We’ve had a few reports that TidBITS #1742 from yesterday wasn’t received at iCloud accounts, and several of our test accounts failed to receive it. There was only one bounce (of seven) associated with iCloud, so my assumption at the moment is that iCloud merely ate those issues. However, it’s not a content problem, since my forward of #1742 to my mac.com address worked fine. If you subscribe to TidBITS using a mac.com, me.com, or icloud.com address, can you provide feedback in the poll below rather than providing an anecdatal (an intentional neologism) post? Thanks!
If you subscribe to TidBITS via an iCloud address, did you receive #1742?
FWIW, I didn’t receive 1742, but I subscribe via an address at a domain I own, not an iCloud address. I don’t recall ever missing an issue before. Perhaps the problem is not related to iCloud addresses.
I also didn’t get #1742, and I don’t use an iCloud address. I’m checking my server logs, but it’s difficult because TidBITS comes from amazonses along with all the “talk” messages, and there’s nothing to differentiate them. My MTA isn’t logging subject headers, and TidBITS email gets sent with the from header set to something terribly useful like 01000194eac0e531-6cb0de7f-de9a-4472-8eaa-490b40328d1f-000000@email.amazonses.com.
It appears that another user on my system (that I didn’t even know was a TidBITS subscriber!) did receive #1742, but it appears (can’t be certain) that it was never sent to me.
edit 20250211@17:28 I went through every contact my MTA received on 10Feb2025 (UTC) from amazonses. None appear to be episode #1742.
edit 20250211@18:04 False alarm. Maybe. I decided to search the Trash mailbox on the server, and the issue was there. It is not in the trash mailbox in my client (Thunderbird). So I suspect whatever weird problem I’m having here is unrelated to the delivery problems that Adam noticed – which only leaves the mystery of why the message doesn’t show up in Thunderbird.
iCloud Mail support says they’ve resolved the problem.
As far as other delivery problems go, there’s no way to say because there are so many email providers and spam filters and local rules. It’s sometimes possible to figure out why, but it’s not usually worth the effort for a one-off problem.
Maybe iCloud didn’t deliver the email because something in it was deemed to be highly indicative of spam, and the other email providers didn’t deliver it for the same reason.
no idea! I do subscribe via iCloud email and searching Mail app doesn’t find the issue, but I don’t keep them all and erased Deleted Messages recently.
That said, I just looked at the issue here and the main headline looks familiar, so maybe I did receive it. My subscribed address is in the @me.com variant so maybe something was haywire with certain suffixes ie @mac or @icloud only…
I voted that I didn’t receive it, thinking I use my new icloud email for TidBits. Then I remembered that my subscription is still under my Hotmail account, however, I can’t find it their either.
Email is such a pain. I wish I could shed light on the situation, but once it leaves our server, I know nothing about delivery unless it bounces back in certain ways.
I appear to be the only Yes among all the voters. I don’t know why that is, but I can confirm that I have #1742, received at my me.com address, on February 10 at 18:47 EST
and erased Deleted Messages recently.