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jimthing

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 6, 2011
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Is there an iCloud EMAIL specification ...anywhere??

This seems very strange to me. I have searched the Apple knowledge base for answers to some basic questions about what can/cannot be done with iCloud Email (@icloud.com/me.com/mac.com email addresses), but there is next to nothing available.
I am talking about the SERVER SPECIFICATION here, not what any individual mail client can/can't handle.

My specific questions are (when I say "folders", Apple tend to call them "mailboxes" often):

1) What is the maximum amount of folders?

2) What is the maximum amount of characters in folder names?

3) Apart from forward-slash ("/") are there any other characters that cannot be used in folder names? (are they 'unicode' chars perhaps, or something?)

4) What is the maximum depth of nested folders?

I want to move all my email archives to iCloud IMAP (many folders)** – so they can be accessed from any of my devices and/or any computer via webmail, when wanted, instead of separate folders per email account spread across different email providers' servers.

(** I can just drag them into my iCloud account using Mail.app, and let them sync.)

Thanks in advance if you can find Apple's official word on this stuff (as an idea, it might even only be in the Dev centre Help section somewhere...perhaps?).

It just seems ludicrous that other mass email providers give such info on their email specification, but Apple keep such basic stuff seemingly "hidden" away from users all the time, making decisions on possible usage thus being impossible.

...oh and the so-called Applecare "dudes" (that are too busy trying to sound so cool they can't be bothered to actually help you in any way!) are completely clueless (mine couldn't even type English properly and lied to me continually about things I knew were utter BS "you gotta name dem folders what's logical innit"...erm-right, okay, gee thanks!); got absolutely nowhere with them!

Yours annoyed.
 
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iCloud email (or any Internet-based provider) is not reliable enough to be an archival service. I say this as someone who has been using iCloud since it was called iTools.

Store your emails in local folders on your email client, and make backups of the storage files in case they get corrupted down the line.
 
iCloud email (or any Internet-based provider) is not reliable enough to be an archival service. I say this as someone who has been using iCloud since it was called iTools.

Store your emails in local folders on your email client, and make backups of the storage files in case they get corrupted down the line.

Yeah that's not really my main point. I really just want to know the specification. What I choose to use to backup is secondary here.

So where is the spec published?
 
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See link below for Applecare's crap-as-usual response:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6826997

Typical Applecare waste of time.

That's hilarious. Either they are evading the question by answering that there are no documents that exist with the info, or they aren't really engineers (or at least, they aren't engineers that work on the mail server), otherwise they should know what the limits are of the software they're using.

The server software itself that runs iCloud seems to have changed over the years. I just sent myself a loopback test email and the headers on it reveal it to be:

Oracle Communications Messaging Server 7.0.5.35.0 64bit (built Dec 4 2014

I suppose researching this specific product would give you the info.
 
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Why not just try it and let us know how you get on. Someone has to be first!
 
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