Technical notes index
Migrating from MobileMe
Moving calendars between 'On My Mac' and iCloud
Restoring iCloud calendars from a Time Machine or other backup
iCloud and Snow Leopard
Entering iCloud Mail settings manually in Snow Leopard
Entering iCloud Mail settings manually in Tiger

---

The iCloud is Apple's new online service, available now. Pitched in part as a replacement for MobileMe, it's designed to sync your contacts, calendars, bookmarks, photos, and iWork documents between devices. It will also allow downloading of music you've purchased from the iTunes Store - in the future or the past - to other devices (something which looks like being delayed in some geographical areas). (Online storage and downloading of material you've added yourself, for example by ripping CDs, are provided at a charge.) MobileMe mail can be migrated to iCloud.

These facilities are free to users of OSX 10.7.2 'Lion', and iOS5 for mobile devices, and these systems are the minimum requirement to set up or transition to an iCloud account. Most facilities are not available to earlier systems, though Mail can be accessed from any email client provided an iCloud has been set up in the first place. There is currently no indication the other facilities will in future be available on Snow Leopard - see below.

It would appear that Support is available only to people with 'AppleCare' - which is free for 90 days after purchasing hardware, or has to be paid for to extend it. You might want to consider whether you should entrust your email to a service which has no support contact should there be problems (though the same probably applies to the other free email services).

MobileMe will continue until 30th June 2012. Existing subscribers will have their subscriptions extended at no charge until that date (whenever their current subscription may expire between now and June 2012). At that point MobileMe will no longer be available. Mail, contacts, calendars and bookmarks can be converted to the new service.

New MobileMe accounts can no longer be created; neither can email aliases. Family Pack master account holders can create new sub-accounts, but individual accounts cannnot be upgraded to Family Packs. iCloud includes the ability to create aliases, and existing aliases will be maintained: Family Pack sub-accounts are individually convertible to iCloud accounts. People with inactive or expired MobileMe accounts can use that ID to open a new iCloud account.

This article examines some of the alternatives for facilities not available in iCloud when you migrate to MobileMe.

Information has been made available by Apple on moving from MobileMe to iCloud, and what to do if your  device or Mac doesn't meet the System requirements (Lion and iOS5). There is a general Help Page on iCloud with links to more detailed pages.

Website hosting, the iDisk, and Gallery will be discontinued. See also in the table below. I have written an article on Migrating from MobileMe, examining possible alternatives.

You will need OSX Lion 10.7.2. Go to http://me.com/move and follow the instructions (don't try to set up a new account using your MobileMe username, and don't cancel your account before migrating). If you had a MobileMe account but it is expired, go to the iCloud setup page at http://apple.com/icloud/setup and enter your expired @me.com or @mac.com address as the username. @me.com addresses will be reactivated, but expired @mac.com ones won't, though you can create a new @me.com address. Aliases will be maintained but cannot be converted to full accounts. You will need an active associated email address to do all this. There is some troubleshooting advice on this Apple page.

If you have MobileMe mail set up to collect mail from external POP accounts you should cancel this before migrating, or you may find it still working in iCloud (where it isn't supposed to) and with no way of stopping it.

If you have a Family Pack, each sub-account and the master account can be regarded as individual and separate for the purposes of the exercise. In each case all you have to do is go to http://me.com/move and follow the instructions, and it doesn't matter what order you do it in. Because of confusingly worded instructions from Apple some people have got the impression they have to cancel the sub-accounts first: do not do this. If you migrate the master account first the others will continue to run: obviously what was the master account will not have any control over them nor be able to administer or delete them in the event it wanted to. If you migrate a sub-account while the master account is still running you can't create a new sub-account to fill the gap. Aliases will be maintained but unlike in the MobileMe Family Pack you cannot convert an alias to a full iCloud account.

The basic, free, iCloud account has 5GB storage. Customers migrating from MobileMe get a complimentary upgrade of 20GB (normally $40 p.a.) until 30 September 2012 (except for those upgrading from Family Pack sub-accounts). If they wish to continue with the upgrade (it's not clear yet whether this will be automatically charged) they will need to subscribe - please see this page.

In a move to encourage the remaining MobileMe subscribers to move to iCloud, Apple is making Snow Leopard available for free to MobileMe users so that people who are on Leopard can upgrade to Snow Leopard at no cost, which will enable them to get into the App Store and purchase Lion for $30. The offer runs only until June 15th 2012, and is only for MobileMe subscribers. Of course to make use of this offer you have to be running Leopard or earlier on a Mac which meets the specifications for Lion - which I would have thought was a fairly unusual situation. MobileMe subscribers with Leopard or earlier whose computers are Lion-compliant can request the Snow Leopard DVD from this page. Obviously this offer does not enable you to run iCloud on Snow Leopard.

There is a list of iCloud Help pages at the bottom of this page. For Support go to http://www.apple.com/support/icloud/contact/ - however it appears that this is only available to those with AppleCare (which covers the first 90 days after purchasing hardware or can be extentded at a cost). Without this you are on your own, though if you have a problem you could ask in the Apple Discussion Forums where other users (though not Apple staff) may be able to offer suggestions.

Apple have provided a facility for MobileMe users whose computers don't meet the requirements to migrate their email only to iCloud. If you choose this option your email will be migrated to iCloud, but not immediately - this will take effect at the end of June when MobileMe terminates. At that point all other data on MobileMe will be deleted, but your email will be accessible at http://icloud.com.

Though Apple have not included this information, you will be able to set mail up manually to access your iCloud email by following the instructions on these pages:

Entering iCloud email settings manually in Snow Leopard or Leopard

Entering iCloud email settings manually in Tiger

Apple have not stated what will happen if you do not follow this process. It seems safe to assume that in that case your emails will be deleted and you will lose the account.

Many people are in this situation because they opened an Apple ID to use with iTunes, the Discussion Forums or hardware registration, and then joined MobileMe at a later date - the Mobile email address is an Apple ID itself.

You can't merge these two IDs. You should migrate your MobileMe account at http://me.com/move. Your email, calendars, contacts and bookmarks will be transferred to iCloud, and you should log onto iCloud in System Preferences>iCloud with your MobileMe email address.

As you have a different ID for iTunes you should continue to use that for iTunes, iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match. There is no problem about using two different IDs in this way; and indeed I think it's preferable, given the number of complaints about hacked accounts on iTunes, not to have your iTunes login the same as your publicly available email address.

Officially, no: Lion 10.7.2 is required. If you migrate from MobileMe but don't have 10.7.2 you will lose access to email, and calendar, contacts and bookmarks syncing: Keychain and other data syncing will stop (see table below). You will be able to access email and calendars on the iCloud website at http://icloud.com provided you have been able to complete the migration successfully: you can do this from Snow Leopard perfectly well: when it asks you to confirm that your Mac is using Lion just lie and say 'yes'. You can also set Mail up manually to access  email on Snow Leopard or Leopard, or on Tiger.

This page lists the situation when trying to use iCloud in Snow Leopard in more detail, including a few workarounds.

The table below lists the facilities in both services. Currently iCloud requires OSX 10.7.2 and iOS5.

See this Apple Tech Note for further details.

This Apple Tech note gives advice on moving an iWeb site to another hoster (without mentioning that the program has been 'end-of-life'd and can no longer be bought).

This post in Apple Discussions gives a detailed explanation of using 'iTunes in the Cloud' and the login implications.

© Roger Wilmut. This site is not associated with Apple.