I'd like to abandon Gmail and switch to iCloud

[Dekema2]

Do you think it would be a good idea if I stopped using Gmail for my 3 email accounts and move to iCloud? I have grown weary of Google's entanglement in my life over the past few years and think now is the time to sever relations with them.

I have tens of thousands of messages spanning from 2008-present and I don't know how to make the transition. Any advice/suggestions, or should I use a service other than iCloud?

 

[rillrill]

i am in the same boat. the problem is you can't use an iCloud email address for yr iTunes account. Microsoft maybe?

 

[dj1891]

I was thinking about posting this myself, you saved me the trouble, I await the replies.

 

[nightcap965]

i am in the same boat. the problem is you can't use an iCloud email address for yr iTunes account. Microsoft maybe?

Huh? Who said you can't use an iCloud email address for iTunes? Of course you can.

 

[Rigby]

Do you think it would be a good idea if I stopped using Gmail for my 3 email accounts and move to iCloud?

Personally I wouldn't choose iCloud email, because it isn't rich enough in functionality IMO, and still has the issue of silently dropping mails that contain certain phrases. But it's certainly possible.

I have tens of thousands of messages spanning from 2008-present and I don't know how to make the transition. Any advice/suggestions, or should I use a service other than iCloud?

You can use a mail client like Apple Mail or Thunderbird to copy the mails over folder by folder. If you used labels in Gmail, it's a good idea to change all mails to only a single label first (otherwise, if an email has multiple labels, you may end up with duplicates in the destination account).

 

[rillrill]

Huh? Who said you can't use an iCloud email address for iTunes? Of course you can.

the message i get is that you need another email address, besides iCloud. if i try deleting my gmail from the iTunes account, it says i need another company's email.

 

[steve knight]

Huh? Who said you can't use an iCloud email address for iTunes? Of course you can.

you used to not be able too. Now you can

 

[Rigby]

Huh? Who said you can't use an iCloud email address for iTunes? Of course you can.

What the previous poster probably meant is that you cannot change an Apple ID from a non-icloud to an icloud email address. This affects everyone who created their account before the @icloud.com addresses were introduced. For new Apple accounts, you could use the iCloud address as the Apple ID for a while now.

 

[oneshotpro]

download important files and wipe the emails, start fresh.

 

[rillrill]

So, if I had a gmail account before iCloud, I'd have to make a new iTunes account? What about my purchases?

 

[Rigby]

So, if I had a gmail account before iCloud, I'd have to make a new iTunes account?

No, you'll just have to keep some non-iCloud email address to use as your Apple ID. That is independent of which service you use for your primary email account.

What about my purchases?

Purchases cannot be transferred to another account.

 

[Dekema2]

Okay everyone, thanks for the replies. It's not going to be an easy transition since I use the email for everything, including this account, and so I may wait a few months for iCloud to (hopefully?) improve or search for another service.

If I had a ton of money, I'd set up a small box in my basement that cost under $50 to hold the 5 GB of email I have, that way NOBODY could scan my email but me.
[doublepost=1454194264][/doublepost]

What the previous poster probably meant is that you cannot change an Apple ID from a non-icloud to an icloud email address. This affects everyone who created their account before the @icloud.com addresses were introduced. For new Apple accounts, you could use the iCloud address as the Apple ID for a while now.

According to this thread, it's a known issue:

Update:



I sent my findings/frustrations regarding this topic to senior Apple management. The safety aspect of this situation in particular is something that needs addressing, but overall the situation is confusing and the user experience is very poor.



I was first contact by an Executive Relations manager to discuss the matter. The matter was forwarded to an iCloud engineer and a member of Apple support staff has just contact me to relay the feedback from the iCloud team.



1. The situation is well known within the iCloud team. Without going into any details, it was made clear that there a lot of legacy systems running at the backend. The main issue is that Apple wants to simplify it's services by using one ID throughout the Apple network. However, the backend uses many different systems for many different types of accounts. It is 'near impossible' to actually get what we want.



2. When you have both a primary AppleID and Alias, these are actually two separate AppleID's. They are just tied together in the backend to 'simulate' one AppleID. Changing the primary AppleID into your Alias and vice versa would result in all sorts of problems in the backend that are very difficult to fix without completly restructuring the AppleID/iCloud user system.



3. You can in fact change your primary email address, so that communications regarding your Apple ID actually goes to a different email address than that of the primary AppleID. This cannot be done by users, but only by request and only if Apple approves your request.



4. I asked if they at least would make it possible for users to specify which email address they want to use for communication. The answer was, as expected: 'I don't know'. However, it seemed that they are very aware of the situation and judging by the way they handled the situations we might see this option some day. Changing your primary AppleID into an icloud.com/me.com address, however, will probably not be possible for a long time, if ever.



5. It seems there is an overall 'fear' at Apple regarinding Apple ID's. It seems they are very hesitant to make any real changes and any changes will take a long time to be approved and implemented. This is pure speculation, but I assume this has to do with a fear of running into unforseen security risks. The last thing Apple (or any organisation) would ever want is a security breach in your central accounts system. Look at all the media attention this has gotten over the last months, even though Apple wasn't to blame for those 'hacks'.



Bottom line: it's still a silly and dangerous situation. At least now we know why, or at least a little. We will probably just have to live with this and hope that Apple will integrate the alias system further and deeper so that the alias actually becomes useable as a fullon AppleID and your primary AppleID is just there as backup.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4434456?tstart=0

There's even a Reddit thread about it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/3n5d30/why_doesnt_apple_let_you_use_an_apple_email/

 

[rillrill]

so, yeah. like i said. apple is annoying. you can't just use yr iCloud account with yr apple id.
[doublepost=1454205375][/doublepost]alright, so i made an outlook account. its going to be my icloud email. but i should be able to sign into my apple id with the alias iCloud or Me address, right?

 

[rillrill]

soo....is anyone else iCloud email not working?

 

[Beech07]

iCloud email not working here. As much as I like the integration with my devices, this is another reason why the switch to iCloud email just won't work.

 

[nightcap965]

iCloud email not working here. As much as I like the integration with my devices, this is another reason why the switch to iCloud email just won't work.

Working fine for me all day. Did you check https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/ ?

 

[Beech07]

Working fine for me all day. Did you check https://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/ ?

Yes I did. It was all green. It seems to be working fine again.

Anyone use iCloud as their primary email account? I am interested in any feedback.

 

[nightcap965]

Yes I did. It was all green. It seems to be working fine again.

Anyone use iCloud as their primary email account? I am interested in any feedback.

I do. I use GMail as a backup. Literally - every email I send is BCC'd to my GMail address.

 

[Alrescha]

Anyone use iCloud as their primary email account? I am interested in any feedback.

"sort of". I forward inbound email to my iCloud account. That way I get push notifications on all my devices. The only downside is that when replying, while OS X knows the account I want to use for outbound email, iOS always wants to reply using the iCloud address. I have to remember to change that before I hit Send if I reply with iOS.

A.

 

[whsbuss]

Absolutely no iCloud emails issues today or yesterday. All delivered as soon as they arrive.

 

[oneMadRssn]

Okay everyone, thanks for the replies. It's not going to be an easy transition since I use the email for everything, including this account, and so I may wait a few months for iCloud to (hopefully?) improve or search for another service.

If I had a ton of money, I'd set up a small box in my basement that cost under $50 to hold the 5 GB of email I have, that way NOBODY could scan my email but me.

Setting up a personal email server isn't that hard, nor very expensive. I've done this before, but never for my personal email.

There are really two major issues:

1. Security: By pointing a domain to your own email server, you're really painting a target on yourself for hackers. There are certainly solutions to this issue, but most of the ones that are easy to deploy have a cost. Even if I can get a basic DDoS protection service for cheap, I don't want a monthly fee associated with email.

2. Downtime: I have been using gmail for over a decade, and I don't know of a single time an email addressed to me was not delivered due to gmail being down. Maybe gmail has been down, it probably has, but I wouldn't know it. Personal email has some cases where loosing email to downtime would be really bad - like when applying to jobs. Forgetting about internet outrages, dealing with power outages is a huge hassle.

Then again, for $35/month, I've thought about sending my Mac Mini to MacMiniColo.net and having them handle all the security and downtime problems. Then I can host my email, and whatever else my imagination desires.

 

[nightcap965]

Setting up a personal email server isn't that hard, nor very expensive. I've done this before, but never for my personal email.

There are really two major issues:

1. Security: By pointing a domain to your own email server, you're really painting a target on yourself for hackers. There are certainly solutions to this issue, but most of the ones that are easy to deploy have a cost. Even if I can get a basic DDoS protection service for cheap, I don't want a monthly fee associated with email.

2. Downtime: I have been using gmail for over a decade, and I don't know of a single time an email addressed to me was not delivered due to gmail being down. Maybe gmail has been down, it probably has, but I wouldn't know it. Personal email has some cases where loosing email to downtime would be really bad - like when applying to jobs. Forgetting about internet outrages, dealing with power outages is a huge hassle.

Then again, for $35/month, I've thought about sending my Mac Mini to MacMiniColo.net and having them handle all the security and downtime problems. Then I can host my email, and whatever else my imagination desires.

I seem to recall GMail being down a couple years ago. I don't recall any time when any mail system was down for an appreciable length of time. As someone who used to run mail servers, my response to users was, "It's email. It's not instant messaging." Not very helpful, I'll admit, but people get carried away with unreal expectations of what is essentially a free service.

The trouble with maintaining a home server is the limitations your ISP will inflict on you. Virtually no consumer-level ISP will allow you to send mail through your own server anymore. You really do need a colo host.

iCloud mail works for me. GMail works for me. Much as I loathed it, Outlook Mail worked for me. And, back in the day, Postfix and Sendmail worked for me on Unix boxen. iCloud mail is at least as reliable as my electric power.

 

[rillrill]

Huh. I'll have to call apple. I can't get any emails

Update: I had email forwarding to my old Gmail account....Doh.

 

[luminosity6]

I made the switch to iCloud mail 4-6 weeks ago. I figured to try it myself would be the best option and I've been moving all my accounts to iCloud slowly since then. Previously used outlook.com for years (since it was Live mail) and gmail prior to that (since its inception). iCloud mail is different - it's calmer or less busy and I like the simplicity of it. In fact, I like everything about the iCloud mail experience.

A good trial run might be to forward your existing email to your iCloud account (when you set up forwarding, choose to keep a copy in your current account until you decide if you want to switch). Give it some time and a fair trial. At one time or another, all of my mail accounts have had some hiccup or another so I can live with this level of expectation. Not everyone can.

As for transitioning all that old mail, yes, it's a pain, the providers have enabled us to so easily archive everything and now we have tons of it! You can drag your emails in most mail apps if you cannot do export and import.

Best of luck in your decision and I look forward to hearing more : )

 

[AustinIllini]

I've been accused multiple times of being an "Apple Fanboy", but I would never, ever recommend to friend or enemy switching away from gmail to iCloud mail. That's like trading in your 2015 Cadillac for a 2001 Chevy Aveo. iCloud mail offers little or nothing compared to the Gmail/inbox experience.