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Apple's iCloud blocking Gmail, other email?

Apple's iCloud has suddenly begun blocking a lot of my incoming email. Increasingly, we're not able to receive email I send from my Gmail account to my iCloud account or to my wife’s iCloud account.


At other times, my Gmail messages to our Cloud accounts are delayed for hours, even days. Gmail automatically sends status reports documenting how iCloud is refusing to accept the incoming emails and showing GMail’s repeated attempts to deliver them; iCloud gives no notice that it’s refusing delivery.


Another twist: now I’m also no longer able to receive subscribed email updates from a real estate listings website that used to be delivered to my iCloud email account. Those blocked emails don’t go into the junk folder —they’re blocked from delivery entirely. Again, iCloud gives me no indication it’s blocking my incoming email.


Meanwhile, actual spam is actually still getting through via iCloud — sometimes delivered in the junk folder, sometimes in the inbox.


Is there any indication how many Apple iCloud customers are missing emails because of this?


This isn’t the first time this issue has come up — I’d complained about similar problems years ago. I thought they’d been corrected, but clearly they have not.


Any thoughts about how to fix this problem?

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Mar 16, 2015 8:07 PM

Reply
15 replies

Mar 17, 2015 2:52 AM in response to Bob Mayo

I am having the same problem. Some emails from certain gmail contacts are taking up to two days to deliver whilst some emails from the same users are delivered immediately. There is no notification of this problem, it was only flagged up when one forwarded me the email which read:


This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification


THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY.


YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE.




Message will be retried for 2 more day(s)


Technical details of temporary failure:

Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the server for the recipient domain me.com by mx4.mail.icloud.com. [17.172.34.66].


The error that the other server returned was:

451 4.5.3 Too many rejections; try again later.

Mar 17, 2015 11:24 AM in response to Bob Mayo

How to fix this: Call Apple. It's pointless to ask here, this is a problem between email servers.

This is the main thread about this issue: Gmail emails are delayed or not sending to iCloud

and based on their conversations with Apple, they're saying everyone should call Apple to report it.


800-275-2273


Make sure you tell Apple that you're experiencing this across all devices (so it's an iCloud problem, not a device/software problem) and that it is specific to Gmail emails only, and it doesn't matter if the emails contain only one word of text or large attachments.


I just called them and got a case number. Spoke to a supervisor who said I was only the second person he had heard from with this problem, so unless more people call, they don't know it's an issue. These boards are for DIY solutions; Apple doesn't read them.

Mar 17, 2015 11:41 AM in response to hello tuesday

I just called Apple 30min ago and the support agent (senior advisor because I escalated) told me I was the first person reporting this type of problem, and blame everything on Gmail. If I send emails from Gmail to any other account it will arrive within the minute, clearly to me there is something wrong between Google and Apple mail routing and/or servers.

Mar 17, 2015 5:02 PM in response to logicito

I used mxtoolbox to decompose the delayed delivery headers and it appears to be that there are Gmail servers that have been blacklisted by a third party that Apple must use to filter spam. So I put this squarely on Google to fix and get their SMTP servers cleared.


BlacklistReasonTTLResponseTime
User uploaded file LISTEDCASA CBL209.85.216.178 was listed Detail10800125Ignore
User uploaded file LISTEDCASA CBLESS209.85.216.178 was listed Detail10800125Ignore
User uploaded file LISTEDCASA CBLPLUS209.85.216.178 was listed Detail10800125

Mar 21, 2015 7:39 AM in response to erpeters3

Thanks, erpeters3, that was helpful information and I appreciate your making that effort and sharing the results. I disagree about it being squarely on Google to fix, though. If the operator of my apartment building hired a security guard who mistakenly refused to let the US Mail letter carrier into the locked lobby of my building to deliver my mail, I don't think that would be on the postal service to fix. We tenants would complain to the operator of the building, and the operator of the building would tell the security company to correct the guard's mistaken behavior. 🙂

Mar 21, 2015 7:44 AM in response to logicito

I have two updates. First: the problem with iCloud silently refusing to accept incoming Gmail appears to have been fixed -- Thanks to Apple support! The other problem I mentioned is continuing: iCloud is still silently refusing to accept or deliver incoming mail from a real estate website to which I subscribe.


Those updates used to be delivered to my iCloud email account. As with the now-fixed Gmail problem, those blocked emails don’t go into the junk folder —they’re blocked from delivery entirely. When I checked my subscription settings on the website they were fine, and I added a cc: to a different email address. That Comcast account gets the email, and the headings indicate the messages are still being sent to my iCloud account, even though iCloud is not letting them through.


Over the years, including in the MobileMe incarnation of Apple’s email service, I’ve had problems with Apple silently blocking email — sometimes incoming, sometimes outgoing. I think we need to get Apple support to convey to whoever can fix these recurring issues that users need to know when incoming and/or outgoing email is being blocked and we need the means to correct or challenge any blocking that is being done in error. This is a basic issue of trust and reliability. Thanks again to Apple for fixing the Gmail delivery problem, though.

Mar 21, 2015 8:56 AM in response to Bob Mayo

I love to extend a good metaphor. So let's change the story a bit. Same said security guard is trained by policy to ask for a government issued ID upon entry. A friend comes to visit but has no ID, lost it. Is it the guard's responsibility to get a new, approved ID for the person? Nope. The friend needs to go to the DMV, prove who they are, and get an ID. Either that or the guard needs to ignore policy and let them in anyway. Sure hope they are that friend they claimed to be and not a thief.

Mar 21, 2015 1:27 PM in response to erpeters3

But in this situation we've all had to deal with this past week, there was nothing wrong, bad, invalid, or lacking in the legitimate emails that Apple (or its third-party silent email filter) was blocking. There's no "DMV" legitimacy to this blocking. We, as Apple's customers, were being done a disservice by this blocking. It's a problem that pops up periodically over the years (or is always there, and we only occasionally get glimpses into the the effect).

A system that lets spam through and silently blocks important legitimate email is not in the best interest of Apple or its customers.

Jun 1, 2015 12:02 PM in response to Bob Mayo

My situation is similar. I have a website where clients can request a quote from me (Hostgator) and for the past few weeks I had potential clients that tried repeatedly to reach me. Imagine my dismay at all that lost business! The messages are not in SPAM, they just were entirely blocked! Messages from my other marketing group (newsletter) have also disappeared as of late.

I already called and notified Apple, and I have a case # so they can look into it. Since it may take a few days to fix, I guess I will use an old yahoo address to make sure I don't miss out on any more business!

Jun 17, 2015 9:07 AM in response to Bob Mayo

I have a similar issue, but with Yahoo/SBCGlobal, not Gmail. The problem is only with Yahoo/SBCGlobal and all emails, even those I have been receiving from for years, go straight to JUNK. iCloud will not allow them into my INBOX. When I drag them over, they bounce right back to junk. I have reset, rebooted, revised, reinstalled. Checked, unchecked, rechecked. Nothing changes. Clearly this is an Apple problem with the server, which I also cannot change for incoming mail because it is greyed out. Sigh. VERY FRUSTRATED. I talked to a nice girl in support but so far no one has done anything to rectify the situation. I was escalated to engineering on Monday and they "logged into" my computer and downloaded files to examine. They said they would contact me back by tomorrow (Thursday). Meanwhile, across all of my devices, anyone with an sbcglobal.net email address goes straight to JUNK and there is nothing I can do about it. Hope someone at Apple figures this out soon!!!!!!

Dec 17, 2015 5:20 PM in response to Bob Mayo

Hi every one, I don't know where you are at as of now, but for me, this situation is unbearable. I run a small business and none of my emails go through the Apple mail server event though my company is not blacklisted anywhere and has no behaviour to justify such a thing. Myself, my husband and some of my friends just could not receive any emails sent with some "portic.ca" content even if this goes through a third party (like if I use another email address with another dns like hotmail or gmail to rely the information)


I called Apple support and the agent told me that the developers were trying to fix the situation.


I just find their developers are NOTvery quick, since the problem is there for more than 6 months.


I feel like David fighting Goliath without any slingshot. And they know it !!!


Any of you had some development about their similar situation?


Tks all


Paule

Apple's iCloud blocking Gmail, other email?

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