How to Set Up an Out-of-Office Reply in iCloud Mail

iCloud Mail’s out-of-office reply is called Auto-Reply. You set it up on iCloud.com, and you can give it dates so it switches itself off when you’re back.

Turn on an automatic reply

1. Go to icloud.com/mail and sign in with your Apple Account.
2. Select the Settings button at the top of the Mailboxes list, then choose Settings.
3. Select Auto-Reply in the sidebar.
4. Tick Automatically reply to messages when they are received, then write your message.
5. Optional: set a date range. The reply runs from the first day to the last day of the range.

How it behaves

• One reply per sender per day. Someone who emails you several times while you’re away gets only one auto-reply in each 24-hour period.
• Works with forwarding. You can use Auto-Reply even if you forward your iCloud Mail to another account.

Turn it off

If you set a date range, it stops by itself. Otherwise, go to Settings › Auto-Reply on iCloud.com and clear Automatically reply to messages when they are received.

Check your storage before you go

Apple’s warning: if your iCloud storage is full, you won’t receive new email. Before a long trip, check you have free space — otherwise people get no reply and you get no mail. See iCloud storage full.

A message you can copy

Thanks for your email. I’m away until [date] and won’t be checking email regularly. I’ll reply when I’m back.

If it’s urgent, please contact [name] at [address].

For work, add who to contact and when you’ll reply:

I’m out of the office from [start date] to [end date]. For [project or area], please contact [name] at [address]. I’ll respond to other messages after [return date].

Keep it short and leave out where you are — Auto-Reply answers anyone who emails you.

Before you leave

• Send yourself a test from another account.
• Review your rules, which keep running while you’re away.

When you’re back

Turn Auto-Reply off if you didn’t set an end date. Then check Junk for genuine email that was misfiled while you were away — iCloud deletes junk after 30 days.

Same job elsewhere: Gmail · Outlook · Yahoo Mail.