Detailed and friendly MobileMe documentation for Mac, Windows, iPhone and iPod Touch: Take Control of MobileMe

Take Control of MobileMe, Second Edition

MobileMe provides oodles of features, but are you making the most of your $99-per-year membership?

When Apple discontinued MobileMe at the end of June 2012, this book became obsolete. You may instead be interested in Take Control of iCloud, also by Joe Kissell.

MobileMe has become a Swiss-army knife of online services, offering not only a whizzy "push" data-syncing service for tracking calendar, contact, bookmark, and note info on a variety of devices, but also email services, online storage and file sharing, a place to put your iWeb site or share photos or videos, and more. Take Control of MobileMe helps you understand the features and get set up, and then it dives into the details of real-world tasks.

More Info
Contents & Intro
What’s New
FAQ
Blog

This 140-page ebook covers how to handle many aspects of using MobileMe, including:

Syncing—what to expect, handling problems, and more
Various ways to use an iDisk for storing and sharing files
Setting up and using a MobileMe email account
Managing calendar and contact data on the MobileMe site
Posting photos and videos online via the Gallery and iLife ’11 or ’09
Publishing a Web site to MobileMe's servers via iWeb
Using Back to My Mac to get at the files and screen of one Mac from another
Understanding what Apple's Backup, free with MobileMe, can and can't do, and whether it's a good choice for you
Tracking your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch via Find My iPhone
Accessing your iDisk from an iOS device (with instructions for Apple's free iDisk app and notes on several third-party apps)

"Kissell cuts through [the syncing] thicket cleanly, with clear step-by-step instructions, with key caveats included. The book also provides great detail - good for peace of mind..." —The Cherry Creek News

Read this book to learn the answers to questions such as:

What are MobileMe's primary features?
How do I set up MobileMe syncing on my iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch?
How quickly should I expect MobileMe to sync my data?
Which types of data sync only between Macs and which can sync across platforms?
How do I configure my email software to use MobileMe?
How do I access my iDisk from Windows?
How do I add movies and photos to my Web Gallery?
Where in my MobileMe account does my iWeb-created site go?
What should I do to host a non-iWeb site in my MobileMe account?
How can I configure my AirPort Extreme to work with Back to My Mac?

Book Info

140 pages
Version 2.0
Published Oct 26, 2010
1.5 MB download
ISBN: 9781615420933
Free sample with Table of Contents, Intro, Quick Start, and section starts.

iPad & Kindle

An EPUB is available to purchasers of this title; log in to your account to download it. More info...

A Mobipocket file is available to purchasers of this title; log in to your account to download it. More info...

About the Author

Kissell, Joe headshot Joe Kissell has written numerous books about the Macintosh, including many popular Take Control ebooks. He's also Senior Editor of TidBITS and a Senior Contributor to Macworld, and previously spent ten years in the Mac software industry.

Book Reviews

Author Interviews

MacVoices (Feb-08)
MacVoices (Oct-08)
Contact us for interview requests

Read Me First
Introduction
MobileMe Quick Start
Get to Know MobileMe
Set Up and Explore MobileMe
Keep Your Data in Sync
Mail
Contacts
Calendar
Gallery
iDisk
Find My iPhone
Account
MobileMe and iLife
Access Your Mac Remotely
Back Up Your Files
Appendix A: Account Conversion Methods
About This Book

Read Me First

Membership in MobileMe gives you access to a suite of online services that both complements and integrates tightly with Mac OS X and iLife. Although MobileMe was designed for ease of use, it also has tremendous power—and a few hidden pitfalls. Learn how to make the most of your MobileMe membership by reading this book, which goes far beyond Apple’s online help to give you detailed instructions, tips, and strategies. This book was written by Joe Kissell, edited by Dan Frakes, and published by TidBITS Publishing Inc.

Introduction

In 2000, Apple introduced iTools, a free set of Internet services including such useful features as an email address in the mac.com domain and online storage space called iDisk. Over the following decade, this package evolved significantly. It switched from a free service to a paid one; it changed its name to .Mac in 2002 and then, in 2008, to MobileMe; it added and removed features; and it repeatedly updated its look and feel. MobileMe continues to change, but at its core is a powerful set of features that can simplify and enhance your digital life.

People frequently ask me whether I still think MobileMe is relevant—and in particular, whether it’s still worth the money. It’s true that other providers offer services comparable to portions of MobileMe at no cost, that MobileMe has had (and continues to have) some rough spots, and that Apple’s service still lacks certain key capabilities that competitors have. For example, you can get free email, online calendars and contacts, Web hosting, and cloud storage from Google. So, the thinking goes, why pay for what you can get for free?

I’m not going to try to talk you into using MobileMe or talk you out of using other services. But I do want to make a brief case for what’s uniquely great about MobileMe:

Ease of use. MobileMe is a showcase for Apple’s legendary user interface finesse, and tasks that are complicated to perform in other services are a piece of cake in MobileMe. This is especially evident when setting up syncing for multiple types of data across several devices—particularly compared to analogous services from Google.
Integration. The components of MobileMe work brilliantly and seamlessly with each other, as well as with Mac OS X and iOS and their associated applications. Other services require you to go through several distinct setup procedures, and still don’t tie in as closely to, for example, iLife and iWork, as MobileMe does.
Find My iOS Device. MobileMe is the only service that lets you locate (and optionally disable) an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch no matter where in the world that device is located.

In short, if most of the devices you use for computing, communication, and entertainment are made by Apple, MobileMe has a lot to offer.

The goal of this book is to help you get the most out of MobileMe. I want to be clear, however, that this book is not a troubleshooting guide. Although I’ve included a few tips that address common complaints, I can’t offer help for problems that involve errors or outages on Apple’s end, network issues between your computer and Apple, or other random problems. If something isn’t working the way this book describes, the most likely reason is that Apple’s servers or software are misbehaving, or that a network issue is affecting your connection to those servers. I can commiserate with you, because whatever the problem is, I’m probably experiencing it, too, but I can’t offer any magic fixes for problems that only Apple can solve.

I’ve been using MobileMe and its predecessors since day one, and I’ve been writing books about it since 2005—in other words, for half the product’s lifetime! In that time, a lot has changed, but one thing that’s stayed the same is the absence of a detailed instruction manual. Although online help is available for MobileMe, it’s not terribly thorough or helpful. I’ve written this book to fill that gap—to help you take control of every aspect of your MobileMe membership and get as much value out of it as you can. As Apple continues to modify the MobileMe services, I plan to update this book, as well, so that you’ll always have the latest information.

According to Apple, MobileMe works with Macs, Windows PCs, and iOS devices. In practice, though, Apple products, and especially Macs, are far better supported than other devices. Apple says the minimum system requirement for Macs is Mac OS X 10.5.8 (Leopard); for iPhone and iPod touch, iOS 3.1.3; and for iPad, iOS 3.2. As a result, I say nothing here about older operating systems. And, although I do discuss Windows and, to some extent, iOS devices, most of the book, like MobileMe itself, focuses on Mac OS X. Likewise, because MobileMe is so tightly tied to iLife, which itself gets regular overhauls, I focus on iLife ’11, the latest iLife version as I write this, with notes as to where it differs from the previous version, iLife ’09.

Get to Know MobileMe

What exactly is MobileMe? This set of Internet services has many facets—some of them quite obvious, and others that function invisibly but powerfully in the background. Before going further, I want to review what your MobileMe membership includes.

What Is MobileMe?

You can go to an Apple Store and walk out with a “MobileMe” box, but it won’t contain any hardware or software. The main thing in it is an activation code that you can use to turn on your MobileMe features; you can just as easily purchase your membership online and save a tree branch or two. Rather, MobileMe is a collection of online services—some of which you can use on their own, and some of which add capabilities to your Mac, Windows PC, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Major MobileMe Features

Although Apple is constantly tweaking the capabilities of MobileMe, here are the major features as of September 2010:

Synchronization: If you have more than one computer (or a computer plus an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch), you can keep key information—your contacts, calendar, and more—in sync on all of them automatically. I cover the details in Keep Your Data in Sync.
MobileMe Mail: Your MobileMe membership includes one or more email addresses (using the format member-name@me.com or member-name@mac.com); you can check and send email via the MobileMe Web site or use a program such as Apple Mail. For details, see Mail. You can also use your MobileMe address for instant messaging with iChat or AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).
Contacts: Sync the address book from your Mac or PC with other computers, your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and the MobileMe Web site. To learn more, see Contacts.
Calendar: Synchronize calendar events between devices and with the MobileMe Web site. You can also view and edit your calendars as easily on the Web as you can on your computer or mobile device. See Calendar.
Gallery: Share photos and movies on the Web with MobileMe Gallery, a slick media-viewing interface. You can grant access to friends and family members so they can upload their own media to your gallery, and you can view these galleries using an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple TV. Read Gallery.
iDisk: With this online storage space, you can access selected files from nearly any computer with an Internet connection (and even from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch). You can also publish Web sites and share files with other people. See iDisk.
Find My iPhone: If you’re separated from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you can use MobileMe to locate it almost anywhere in the world—and remotely erase its data if you can’t retrieve the phone. See Find My iPhone.
iLife integration: MobileMe and iLife have always had a friendly relationship, and iLife ’11 provides especially rich integration with you MobileMe account. Read MobileMe and iLife.
Back to My Mac: If your Macs are in different locations, you can now access files on and share the screen of a remote Mac with a few clicks. See Access Your Mac Remotely.
Backup: MobileMe members can download a backup application called Backup—though it’s generally not the best tool for the job. Consult Back Up Your Files for an explanation.

MobileMe is not the only way to get most of these features, but the single, easy-to-use package makes it a great choice—especially if you have an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or more than one Mac.

MobileMe accounts are designed to be used by a single person. With a Family Pack, you can get accounts for five people for less than the cost of two individual memberships. The catch is that only the main account holder gets the full amount of iDisk and email storage space; the other four Family Members (as Apple calls them) get somewhat reduced quotas—see iDisk for details.

Save Money on Your MobileMe Membership

Buying a membership or renewal directly from Apple costs $99 for individuals or $149 for a five-user Family Pack. But I’ve seen prices well under $80 and $110, respectively, at other sites. (Yes, you can use a retail box to renew an existing membership.) Some good places to check for discounted MobileMe retail boxes are:

Quick Start to

You can read the entire book in order, or click a link to immediately jump to any particular topic. If you are completely new to MobileMe, however, I strongly recommend reading Get to Know MobileMe first.

Get started:

Learn about MobileMe features. See Get to Know MobileMe.
Set up your Mac, PC, or mobile device to work with MobileMe, and learn how to use the MobileMe Web site. Read Set Up and Explore MobileMe.
Make sure your computer(s) and mobile device(s) can share information with MobileMe. Read Keep Your Data in Sync.

Use the six core MobileMe applications:

Send and receive email with Mail.
Manage your address book using Contacts.
Keep track of your schedule and to-do items with Calendar.
Share photos and movies online using Gallery.
Store and share files on your iDisk.
Locate a wayward iOS device with Find My iPhone.

Go beyond the basics:

Manage your MobileMe Account.
Use MobileMe and iLife together to create Web sites.
Access stuff on a faraway Mac using Back to My Mac. See Access Your Mac Remotely.
Back Up Your Files—to an iDisk or another destination.
Convert your MobileMe account from one type to another, if the need arises. See Appendix A: Account Conversion Methods.

What’s New in the Second Edition

A great many changes affecting MobileMe have occurred since version 1.2 of this book was released. The iPad appeared, as did the iPhone 4 and iOS 4; Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard was released, as was iLife ’11; and the MobileMe Web site got a major overhaul (especially the Mail and Calendar applications). The second edition of this book is an attempt to bring it up to date with these new developments. Although the book contains numerous changes, the most significant are these:

Added coverage of the new site layout, navigation controls, toolbars, and other changes in Navigate the MobileMe Web Site.
Updated the section A Word about Push Synchronization so that it remains correct for 10.5 Leopard while also more fully describing Snow Leopard and iOS.
Completely revised the discussion of Notes, which now sync via push across Macs and some iOS devices.
Thoroughly updated the Mail chapter to account for changes such as a new layout, styled text, server-based rules, support for multiple From addresses and POP accounts, and greatly revised preferences.
Gave the Calendar chapter a massive makeover to reflect the sweeping changes to the MobileMe Calendar application.
Updated the iDisk chapter to keep it current with the latest user interface and feature changes.
Broke out Find My iPhone as its own chapter and expanded it significantly, now that Apple has added to Find My iPhone’s capabilities and put it in a new location on the Mobile Me site.
When iLife comes up, I discuss iLife ’11 and iLife ’09. (I dropped coverage of iLife ’08, and Apple never released an iLife ’10.)

What Was New in Version 1.2

Version 1.2 added instructions for using Apple’s then-new MobileMe iDisk app for iPhone and iPod touch (see Connect Using an iOS Device) and removed one tiny leftover mention of .Mac Groups.

What Was New in Version 1.1

Version 1.1 of Take Control of MobileMe was released in July 2009, and brought this ebook up to date with the latest developments in MobileMe and Apple software since its original publication, so it covered interactions with iLife '09 and iPhone OS 3.0 software. Noteworthy changes included:

Coverage of MobileMe’s improved support for push synchronization
Details about new MobileMe features for owners of iPhones and iPod touches with iPhone OS 3.0, such as mobile iDisk access and Find My iPhone
Updated instructions for sharing media with iLife ’09
Instructions for using the iDisk file sharing feature
New information about publishing Web sites made with your own tools—even when using a personal domain
Details on using Back to My Mac with a Time Capsule or AirPort Disk
Removal of information about HomePage sites and .Mac Groups, as those features have been officially discontinued

Update Plans

October 24, 2011 -- Because Apple is replacing MobileMe with iCloud, we do not plan to update this ebook again.

—Tonya Engst

Joe Kissell and Adam Engst Say Adieu to MobileMe

July 20, 2012 --

If you haven’t yet had the time or temerity to move from MobileMe to iCloud (and you really should, since MobileMe has been MobileDeadToYou since June 30th, 2012), you can find helpful migration tips and observations in the TidBITS Presents event that Joe and Adam hosted live on on June 16th. A TidBITS article, Watch Joe Kissell and Adam Engst in TidBITS Presents: Adieu MobileMe, describes the event and provides some useful links; the event itself can be viewed on YouTube.

—Michael E. Cohen

Further iCloud Transition Details Emerge

June 27, 2011 --

Responding to enormous customer confusion and anxiety, Apple has posted a MobileMe to iCloud Transition page which answers many, but not all questions about the upcoming changes. (For more about this document, read Apple Details Transition from MobileMe to iCloud in TidBITS.)

A few crucial highlights:

iDisk (including iWeb publishing) and Gallery will be completely discontinued as of June 30, 2012.
Mac-to-Mac syncing of Dashboard widgets, keychains, Dock items, and System Preferences will also disappear when MobileMe ends.
Bookmark syncing and Back to My Mac will become part of iCloud.
Email, contacts, and calendars will continue to be accessible via Web browsers at iCloud.com.
It will be possible to move one's email, contact, calendar, and bookmark data from MobileMe to iCloud (although Apple hasn't yet said how this will happen), and you can keep existing ___@me.com and ___@mac.com email addresses.
It won't be possible to merge multiple Apple IDs, but you can use one for iCloud and a different one for iTunes Store purchases, for example.

Some questions remain unanswered, and in all probability the complete story won't be known in detail until iCloud is officially released.

—Joe Kissell

Goodbye, MobileMe; Hello, iCloud

June 8, 2011 --

On June 6, 2011, Apple announced a new service called iCloud that will appear at some point later this year (Apple describe it as "fall," and which will effectively replace MobileMe. Until then, MobileMe continues unchanged, except that Apple is no longer selling subscriptions or charging for renewals; all current members automatically have their accounts extended through the end of June 2012.

When iCloud becomes available, existing MobileMe members will be able to migrate to the new service, which will be free (albeit with optional paid features, such as iTunes Match and additional storage). If you sign up for iCloud, you'll gain access to the new features, but you'll also give up access to some things MobileMe currently offers. So far, Apple hasn't released any details about the fate of iDisk (including file sharing and iWeb publishing); MobileMe Gallery; Back to My Mac; the Backup application; Web-based access to Mail, Contacts, and Calendars; or Mac-to-Mac syncing of things like preferences and keychains. But unless or until Apple tells us otherwise, the safest assumption is that all those things will go away, so if they're crucial to you, it's not too soon to start looking for replacements from other providers.

Since MobileMe as such won't be around much longer, we won't be releasing any new versions of Take Control of MobileMe. However, we will definitely have complete Take Control coverage of iCloud! Exactly what that will look like and when it will appear is still under discussion.

In the meantime, you can learn more about iCloud and what it might mean for MobileMe users in the following places:

iCloud Rolls In, Extended Forecast Calls for Disruption by Jeff Carlson (TidBITS)
WWDC: Apple Introduces iCloud by Jonathan Seff (Macworld)
iCloud: What You Need to Know (Macworld)
What Does iCloud Mean for MobileMe Subscribers? by Jonathan Seff (Macworld)