Forward client email automatically from iCloud Mail
Use a rule, not the account-wide forwarding switch, so only the client mail you choose leaves your mailbox.
Walkthrough · 3 min read
iCloud Mail has two separate ways to forward, and only one of them is right for this. The Mail Forwarding setting sends a copy of EVERYTHING to another address, including mail to any custom domain you have attached. A rule sends only what matches it. You want a rule.
Set it up at icloud.com rather than in the Mail app on your Mac or phone. That is where iCloud’s own rules live, and Apple documents the settings there.
- Go to icloud.com/mail and sign in.
- Open the menu at the top of the mailbox list and choose Settings.
- Choose Rules in the sidebar, then add a new rule.
- Name it, then set the condition to match this client — their address, or a word that identifies them reliably.
- Set the action to forward, and paste the Stria drop address.
- Add the rule, then forward one real client message by hand to check the address works. Wait a few minutes before testing the rule itself.
Note: Apple notes that a new or changed rule can take up to fifteen minutes to start applying to incoming mail. If your first test does nothing, that is the most likely reason — wait, then send another.
Note: One forwarding address per rule, and up to five hundred rules on the account. So a client per rule works fine, and if you use per-project addresses, a rule per project does too.
Important: Leave the "Forward my email to" checkbox in Mail Forwarding alone. It is the switch that forwards everything, and it has a companion option to delete messages after forwarding — which, pointed at Stria, would move your mail somewhere it was never meant to live and remove it from the mailbox you actually read.
Apple’s instructions for rules do not mention any confirmation step for the destination address, and we have not seen one required. If iCloud does ask you to confirm the address, the confirmation lands on the client’s email thread in Stria, as plain text, and you can follow the link from there.
Copy a client’s drop address — in your Stria workspace.
Check the test message arrived — in your Stria workspace.