How do I forward school email from iCloud to ParentDeck?
Make one rule for each school sender, on your iPhone or at icloud.com. Not in the Mail app on your Mac. Each rule forwards that sender’s email to your ParentDeck address. Rules made on your iPhone or at icloud.com run on Apple’s servers the moment mail arrives, so they work even when your Mac is asleep.
Where: On your iPhone (iOS 26 or later) or at icloud.com.
Don’t use the Mail app on your Mac. Its rules only run while your Mac is awake and Mail is open.
In ParentDeck
- Open Settings, then Set up forwarding under Automatic forwarding, and choose iCloud. ParentDeck lists the school senders to forward, based on your kids’ schools and activities. Untick any you don’t want, and add any it missed.
- Add each iCloud address you send from (icloud.com, me.com, mac.com) under Addresses you forward from, and enter the code ParentDeck sends to each one.
Your forwarding address
k7m2q9xb4tw8@in.parentdeck.aiCopy
On your iPhone
On iPhone:
- Settings
- Your name
- iCloud
- iCloud Mail Rules
- Add Rule
- Open Settings, tap your name, then tap iCloud.
- Under Saved to iCloud, tap Mail, then tap iCloud Mail Rules.
- Tap Add Rule. Under Message, choose mail from the sender. Under Action, choose Forward to and paste your ParentDeck address.
- Save the rule, then add one for the next sender.
Or on a computer, at icloud.com
At icloud.com/mail:
- Settings button
- Settings
- Rules
- Add
- Go to icloud.com/mail and sign in.
- Select the settings button at the top of the Mailboxes list, then choose Settings.
- Select Rules, then the add button in the top right.
- Name the rule. Under Message, choose mail from the sender. Under Action, choose Forward to and paste your ParentDeck address. Select Add.
- Repeat for each sender on the ParentDeck setup page.
New rules can take up to 15 minutes to start working.
Waiting for your first automatic email
Check your rules
Forwarding is working.
Last forwarded email received from Gmail: Oct 10
If something goes wrong
- You’re getting “Emails are now being forwarded” messages. Those come from Apple, not ParentDeck. Apple sends one as a security notice for each forwarding rule, and there’s no setting to turn them off. If you ever see one for a rule you didn’t make, someone else may be forwarding your email, so check your rules at icloud.com. To keep them out of your inbox, add one more rule at icloud.com: if the subject contains “are now being forwarded”, move the message to a folder.
- You already made rules in Mail on your Mac. Make them again on your iPhone or at icloud.com, then turn off the old ones.
- Links take an extra tap to open. iCloud changes links as it forwards email, so ParentDeck checks where each one goes before opening it.
- Automatic forwarding stays grey, but email is arriving. Add every iCloud address you send from (icloud.com, me.com, mac.com) under Addresses you forward from. Mail from an address you haven’t added still shows up, but it doesn’t count toward turning green.
- A school sender isn’t on the list. Add it on the setup page under Add a sender, then make a rule for it. See Which emails to forward.
- Nothing shows up in your Sent folder. That’s normal. Automatic forwards don’t go in Sent. To check that something arrived, look on your ParentDeck Home page.
- Email stops arriving. If your forwarded email stops arriving for five school days, ParentDeck shows a notice in the app and emails the parent who set up forwarding. Days your district calendar marks as no school don’t count.
Last checked October 2026 against Gmail, iCloud, and Microsoft help pages.