iCloud is doing some strange things with some of my emails. I use iCloud.com address for my personal email and use an old @gmail address for everything else. Gmail forwards all my emails to iCloud. In the past few months I have been getting these strange emails that say a message was blocked. When I open them up on my phone they link back to the original message that I never got. Sometimes this is spam, sometimes it's a message I actually want.
I think I figured out what is happening but I don't have any idea how to fix it.
For reference we know that Apple silently filters emails because of many reasons
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/2tmf7g/i_was_a_victime_of_icloud_mails_censorship/
And that emails can be marked as spam because of changes to Apples DMARC policy
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/08/03/mac-me-icloud-com-emails-gmail-marked-as-spam/
All of the emails I am having issues with are either spam or mailing lists so this fits.
To my knowledge here is what is happening,
1) Some mailing list like Fedex (good) or random spam provider (bad) sends out an email to my Gmail address that does not meet Apples DMARC policy for reasons like it does not contain a valid return address etc.
2) Gmail receives the email, does NOT mark it as spam, so it forwards it to my @icloud account per the gamil settings
3) iCloud identifies this forwarded email as spam or violating the DMARC policy so it filters it away and hides it from being shown
4) iCloud then replies to the sender (in this case the Gmail forwarded address, my gmail address) with a boiler plate "This Message Failed because of reasons" email.
5) This "Message Failed" email from apple arrives in my gmail inbox, is not spam, so it is forwarded to my @icloud account
6) All this has happened behind the scenes so far without me knowing. At this point I see the "Message Failed" email. When I open it, it is able to link to the previous (#3) email that was filtered.
Ideally I would like to tell icloud to not block Fedex emails, and yes, please block all "You won $100" emails that are actually spam. This would still not solve my problems as I would have to somehow get Apple to accept good email that violates its DMARC (impossible) and also train Gmail to either A) reject more spam, or B) don't forward any "Message Failed" emails from Apple.
I know others must be dealing with this issue. Anyone have suggestions on what to do?
I think I figured out what is happening but I don't have any idea how to fix it.
For reference we know that Apple silently filters emails because of many reasons
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/2tmf7g/i_was_a_victime_of_icloud_mails_censorship/
And that emails can be marked as spam because of changes to Apples DMARC policy
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/08/03/mac-me-icloud-com-emails-gmail-marked-as-spam/
All of the emails I am having issues with are either spam or mailing lists so this fits.
To my knowledge here is what is happening,
1) Some mailing list like Fedex (good) or random spam provider (bad) sends out an email to my Gmail address that does not meet Apples DMARC policy for reasons like it does not contain a valid return address etc.
2) Gmail receives the email, does NOT mark it as spam, so it forwards it to my @icloud account per the gamil settings
3) iCloud identifies this forwarded email as spam or violating the DMARC policy so it filters it away and hides it from being shown
4) iCloud then replies to the sender (in this case the Gmail forwarded address, my gmail address) with a boiler plate "This Message Failed because of reasons" email.
5) This "Message Failed" email from apple arrives in my gmail inbox, is not spam, so it is forwarded to my @icloud account
6) All this has happened behind the scenes so far without me knowing. At this point I see the "Message Failed" email. When I open it, it is able to link to the previous (#3) email that was filtered.
Ideally I would like to tell icloud to not block Fedex emails, and yes, please block all "You won $100" emails that are actually spam. This would still not solve my problems as I would have to somehow get Apple to accept good email that violates its DMARC (impossible) and also train Gmail to either A) reject more spam, or B) don't forward any "Message Failed" emails from Apple.
I know others must be dealing with this issue. Anyone have suggestions on what to do?