Can I use iCloud Mail for business?

Hey Abraham, good luck using iCloud with your own personal domain. It can be done, but can be tricky. Get comfortable, it's worth reading that thread all the way through as things have evolved a bit since 2011.

Are you saying Ergolad that with the new icloud you can use a personal domain? Or only if you had one on .me? mine is on Google but for sure I would like to standardize on iCloud because I have an iPad, iPhone and Mac and theoretically it should integrate better than all google.

You can only use a personal domain as the 'From' address in iCloud if in Mail or another desktop client you manually set the outgoing server in the iCloud account to something other than iCloud's SMTP server - you would use the SMTP server for your domain. You cannot do this with iCloud webmail. You would have to do this individually on all devices - I assume it's possible on an iOS device but I don't know for sure.

Thanks Roger. Just to make sure I understand; You are saying set up both accounts (iCloud and my own domain) in the Apple Mail client (or whatever client I am using) and then of course I can change it on each email I send out. Is that what you are saying?

Should have added, has Apple said if they will do something similar to Google where they will let iCloud be used with your own domain?

amg1957 wrote:

Thanks Roger. Just to make sure I understand; You are saying set up both accounts (iCloud and my own domain) in the Apple Mail client (or whatever client I am using) and then of course I can change it on each email I send out. Is that what you are saying?

What you can do is to set up iCloud mail manually using the setting here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202304

BUT instead of the settings given there for SMTP, set the SMTP server to the one for your own domain. Then the account will receive from iClou dbut automatically send via your domain. Of course this way you won't get a record of sent mail in the iCloud account itself.

There has been no indication that Apple are considering changing the present restriction.

I am SO tempted NOT to respond to this, but can't help myself. Abraham, if all you wanted to do is forward your mail from one provider to iCloud, I congratulate you. But if you wanted to combine your iCloud account with your business domain email, so that you can receive and send from your domain using iCloud on your devices, then alas, forwarding alone will not solve your problem.

Roger is right, the web UI for iCloud will not currently allow for you to send from your own domain, but as you may have found, you can certainly forward (if your domain mail host allows this service) to any address you want to, iCloud included. Take care to make sure SPAM filters at your domain don't inadvertently snag mail though, or worse, copies build up, maxing out your hosting limits.

As for sending from your domain, spoofing outgoing SMTP servers, this is a bit more complex and I recommend you read the thread I mentioned. I have 3 iCloud accounts set up in Mail.app on my MacBook Pro, and in the iOS Mail app on my iPhone 6, iPhone 4S (currently acting as an iPod Touch) and an iPad 2. All three independently receive forwarded mail from domains other than iCloud, AND all three have their SMPT servers set to reply by default from their respective alternate domains. It's been pretty seamless. And I can report that the sent mail does indeed get stored in the iCloud Sent folder. Which I love.

I admittedly haven't had to set this up in a long while, and with my latest devices the settings just transferred over. It may be even easier now. I haven't tried it, but it use to be that you couldn't manually change the outgoing mail servers on an iCloud account, but tricking the applications by creating an IMAP account, you could. What you'd end up with was an iCloud account with editable outgoing SMTP settings.

I followed up just in case someone who actually wants a more complete solution happened to be reading this. The beauty of all this is you have the smooth integration of iCloud push, syncing all your email across devices with little delay and very reliably. The times I've used IMAP alone, things have been far from reliable and nowhere near synced. As for Exchange, the experimenting I did just didn't work as smoothly as iCloud using Apple applications: archiving, flagging, marking messages as replied/read/unread/forwarded, moving messages from one account to another, etc. Maybe if I worked on it more I could get Exchange to play the way I want, but I've not dedicate the time. What I have works for my needs.

Hope this helps clarify for those in need.

Got it. How does that differ from what Ergolad is saying? Ergolad, if you are reading this do you have step by step instructions of what you are saying? Then I can try both methods. Thanks

Ergolad has expanded on what has already been said. What it boils down to is:

You can usually set the domain's emails service to forward messages to the domain address on to iCloud.

On each individual device you can set iCloud mail up manually instead of having the system do it for you, and you set the incoming and outgoing servers up separately: incoming mail is using the iCloud server but outgoing mail uses the domain's outgoing (SMTP) server. Then you can choose the iCloud account in mail and you will by default send as from the domain address.

You can only do this on computer and iOS devices; you cannot change the outgoing server on the iCloud website. Obviously you would receive the forwarded email, but if you send a message from there it will show the @icloud.com address as the 'From' address.

Well put Roger.

amg1957, what Roger and I are saying is the same thing, though Roger much more concisely. As I mentioned, I haven't had to set this up in a while, but you are welcome to read the lengthy thread where this procedure is outlined in detail. It has evolved over time, so I recommend reading it through completely. Essentially though, the basic premise hasn't changed since it was first introduced.

Here is the complete thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3373919

Here is a particular post that might be relevant:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3373919?answerId=18026773022#18026773022

Roger also provided a link that offers the details to manually set up iCloud server settings (which have appeared to simplify a bit since I posted my instructions. Though my settings still work on all my devices):

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202304

Got it. Since I use Google Docs to host my business, I will do the following:

1) Set up my domain email to forward to my iCloud account

2) manually set up my IOS and MAC with:

1) iCloud email and password, but using incoming as iCloud server and outgoing as my google server

This means all email will come to iCloud. I can use my folders in iCloud, etc. one downside is Google then sees all my incoming emails since they host my domain and now all my outgoing emails since I will be using their outgoing server. The advantage is all email will show my personal domain versus the iCloud one.

I sure hope Apple starts hosting these domains. This is just too crazy!