@ace Yeah, I suppose you’re right in that respect. For some, the ease of keeping what they have coming in to their current inbox, and carrying on without dealing with an account switch over is the biggest attraction.
Although, if you’re setting up a completely new family email system (obviously Apple aren’t aiming this at any type of business usage beyond maybe a sole trader), IMO I still think most would likely be better off with something else like Fastmail or other, at least for the better tech support benefits and should they want to expand email aliases later – even with the small cost involved.
Totally agreed — I’d never encourage anyone to set up a custom email domain and use iCloud as the backend if there isn’t already a ton of history there.
I found a reasonable domain for my kids, and iCloud mail is one of my options for the backend. If they don’t like it later, they can switch it to something another backend. I already pay for Apple One.
I use a different domain for myself, with Fastmail as a backend.
I recently set up a new domain+email for my sister’s side business. Google Suite hasn’t been free for a long time AFAICT. I set hers up with Zohomail, which still was free.
As an alternative to Fastmail, and for low-volume use, I’ve heard that Migadu email is OK as well.
I’m just trying it out now and get the same result. Nope–no idea. Given this is now being postponed, I suspect it’s on ice for a while anyway. Oh, well. I have a nice, shiny new domain to try it with …
FWIW, you can reach the FeedBack Assistant on the web at https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/ . It’s the same tool for reporting bugs on iOS and macOS, but online. You can report the issue against the beta iCloud there. I don’t know whether the public-facing feedback form does the same thing or not, but if you file into the bug reporter you might get a response (but probably not unless it’s been widely reported).
A few years ago, I decided to go to war against spam. I was getting around 50 to 80 per day.
I have had my own domain address for 20 years and I suppose, especially in the old days, it would be harvested from those endlessly infected PCs, when PC viruses were all the rage.
Going to war meant buying a 2nd domain and using it uniquely for throw away email addresses. So anywhere that asked for an email address, got one of those and my 20 year old email is used solely for email with people I know, or for business. The crux/enabler though, was that my domain name provider, added Sieve filters to its service. So using these, I’ve been able to simply reject everything that isn’t legit and on the 3 occasions that one of these disposable email address has been procured by a spammer, it took less than 2 minutes to delete and I never hear from the spammers again. Crucially though and unlike Junk/Spam filters, I don’t have to go through my mail to check for ‘false positives’. That’s the thing with Junk/Spam filters… you still have to check everything. So they only delay the hassle. They don’t eliminate it.
So it was with a little ironic smile today, that I see that Apple are introducing something similar with iCloud+ in Monterey. You will be able to easily generate disposable email addresses in order to be able to protect your email address from baddies. This won’t help for addresses that are already receiving a lot of spam, but it will help going forward, by reducing future abuse. I wonder if this will be available for ‘own domain’ addresses as well?? There was mention of only 3 aliases, but this looks like a different feature.
Maybe someone at Apple read about my system which, BTW, worked. I won the war and I’m down to a handful of spam a year.
Yup! I’m late to the game, but that’s exactly how I intend to go about this, too, but with one addition: using control over the submission server, I will rewrite outgoing mail so that its envelope sender and sender header fields will be rewritten depending on the initial recipient. That way, I can participate seamlessly in mailing lists and other places without having to maintain a zillion aliases, as is now the case. I once did this using TMDA, which is a challenge-response system which I found to be very effective against spam, but which made me rather … unpopular. I’ll reimplement just that functionality myself, and I can reject any mail I don’t want outright at SMTP time. I’ll probably continue to use maildrop, though, rather than sieve, as it’s more flexible (and doesn’t do my head in in the way sieve does).
It’s good that Apple are bringing this to the hoi polloi though. The idea must be getting about, and it’s clearly the only way. I don’t like heuristic spam filters (I’ve been impressed by learning classifiers), but regardless, the problem of false positives and all the collateral is real enough that I’d like to put an end to it. Plus of course quickly rejecting unwanted mail is faster than spam processing; on my last mail server, a Pentium II, I was spending 90 seconds to filter spam! That’s obviously not going to be true now, but I still want to economise as much as possible. Yes, indeed. Death to spam!
Unfortunately I took your recommendation and moved one of my domains to them. Now I have to wait 60 days to move it again. Shame on me for taking your advice without doing enough due diligence.
Sorry you’re unhappy with Epik. I actually recommended Hover in the article, since it’s the most newbie-friendly.
Whichever registrar you switch to, I recommend thoroughly vetting them to make sure they don’t hold any domains you find objectionable (spam, human trafficking, extremist groups, cults, scammers, or whatnot).
I may actually switch away from Epik because they recently had a major security breach and aren’t handling it very well.
I read this statement as a endorsement:
"I currently host my domains with Epik because of the company’s strong civil liberties stances and outstanding 24/7 support. " (My emphasis)
My kind of civil liberties aren’t supported by these people (Wash. Post)
“Online records show those sites have included 8chan, which was dropped by its providers after hosting the manifesto of a gunman who killed 51 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019; Gab, which was dropped for hosting the antisemitic rants of a gunman who killed 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018; and Parler, which was dropped due to lax moderation related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.”
Data breaches can happen to anyone, but hosting far right sites is a corporate decision and one that I don’t agree with. Had I known that I wouldn’t even visit their site. Saying that you may move your sites is not a very strong response to a organization like that.
My opinion of TidBits and their credibility took a hit on this one.
Civil liberties used to mean, among other things, that everyone has a right to speak, even those you dislike. I guess that’s changed in the past few years and I’m just stubbornly old-fashioned.
As far as I know, Epik doesn’t “host” any of that, they merely register the domains. I believe in net neutrality and don’t think registrars should be in the business of determining who’s allowed to have a domain. If the law is being broken by those websites, law enforcement can seize the domains.
Eric Friedman, head of Apple’s Fraud Engineering Algorithms and Risk unit, recently said that Apple is the “greatest platform for distributing child porn.” By your logic, every Apple services user is tacitly endorsing CSAM, especially since Apple recently backed off on their CSAM-detection initative.
I too have managed two custom domains - one for over 30 years. They are each hosted on two old Mac mini High Sierra servers. These have worked well for me however, I no longer want to be responsible for maintaining these email services in my basement. Not to mention, my lack of skill tends to get me in trouble. I have hosted these due to my concern about privacy. (I am getting over it) and to be able to retain archives. For me, the silent filtering in the iCloud option is a deal breaker.
From what I read here, it seems like fast mail is a viable option. One account for my 30 year old spam magnet and another for my professional/personal account. Are there other options folks here would recommend?
Please forgive me if I have hijacked this thread. I thought it would be relevant to identify alternatives for those of us who are tired of hosting our own email servers or are at the point in life where we want to sell the house and hit the road!
I would never ever ever go with someone like gmail… so, that said…
I host with Gandi, a French firm, based in US(west) + France + Taiwan. They’re a little more expensive than some, but we’re talking a few $ per annum. They have excellent tech support, not as incredible as it once was, when you could hit chat and within 2 minutes be talking to an actual engineer, but it’s still very good, if you’re not in a desperate hurry. (It could be that I always have to wait for US time (I’m in France) because I always write in English on the request form ).
Fast servers and Sieve filters for email, if you want them. They actively remove spammers and appear to be quite principled.
If you go with them and are interested in my anti-spam system, I’d be happy to share/explain it to you.
Also… I know that there are many who think Apple Mail is useless, but personally, I think it’s excellent. I use an entirely Smart Mailbox based system, everything stays in the Inboxes, nothing gets filed anywhere (so you can never loose anything!) … but the real crux, is that most people are unaware that Smart Mailboxes can be boolean, which changes everything. FWIW… I use the Finder in the same way.
My domain registrar is Google. The instructions provided here and not helpful, and having done my best, I now have no access to my domain email. Google has no meaningful support. Proceed with skepticism.
Sorry you had trouble, but I think the article was pretty clear about how this feature was in beta and shouldn’t be used for anything real.
I recommend just changing your DNS settings with Google back to what they were, which should allow email to flow back to whatever your previous host was.
The feature is no longer in beta, and I doubt that that is the problem. It’s not enough information to accomplish the task. I’m not dumping on you, I just doubt that this feature is useful for most users without a lot more detailed information from Apple or registrars, and I don’t look for that anytime soon. It’s a high danger proposition.
I’m sorry, that sucks. Unfortunately, since every registrar is different, I couldn’t offer specific instructions for all of them. I recommend switching to a registrar with strong customer service, like Hover, who can help out with things like this.
I recommend switching to a registrar with strong customer service, like Hover, who can help out with things like this.
Great article, one quick piece of info: I’ve seen you recommend Hover several times, in the article and here in the discussion. In general, it’s a very good recommendation, and I’ve used them for years, having bit during one of their wall-to-wall podcast advertising campaigns.
Unfortunately, they do not provide free email forwarding. It’s not expensive (looks like $5/yr), but not quite as easy as your walkthrough with Epik.
I mean, in the grand scheme, what’s another $5 once to set up free email hosting, I suppose, but it’s one more thing to consider before recommending Hover for this specific usage. If Epik or another service is otherwise comparable (and maybe if you don’t care about keeping your ownership secret!), I might swap recommendations if the goal is solely to set up email at a custom domain in iCloud+.
OK, it’s been a while since this was published but it still seems to be one of the only online references to iCloud+ custom e-mail domains. I’m considering switching from my current provider since I’m already paying for iCloud+ anyway, so I may as well use all it’s features.
Has anyone else used it and if so, is there any more recent feedback than Josh’s article?
Well, what exactly are you after? Certainly I have used it; certainly it works. I only use it for catch-alls on a couple of domains with old email addresses, but the principle of operation is still essentially the same as described. What do you need?
which, BTW, worked. I won the war and I’m down to a handful of spam a year.