iCloud Mail and Family Sharing with My Own Domain?

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Level 1

8 points

iCloud Mail and Family Sharing with My Own Domain?

I've been trying to get to grips with how this works, but the Apple documentation doesn't seem that great and I'm not sure if I've understood it right. So let me start by explaining where I'm at now and where I want to get to:

Currently I get email services through my ISP. With that service I have set up three mailboxes:

me@my-isp-mail.net
wife@my-isp-mail.net
daughter@my-isp-mail.net

I've then setup MacMail on my iMac with three mailboxes - each one set to access each ISP mailbox above.

All simple so far...

I also have my own domain registered with domain registrar 123-reg. Using 123's domain management, I am able to forward emails. So I've setup the following:

me@mydomain.co.uk gets forwarded to me@my-isp-mail.net
wife@mydomain.co.uk gets forwarded to wife@my-isp-mail.net
daughter@mydomain.co.uk gets forwarded to daughter@my-isp-mail.net

I also have a few other forwarders from my domain set for friends and wider family that use mydomain.co.uk and get forwarded to various other email providers, thus:

grandad@mydomain.co.uk gets forwarded to grandad@his-gmail.com
my-mate-from-work@mydomain.co.uk gets forwarded to my-mate@his-yahoo.com

etc. etc.

This has worked great for years, but my ISP is phasing out its email, and 123-reg want to start charging a fortune for a single mailbox in order for me to keep the email forwarding. So I need to find an alternative.

I also have my own iCloud+ account, so I've been looking into using iCloud family sharing to try to replicate the above within the Apple ecosystem. But if I've understood it right, the various restrictions mean I can't quite do it, which seems crazy because what I need is essentially very simple. So I'd be grateful if someone who understands this stuff could confirm whether I've understood it right.

So let's boil this down to some specific questions:

1)

If I just use my icloud+ account, can I create three separate mailboxes, i.e. one for each family member? Or will all their emails also come to me as the primary email account holder?

2)

For the above to work, do my family members each need their own icloud+ account?

3)

If I can setup three separate mailboxes using just my account, can I give each one it's own address using my domain, like this:

me@mydomain.co.uk gets forwarded to me@my-mailbox-in-my-icloud.net
wife@mydomain.co.uk gets forwarded to wife@wifes-mailbox-in-my-icloud.net
daughter@mydomain.co.uk gets forwarded to daughter@daughters-mailbox-in-my-icloud.net

4)

If I use my icloud+ account, can I set up multiple other email forwarders to other mailboxes, like the Grandad and MyMate addresses above?

5)

I would like to give my daughter autonomy over her own online world, and get her to start her own icloud+ account to manage her email herself. But if I do that, will she be able to control her email address that utilizes my domain? I've read that a domain cannot be managed by more than one icloud+ account which would seem to preclude this? Have I understood that correctly?

6)

So if 5 won't work, we're back to setting up a mailbox for her using my icloud+. That would be fine, except we would want to use her current email address of daughter@mydomain.co.uk as, like most of us, she has countless other online accounts using that email, so she really needs to keep it. However she uses that email for her own AppleID, and I've read that I can't setup a mailbox using an email address that is already used for another AppleID. Have I understood that correctly?

So if giving her her own icloud+ won't work, and having her use my icloud+ also won't work, what are our options here?

Any thoughts or advice welcome.

Thanks in advance.

iMac 21.5″

Posted on Oct 21, 2024 7:59 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 21, 2024 8:32 AM in response to Sabersense

Sabersense wrote:

1)

If I just use my icloud+ account, can I create three separate mailboxes, i.e. one for each family member?

No. You cannot create separate mailboxes on a single account.

Or will all their emails also come to me as the primary email account holder?

Yes. You can create Aliases on an iCloud email account but all those aliases connect to the same base email account.

2)

For the above to work, do my family members each need their own icloud+ account?

No. They need their own iCloud email account. iCloud+ is just an extra storage subscription you pay for on iCloud and which offers some extra features like the Custom domain option but only one iCloud+ subscription is required. The rest of your Family sharing group members do not need to pay for their own iCloud+ subscription.

3)

If I can setup three separate mailboxes using just my account, can I give each one it's own address using my domain, like this:

• me@mydomain.co.uk gets forwarded to me@my-mailbox-in-my-icloud.net

• wife@mydomain.co.uk gets forwarded to wife@wifes-mailbox-in-my-icloud.net

• daughter@mydomain.co.uk gets forwarded to daughter@daughters-mailbox-in-my-icloud.net

No. you don't setup "mailboxes". You use each person's existing iCloud email account for this.

4)

If I use my icloud+ account, can I set up multiple other email forwarders to other mailboxes, like the Grandad and MyMate addresses above?

No. If they are part of your Apple Family Sharing group, and have their own iCloud accounts, you can add them to the custom domains yes.

5)

I would like to give my daughter autonomy over her own online world, and get her to start her own icloud+ account to manage her email herself. But if I do that, will she be able to control her email address that utilizes my domain? I've read that a domain cannot be managed by more than one icloud+ account which would seem to preclude this? Have I understood that correctly?

No. Again, iCloud+ is just a storage space subscription. You can set up her iCloud account as part off the custom domain ao she has her own email account redirected form her address that uses your domain name.

Each person needs other have their own email account. You can try to set up custom domains with iCloud accounts, but again, that resides mostly with your domain registrar, not Apple. What you are doing is forwarding emails to iCloud accounts from your domain and email hosting service.

6)

So if 5 won't work, we're back to setting up a mailbox for her using my icloud+. That would be fine, except we would want to use her current email address of daughter@mydomain.co.uk as, like most of us, she has countless other online accounts using that email, so she really needs to keep it. However she uses that email for her own AppleID, and I've read that I can't setup a mailbox using an email address that is already used for another AppleID. Have I understood that correctly?

Yes. E-mail addresses cannot be used with more than one Apple ID.

So if giving her her own icloud+ won't work, and having her use my icloud+ also won't work, what are our options here?

click here ➜ Add an email domain you already own to iCloud Mail on iCloud.com - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Sabersense Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 21, 2024 9:30 AM in response to Phil0124

This is amazing! Thank you so much Phil. Though I'm going to need to study it tonight to try and wrap my head around it as it still hasn't clicked yet, but I think the fog is starting to slowly clear.

But one last question - if I setup my icloud to work with my custom domain that's registered with 123-reg, does that mean all of that domain management with 123-reg - like forwarders and all the rest of it - will disappear? is it an either/or (Apple or 123-reg) or can both entities be active at managing aspects of the same domain at once?

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