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Apple ID as custom domain email

I keep reading conflicting advice, or else I'm simply incorrectly interpreting it. If my Apple ID is abc@xyz.com and I own the domain of xyz.com, can I set up custom domain email for xyz.com? Or do I have to change my Apple ID to another email address first?

MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 2023)

Posted on Sep 28, 2023 3:39 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 1, 2023 7:32 PM

Hi Larry McJunkin,


It seems that your concern is addressed in the article Add an email domain you already own to iCloud Mail on iCloud.com that was linked in the other reply. From that page it mentions:


Before you begin

...


as well as


"You can’t add an email address if you or someone else is using it with a different Apple ID. If you want to add that address, the other Apple ID needs to be changed to a different email address. See the Apple Support article Change your Apple ID."


It would appear the only restriction would be if you were attempting to add this domain using an email address associated with a different Apple ID rather than your own.


It's also worth noting regarding future use of that email address:


"Note: Once you add a custom domain address to iCloud Mail, you can’t use it as an Apple ID, even if you delete it later."


Regards.

7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 1, 2023 7:32 PM in response to Larry McJunkin

Hi Larry McJunkin,


It seems that your concern is addressed in the article Add an email domain you already own to iCloud Mail on iCloud.com that was linked in the other reply. From that page it mentions:


Before you begin

...


as well as


"You can’t add an email address if you or someone else is using it with a different Apple ID. If you want to add that address, the other Apple ID needs to be changed to a different email address. See the Apple Support article Change your Apple ID."


It would appear the only restriction would be if you were attempting to add this domain using an email address associated with a different Apple ID rather than your own.


It's also worth noting regarding future use of that email address:


"Note: Once you add a custom domain address to iCloud Mail, you can’t use it as an Apple ID, even if you delete it later."


Regards.

Oct 1, 2023 12:23 PM in response to Larry McJunkin

Hi Larry McJunkin,


We'd love to help answer your question, and provide clear and concise information that you can rely on. Please see the details we've provided below to clear things up for you.


"If you subscribe to iCloud+, you can use a custom domain that you already own to send and receive email from a personalized email address with iCloud Mail.


  • You can use up to five custom domains, with up to three personalized email addresses per domain. 
  • You can use your personalized email address in the Mail app on any device signed in with your Apple ID and with iCloud Mail turned on, and on iCloud.com/mail.
  • You can also use your personalized email address for Messages, FaceTime, Calendar, to sign in to your device, and more.
  • If you don't have any existing email addresses in use with your custom domain, you can create new personalized email addresses after setting up your domain with iCloud Mail.
  • If you share iCloud+ with your Family Sharing group, you can share your custom domain with your Family sharing group and allow them to create personalized addresses. In iOS 16 or later, you can also share your custom domain with people outside your Family and allow them to create personalized addresses.*
  • You can share your domain with up to five other people. If you add someone who’s not part of your Family Sharing group, they need to accept the invitation before they’re added to the domain.



To add a personalized email address for a custom domain that you use with iCloud Mail:


  • That email address can't be used as the email address for a different Apple ID. 
  • If you want to add a personalized email address that is used for a different Apple ID, you need to change that Apple ID email address.
  • If you delete that Apple ID, you still won't be able to add your personalized email address.


Learn how to add a custom domain for iCloud Mail on iCloud.com.


Reference: Use Custom Email Domain with iCloud Mail - Apple Support


Cheers!


Dec 19, 2023 6:26 AM in response to Larry McJunkin

Many thanks. We are in a simpler situation and having the emails for our custom domain appear in our single iCloud inbox would not be not a problem for us, as this is the only email address we use to send/receive emails.


Indeed these are the email addresses associated with our iCloud accounts - hence my question.


I ended up raising a Support ticket about this and was routed to an advanced support engineer, who tells me I won't have a problem and the comment


"Once you add a custom domain address to iCloud Mail, you can’t use it as an Apple ID, even if you delete it later."


is no longer relevant.


As such he assured me we can keep all three iCloud accounts associated with our "Family Sharing" group using these existing custom email addresses e.g.


MyName@MyMomain.com

WifeName@MyDomain.com

DaughterName@MyDomain.com


and also migrate the email handling for the MyDomain.com to iCloud, with each of us using the same email addresses as above. I have tried this and all three email addresses were automatically verified, as they were associated with existing iCloud accounts (obviously the names below masked out).


As such it seems this will work, but like you I am cautious and don't know if I should proceed or not, as the Apple documentation is so poor in this area. My alternative is to revert all three of our iCloud account emails back to their iCloud versions, as that would hopefully avoid any possible confusion.



Oct 1, 2023 7:17 PM in response to SnickZ.

I really do appreciate the response you quoted directly from apple.com, where I read this (twice) last week and still don't have an answer to my question. It answers every other question one might have about custom domain email with iCloud+, but not whether I can set it up for an "existing" Apple ID email address domain. I've already setup custom domain email with iCloud+ while using a throwaway domain name, and it's easy to configure, and works well. But...I really need to know if I want my custom domain email address to be what it is now...and that email address is currently my Apple ID (but currently with another email service), will it work.


A sixth sense says it won't, and that I'll need to change my Apple ID to a different email address, but even then...is there some waiting period, during which I still can't use the current address. This same question to Apple Care got no actual answer, either...so it clearly is not a well-defined area and no one has tech notes to cover it.

Oct 2, 2023 4:08 AM in response to Bill_T1

Thanks, Bill_T1. The reason I still have concerns about it working are in the following comment you made.


"Once you add a custom domain address to iCloud Mail, you can’t use it as an Apple ID, even if you delete it later."


If Apple says I can never used that email address as an Apple ID, even if I delete it as a custom domain email, then why would they let me add it initially as a custom domain email. Probably, the only way I'll ever know for sure is to try and add the domain for my current Apple ID email address as a custom domain and see if it works. But I can't do that without planning, moving existing messages (19 years' worth), etc. That's why I was hoping to be sure before I went down the rabbit hole.

Dec 18, 2023 1:15 PM in response to Larry McJunkin

Charles, I did not. Existing guidance from Apple is either unclear in this regard, or at best, ambiguous. I think I’ll stick with Google Workspace, though – primarily because you absolutely can’t have a separate inbox (or system folders) for the private domain address. Everything MUST go to your iCloud.com (or .me) inbox/folders. That is useless for me.

Apple ID as custom domain email

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