Set up an existing domain with iCloud Mail

To finish setting up your custom domain and email addresses with iCloud Mail, you need to update your MX, TXT, and CNAME records with your domain registrar.

To use your own domain and email address with iCloud Mail, you need to change three types of DNS records with your domain registrar: MX, TXT, and CNAME records.

  • MX records specify where emails sent to your domain should be delivered. You can set up multiple MX records for a domain, each set with their own priority level.

  • TXT records store a variety of text-based information about your domain, including information that helps prevent email spoofing.

  • CNAME records point traffic to the same IP address when you have different variations of the same domain name.

Before changing your domain records, enter the email addresses you already use with this domain name.

Once you set up your domain with iCloud Mail, you can create any new email addresses that you want to use.

Change your DNS records

  1. Sign in to your account at your domain host.1

  2. Look for the section where you can update your MX records. It might be under Advanced Settings, DNS Management, or Mail Settings.

  3. Delete your existing MX records.

  4. Enter the new DNS records for the iCloud Mail servers.2 In the TXT record, enter the personal TXT record provided to you during setup. In the DKIM record, enter your domain name where it says "example.com".

    • TXT:

      • Record Type: TXT

      • Host: @

      • Value: [Enter the personal TXT record provided during setup]

    • SPF:

      • Record Type: TXT

      • Host: @

      • Value: "v=spf1 include:icloud.com ~all"

      • If you already have an SPF record, simply add "include:icloud.com" to the value before "~all".

    • MX:

      • Record Type: MX

      • Host: @

      • Value: mx01.mail.icloud.com.

      • Priority: 10

    • MX:

      • Record Type: MX

      • Host: @

      • Value: mx02.mail.icloud.com.

      • Priority: 10

    • DKIM:

      • Record Type: CNAME

      • Host: sig1._domainkey

      • Value: sig1.dkim.example.com.at.icloudmailadmin.com.

  5. Save your changes.

  6. On the iCloud Mail setup page, click Verify to confirm setup. It might take a few minutes before your saved changes can be verified.

  7. To check that your domain and addresses are set up with iCloud Mail, sign in to https://icloud.com/icloudplus. Select the Custom Email Domain widget, then click Manage. If your changes don't verify successfully, check your updated DNS records for errors and try again.

1. If your registrar has a lock on your domain, you can't set up a domain with iCloud Mail.

2. If your registrar doesn't support “@”, enter your domain name as the host. If your registrar doesn't support quotes or trailing periods in the record values, enter the value without quotes or trailing periods. TTL should be set to 3600 seconds or 1 hour.

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