iCoud Email, Calendar, and Contact Thoughts

[bgl321]

For those that use icloud/me.com as your primary email....

1. Email - Are you satisfied with email pushing to the iPhone? Any other issues?

2. Calendar - In the past I've tried it and found that if my wife updated an appointment (that I was invited to) on her google or yahoo calendar, my iCloud calendar wouldn?t update. Anyone else experience that? If so do you have a fix?

3. Contacts ? Any problems here?

For those that have used outlook.com, how would you compare the two?

Any other input you would like to share would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[rayz336]

1. While I wasn't 100% satisfied with iCloud email at first, it has gotten considerably better since its beginning.
2. I haven't had any issues with this but usually because I am the one who creates and invites others to calendar appointments.
3. I haven't had any issues at all with the contacts sync and it has been just as solid as using Google's contact sync solution.

 

[Just_Me_D]

For those that use icloud/me.com as your primary email....

1. Email - Are you satisfied with email pushing to the iPhone? Any other issues?

Yes. I am very satisfied.

2. Calendar - In the past I've tried it and found that if my wife updated an appointment (that I was invited to) on her google or yahoo calendar, my iCloud calendar wouldn?t update. Anyone else experience that? If so do you have a fix?

Your iCloud calendar is separate from that of your Google and Yahoo calendars. If she has an iOS device, I recommend that you "share" and iCloud calendar. It works flawlessly for me and my family. My wife and I keep track of our older kids' work schedules that way. Whenever they enter or edit their schedule, we automatically get alerted.

3. Contacts ? Any problems here?

None whatsoever.

For those that have used outlook.com, how would you compare the two?

I use both and both are configured on my iPhone. My iCloud contacts are used for all 5 of my configured email accounts so I don't need t sync contacts for each configured account. The same for the calendar. I Use only the iCloud Calendar so I do not enable sync for the others. Via iCloud, I have 2 shared calendars, a sports calendar, holiday calendar, birthday calendar and my primary calendar.

Any other input you would like to share would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

iCloud, in my opinion, is flexible and easy to use.

 

[impaler]

I WANT to love iCloud - the integration just makes sense. But Apple has a long way to go for their services. I still use them as primary, as it's just easier to have it all work together on my many Apple devices.

1. Email can be frustrating. I've seen messages pop in and disappear, without knowing what happened to them. A couple just don't get delivered. And Apple is known to silently filter emails before even reaching your inbox. The tough part of this, is you don't even know what you didn't receive. Apple has been horrible about this. See this article - there was much discussion last spring about this around the Internet: Silent email filtering makes iCloud an unreliable option | Macworld. Even if they fix this one phrase, the point is they are not putting junk in the junk folder and letting us sort through it. And they're not telling us what is blocked or what the rules are. Poor job.

2. Calendar has weird behavior too. My girlfriend and I share calendars - and just this week, I've seen a recurring event just disappear. Had to re-create them all. Also, when she invites me to an event, on icloud.com, only her version of the event shows up. In contrast, on Google Calendar, both our appointments show.

3. Contacts. Had these disappear from time to time, too. Don't know it until I find one missing, when I go to call someone or email them.

4. Outlook is okay. I prefer Gmail.

Apple has a ways to go to ensure their services match the quality of hardware and software. I do weekly backups of contacts, calendars, notes and reminders to Dropbox, out of fear I can't trust iCloud. Not good, Apple. I wouldn't worry about that with Google as much. Even setting up iCloud on my new MacBook Pro retina with Mavericks has been a PITA, with email being strange with missing aliases. Ugh.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Dude, I must be in the minority because I haven't experienced any of the things you mentioned. I share a couple of calendars and have yet to see an event or appointment disappear. The same goes for my contacts. They are all intact and have always been intact. In regard to your calendar, have you looked I to the settings to make sure that ALL EVENTS are selected to sync?

 

[impaler]

You may or may not be in the minority - no way to determine that. What I do know is I've had this stuff for nearly 14 years now (since iTools in 2000), so I'm well versed in it, and the issues are real to me. And there is no amount of troubleshooting tips I haven't tried. I know every setting, every feature, of this product. We all have different experiences, and this has been mine. I notice when things don't work - not when they do. Again, want to love it. But when an inbound email pops in your inbox and disappears, or calendar entries go missing, or contacts have to be re-entered, your trust in the product is quickly eroded. A cursory check of the Apple discussion forums will show countless issues such as these, happening to many people. Just this week, Apple services status has shown multiple email outages.

I love to give credit when credit is due. In the case of Apple iCloud services, they deserve dings for some of the problems. It works great - until it doesn't.

 

[bgl321]

I've been using iCloud email for a couple weeks now and I love it except for one HUGE problem. I send emails or at least I think I do, but sometimes they don't send. In fact, they aren't in the sent items, aren't in the drafts... just gone as if they never existed. I did this last night three times in a row. I was sending an email to my work and I went to double check that it sent. 3 times I sent it but 3 times it vanished. iCloud email would be a no brainer for me if it was reliable. And I really wanted it to work. Very disappointed... would have made life so much easier :crying:
Gmail, I guess I'm coming back :sarcastic:

Any one else have these issues?

 

[Just_Me_D]

I've been using iCloud email for a couple weeks now and I love it except for one HUGE problem. I send emails or at least I think I do, but sometimes they don't send. In fact, they aren't in the sent items, aren't in the drafts... just gone as if they never existed. I did this last night three times in a row. I was sending an email to my work and I went to double check that it sent. 3 times I sent it but 3 times it vanished. iCloud email would be a no brainer for me if it was reliable. And I really wanted it to work. Very disappointed... would have made life so much easier :crying:
Gmail, I guess I'm coming back :sarcastic:


Any one else have these issues?

I have NEVER experienced such a thing and all of my received and sent email messages are intact and are in the correct mail folders. If you're sending them from your i-device, go to Settings - Mail, Contacts, Calendars and then scroll down to "Mail" section. There should be an option to select the "Default Account". Make sure that 'iCloud" is selected. If it is not, it is possible that the account that is listed contains your outgoing messages.

 

[bgl321]

I have NEVER experienced such a thing and all of my received and sent email messages are intact and are in the correct mail folders. If you're sending them from your i-device, go to Settings - Mail, Contacts, Calendars and then scroll down to "Mail" section. There should be an option to select the "Default Account". Make sure that 'iCloud" is selected. If it is not, it is possible that the account that is listed contains your outgoing messages.

It is my default account. In fact it's been my only account for the last week on my phone. I had sent the email 4 times before it showed up in the sent items. When I got to work the email only appeared once. So not only is the email not showing in the sent items, it's not sending at all.

Now this happens not that often but it shouldn't happen at all. I can't go to the sent items to check every time I send an email to make sure it actually sent.

Very frustrated and trying to find a solution or reason why this is doing this because I don't want to switch emails again.

Thanks.

 

[Just_Me_D]

It is my default account. In fact it's been my only account for the last week on my phone. I had sent the email 4 times before it showed up in the sent items. When I got to work the email only appeared once. So not only is the email not showing in the sent items, it's not sending at all.

Now this happens not that often but it shouldn't happen at all. I can't go to the sent items to check every time I send an email to make sure it actually sent.

Very frustrated and trying to find a solution or reason why this is doing this because I don't want to switch emails again.

Thanks.

I understand, and I wish I had a definitive answer for you, but I don't. I wonder if resetting your "network settings" and/or resetting "all settings" would fix the problem? Anyway, I'll keep digging to see what I can find. In the meantime, hang in there and have a great day...

 

[bgl321]

I understand, and I wish I had a definitive answer for you, but I don't. I wonder if resetting your "network settings" and/or resetting "all settings" would fix the problem? Anyway, I'll keep digging to see what I can find. In the meantime, hang in there and have a great day...

No worries. Not like it's your fault

From the little I've found so far it does appear some folks have had this issue. No apparent fix though.

 

[impaler]

I've been using iCloud email for a couple weeks now and I love it except for one HUGE problem. I send emails or at least I think I do, but sometimes they don't send. In fact, they aren't in the sent items, aren't in the drafts... just gone as if they never existed. I did this last night three times in a row. I was sending an email to my work and I went to double check that it sent. 3 times I sent it but 3 times it vanished. iCloud email would be a no brainer for me if it was reliable. And I really wanted it to work. Very disappointed... would have made life so much easier :crying:
Gmail, I guess I'm coming back :sarcastic:

Any one else have these issues?

With respect to JustMe'D, while you haven't had issues, many have. And I have, numerous times. Any many others have too. It's no configuration issue. And Apple hasn't addressed it AT ALL, publicly. Or even acknowledged it's a problem, when they don't tell you what is junk, what isn't. I've also had emails occasionally disappear from the inbox after getting there. I see it, and poof, it's gone. Not in the trash, junk, or any other folder. And of course Apple support can't do a thing - trust me, I've spent hours on the phone/chat trying to get it fixed. Here's an off-the-top sampling of articles...

Silent email filtering makes iCloud an unreliable option | Macworld
Apple's broken promise: why doesn't iCloud 'just work'? | The Verge
Daniel Schaaff — Gmail to iCloud to Gmail again…
iCloud spam filter to blame for auto-deletion of emails containing pornographic phrase

While these articles are getting close to a year old, the issue still hasn't been addressed properly. I could post another dozen Apple discussion forum threads with the same complaints. It's a real problem. The offending phrase in this case was removed from the overzealous spam filters, but the question remains - what else is blocked? They should put it in the junk folder, let us deal with it and make the decision ourselves. In their terms of service, they state they can make decisions on this without the user's input or contribution. Fair enough. But for those that think everything's fine, remember that you can't really ever answer the question of what emails you get and which you don't, since you don't receive it.

Like you, I want to use mail, as I use every other aspect of iCloud, but I can't trust it. There are published stories of people missing job opportunities due to never receiving offers, and other critical correspondence that never got there, or never was received by the distant party. Bad news. If this happens once, my trust is destroyed in a product I rely on. Anyone relying on this email system should be nervous.

 

[bgl321]

Thanks impaler! Looks like back to gmail I go...

 

[bgl321]

Thanks impaler! Looks like back to gmail I go...

Or outlook.com

 

[bgl321]

Or outlook.com

Decided to go with outlook.com due to no push on Gmail and the web interface for outlook.com is so simple and clean.

 

[Amamba]

There's two problems I have with Outlook.com - it's slowish, and you can't see tasks in calendar on due date. Google still has an edge in speed and features. But overall, Outlook.com is a great choice, their email client is definitely excellent.

 

[audit]

Both my teenagers and I use iCloud as our personal email as well as syncing contacts and shared calenders. We've never had any issues with losing emails, contacts or calender items. My daughter is always updating it with all her school activities as well as my son. They know every appointment I have for work and more or less every place I'm going to be at because I update even if I'm going out to the bar to relax for a night with some friends. Anytime I have meetings at work, I just copy that over to my icloud calender and they know based on what type of meeting it is if they can call or if they should text or email me.

 

[bgl321]

Both my teenagers and I use iCloud as our personal email as well as syncing contacts and shared calenders. We've never had any issues with losing emails, contacts or calender items. My daughter is always updating it with all her school activities as well as my son. They know every appointment I have for work and more or less every place I'm going to be at because I update even if I'm going out to the bar to relax for a night with some friends. Anytime I have meetings at work, I just copy that over to my icloud calender and they know based on what type of meeting it is if they can call or if they should text or email me.

Since me, my wife and kids all have iPhones we use iCloud calendar. It has worked great. The email on the other had has just been too spotty the couple different times I've tested it. I can't rely on it. I want it to work so I had everything all under one account but it just didn't. So I am currently forwarding my gmail to outlook.com to see how that will work. I have gone back and forth between the two (outlook and gmail) as both have aspects I like. Unfortunately neither have been able to meet my needs completely so I take the best of both.





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[impaler]

Since me, my wife and kids all have iPhones we use iCloud calendar. It has worked great. The email on the other had has just been too spotty the couple different times I've tested it. I can't rely on it. I want it to work so I had everything all under one account but it just didn't. So I am currently forwarding my gmail to outlook.com to see how that will work. I have gone back and forth between the two (outlook and gmail) as both have aspects I like. Unfortunately neither have been able to meet my needs completely so I take the best of both.





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Interesting. I wrestle with relying on iCloud email myself. What are your email needs?


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[impaler]

Both my teenagers and I use iCloud as our personal email as well as syncing contacts and shared calenders. We've never had any issues with losing emails, contacts or calender items. My daughter is always updating it with all her school activities as well as my son. They know every appointment I have for work and more or less every place I'm going to be at because I update even if I'm going out to the bar to relax for a night with some friends. Anytime I have meetings at work, I just copy that over to my icloud calender and they know based on what type of meeting it is if they can call or if they should text or email me.

Smart. My girlfriend and I have shared iCloud calendars for years and it generally works well. We always know what's up. What I really like most is we get notified when there's updates.




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