The first level rep said he hadn't heard about the issue yet but did a Google search and reported that indeed, as I had said, he could see there were reports appearing on the web. So he escalated me to his supervisor. She apologized eloquently that she didn't have a fix for me individually, but agreed that there really did seem to be a recent systemic problem and implied they had an idea of what might be the cause. She gave me her direct dial if I had more questions and thanked me for calling. All in all a great support experience even if they didn't have an instant fix.

Just to illustrate the weirdness, which she agreed was pretty interesting: my Gmail account fetches my iCloud mail, and my Mail app on my iMac displays both my iCloud mail and my Gmail mail, which means that normally if I get an email sent to my iCloud account, it turns up in both inboxes on the Mail app. But today the Mail app was displaying a test message sent from Gmail to iCloud mail in its Gmail inbox...but hadn't received it in its iCloud inbox. Nor was it appearing up on the web either. In other words, the Gmail system was having more luck accessing Apple's backend mail stores than Apple's own front-end apps. Strange and marvelous.

Don't know if it's indicative of a fix, but in the past few minutes iCloud has finally started displaying many, but not all, of the test messages I sent two hours ago much as though a log jam had broken open. So perhaps Apple is on it.

Craziness. I had opened a case two days and heard nada, but I, too, just now had a bunch of gmails dated over the last two days come in, and a test message came right away. Fingers crossed.

The Support Supervisor actually called me back this morning to report that they believed they had the email problem fixed and to say that Engineering wanted to apologize for the inconvenience the glitch had caused. I have never in my life imagined support from any company could be so personal and apologetic! Oh - and it's also very nice they fixed the problem, too, and fast.