Just wondering what the current thoughts are from the MPU group on using iCloud for personal e-mail? I know there have been reports of the service being buggy in the past but those complaints seem to have subsided as of late? What about using iCloud with a personal domain? Have the initial issues with this been fixed? This feature seems to be out of beta.
Then there is the issue of silent e-mail filtering. I’ve read a lot about this, but it’s difficult to know how big of an issue it is because the people with issues are more likely to post about it compared to the people who have no issue at all. For those that use iCloud e-mail, have you had issues with the silent e-mail filtering and having lost e-mail?
The appeal with iCloud e-mail is that I’m already paying for it and push e-mail works on iOS. Now that it works with personal domains, it’s seems like a natural switch, but I’m wondering if there are still too many issues with it? Currently I’m using MxRoute which is okay, but it has a clunky UI, the spam filtering is poor, and there is no push e-mail on iOS.
I’ve been using it for two personal domains for a few months now, and it’s been pretty undramatic. Haven’t noticed anything odd. Also used to use MxRoute, which was great for what it was, but wanted to have a simpler UI.
I tried out iCloud email with custom domains earlier this year to see if it could replace Fastmail. Results were mixed. I think Apple tried to make the setup part as easy as possible, but my first attempt failed to complete with not much info from Apple as to what was wrong. Second go worked, however I was concerned by the absense of any control over spam, it’s Apple’s way or the highway.
In the end, I decided to keep Fastmail — I don’t mind paying for the peace of mind that comes from dealing with a company that understands email and doesn’t just do it as a side-business.
I played with it last year, and recently just switched back in full to it. I don’t use any complex rules and it works just fine. No issues at all. I have 2 personal domains, one just mine and one shared with my wife, with just a few aliases. Of course it works best with Apple Mail which is what I was using with Fastmail anyway so this was not an issue for me. A nice treat was seeing that Apple is updating the web version of all their apps. Mail is pretty much same, but you can start to see the changes at beta.icloud.com (Macstories has nice write up on it).
Lastly my personal tech is all apple so we are also an Apple One family. Even with higher prices it’s just a great deal especially if you use the mail part.
I have been using iCloud email as my primary personal email account for the last 9 years (oldest email in my archive is dated 2013-11-01). Of course, no personal domain with that, but I have only one complaint: Spam filtering is a black box. I mark items as spam and it seems to make no difference as similar messages continue to be delivered to my inbox. I can not state with certainty that messages I should have received were blocked, but I have no way of knowing as there is no way to check/verify. But overall, for a personal account, it has served me well enough that I have not been motivated to find another solution. However, for a mission critical (business) account, I would recommend something else which provides filtering transparency.
I use iCloud for my personal email and have absolutely no issues with it. I don’t get that much email and have never noticed emails missing. It has been a good, if basic, email host. I don’t have many rules and I don’t require a lot of features.
However, I also put my personal domain, work email on iCloud when that became available. I figured since I was paying for it either way I might as well try it. That experiment did not go well and i switched back. My biggest gripe—emails that I sent with attachments where being sent to other people’s spams folder. This was not an issue when my email was hosted through Google. It’s very frustrating to follow up with clients saying, “Hey, look at your spam folder for that invoice I sent you.”
Every six months to a year I have a similar problem with my Hover email account. I have to call up Hover Support and ask why I’m not receiving email from such and such a sender. They do something behind the scenes and eventually (new) mail from that sender starts coming through again.
This time they said they added the problem domain to an internal allowed senders list. In the past they’ve said they had to “reset” something on my account, whatever that means.
In Hover Webmail, my SPAM setting is at the minimum level available. Even then I understand that some SPAM filtering still occurs. I keep no email on their servers and download it all to Apple Mail on my Mac. That’s where I deal with the remaining SPAM that comes through.
I have to say, GMail’s spam filtering and delivery is very impressive. It doesn’t always get it right, but what it does filter is 95% spam, 5% untrained marketing newsletters.
I would like to move away from Google entirely - mainly in protest at their fast and loose use of my data - but it’s hard when the alternatives (DuckDuckGo and iCloud Mail) ain’t quite there yet.
I’ve been on iCloud with a custom domain for around six months. Used Apple Mail as the client and no complaints. Also got my kids set up with custom domains and it was a cinch to do that.
I’ve gotten over a lot of Google security concerns. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a huge fan, but they provide services at a level that makes them the best option.
They also have a very big business reason to protect that data, now what they use it for…
My biggest issue with Gmail is really I don’t like the mobile apps and I do so much of my e-mail on my phone and iPad. You can use third party apps but I am never a fan as you are still finding odd ways to interact with service. Then you have apps that process your mail on their servers and those companies I have concerns with!
I never had any. But for those that would like to use Google’s technology but have some concerns I recommend they look at Google Workplace. It is compliant with HIPAA, FedRAMP, and a few hundred other standards so I’m confident the “Your Order Has Shipped” emails I get from Amazon every month should be safe.
Thanks to everyone for their feedback on this. I think based on the feedback, iCloud e-mail is worth a try with the idea that I may need to revert back to MxRoute.
