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iCloud users report Gmail “too many rejections” errors, extended delivery delays

Numerous complaints in Apple’s discussion forums have spotlighted a problem preventing iCloud.com and me.com email addresses from receiving Google Gmail messages, with delays lasting hours or days.

Update: The issue appears to have been quietly resolved as of March 18, with Gmail to iCloud emails taking only a minute.Noted in reader tips and confirmed by 9to5Mac, the issue occurs when a message is sent from a Gmail account to an @iCloud.com or @me.com address, resulting in an extended delivery delay and/or this failure message from Apple’s servers:

451 4.5.3 Too many rejections; try again later.

According to the discussion forum threats, Apple’s servers have been rejecting Gmail messages since last week, and Apple engineers are continuing to work on a fix for the problem:

They are very aware of the issue and working on fixing it. They said that everyone who is having this issue should call and report this. They’ll ask you for some info that will help them. They [sic] tech said specifically that the more people that call, the easier it will be to get a fix.

If you’ve been waiting on important Gmail messages and haven’t received them, this is most likely the reason. Apple’s telephone number for reporting iCloud mail issues is 800-275-2273.

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Comments

  1. chrisl84 - 9 years ago

    Had been wondering what was up with that! Ah well, they’ll get it fixed soon enough.

  2. Lorenzo (@Lorenzo92_) - 9 years ago

    This type of things remember me the old “me.com” problem.
    MAIL ARE IMPORTANT!

  3. juancastim135 - 9 years ago

    Not only that, mail on iOS and Mac (latest versions) almost everyday have problems login into Google accounts

  4. Bob Morse (@Bobtacular) - 9 years ago

    I’m having the issue mentioned above. I’m actually on the phone right now with Apple Support trying to solve it.

    • Bob Morse (@Bobtacular) - 9 years ago

      After my phone call with Apple, the support guy (who was super nice) informed me that this is a known issue. He made sure to put my email down on a internal list of accounts that this is happening to. He said he would notify me when it’s resolved. This kind of stuff can happen on an service so I’m not too upset. As a tech guy myself I understand and I’m sure they hard at work fixing the issue.

    • Emmett Klopp - 9 years ago

      My experience that I just had with Bonnie the Senior support person that I was escalated to was the most unhelpful. She denied any knowledge of this issue, and put all the blame of the supposed problem on Gmail’s side.

      Super frustrating after the Applecare support person I first spoke to was very helpful and was making an effort to try to get this resolved and even just acknowledged that something was up.

  5. Liam Deckham - 9 years ago

    Why people use Gmail is beyond me. Own your own email! Trusting a service like Gmail because it may “work like a charm” is a bonehead move, but hey why not upload your whole life to Google, give them the deed to your house, give them everything! (rant over)

    • Abraham Song - 9 years ago

      Talk about tin foiled hat.

    • Eric Johnson - 9 years ago

      And use who instead? You think everyone is going to set up their own mail server or what? The issue is with Apple not Gmail.

      • GeniusUnleashed - 9 years ago

        Stop being reasonable and educated. You’re ruining his good time.

    • philboogie - 9 years ago

      1) Google scans mail on certain keywords, like most email providers do, including Apple. Amongst others for kiddy pr0n, in conjunction with NCMEC. This is a good thing, and not something people will do when running their own mailserver.

      2) Gmail probably has the best spam filter in place. And they should; this benefits themselves the most, not just cost-wise. With half a billion users this makes sense.

      3) Using your own mailserver will complicate things, and is not for the average user, which is the majority of mail users, obviously.

  6. Joe Mecca - 9 years ago

    same problem with earthlink and mindspring – mail is rejected using gmail through apple mail.

  7. Mike Peter Reed - 9 years ago

    I use the iCloud web client for email exclusively but recently it’s been refusing to send email and pops up with an error message. It doesn’t save a draft either. Frankly this is mediocre and enough to convince me that Apple still don’t know how to do robust and efficient internet services. Very annoying.

  8. Abraham Song - 9 years ago

    Love Apple, but they can’t get cloud services right. IMHO it’s a big problem for Apple that keeps getting swept under the rug by us Apple Fans, tech pundits, and Apple themselves.

  9. Howie Isaacks - 9 years ago

    More proof that Gmail is crap! If all you don’t want to pay for a service, you deserve bad quality.

    • Eric Johnson - 9 years ago

      It’s Apple, genius.

    • dm619 - 9 years ago

      do you really understand what the article saying?

      • Howie Isaacks - 9 years ago

        I understand completely. As someone who helps manage a lot of email servers I see a lot of CRAP coming from Gmail every day. Most of it is spam. iCloud mail is not perfect, but there are reasons why Gmail gets rejected so much, and you can’t blame it all on Apple. Gmail is crap. Period.

  10. paulywalnuts23 - 9 years ago

    I haven’t had ANY issues on my Macs or iOS products however, my gmail is just my crap email address I give out to everything that needs an email that I don’t want to give them an email I care about.. Thus, I really don’t care if messages come thur in a prompt manner.

  11. Nat Johannson - 9 years ago

    I’m having the same issue, particularly if someone hasn’t emailed at my me.com address before. They are getting a MESSAGE DELAYED notification from the iCloud server. Please DO CALL Apple support if you are having this issue. They are trying to isolate the problem, and they don’t have enough info if you just write on the support site. And for the record, I LOVE my apple mail. NEVER any junk mail and usually without issue. Thanks for posting the article.

  12. StephandJayce Schweiger - 9 years ago

    I was notified of the failure twice now.. Both from Gmail and aol. Im on the phone with apple support now.

  13. AeronPeryton - 9 years ago

    I created my iCloud account back when it was .mac, which means I got grandfathered into a @me.com address. I’ll be damned if I give that up. Meanwhile, my father uses his gmail account to converse with me to my @me address all the time. He sent me a message this morning, no issues to report.

  14. delaude (@serged67) - 9 years ago

    same problem for me, receive from gmail, emails 16 hours later…

  15. NerdShouts - 9 years ago

    It happened once or twice this week with me, but everything working smoother after the little hurdle.

  16. Marklewood at Serenity Lodge - 9 years ago

    My problem with both Gmail and (old) Yahoo mail accounts and Apple is that my Apple devices (iMac, iPad, iPhone) keep dropping the password from preferences/keychain. Has done for months.

  17. Brenda Scott - 8 years ago

    This is STILL an issue! Customer emails from me.com accounts arrive very late or not at all. Please fix! Our company has google based email.