iCloud, mobileMe and Snow Leopard

For now, you need Lion to use the full functionalities of iCloud. Apple hasn't revealed any plan to bring iCloud to Snow Leopard yet, but there are rumors.

You can, however, use your iCloud email address with any IMAP client :http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4864.(I haven't tested it since I don't run Lion, but I think this would include Mail 4.5 from Snow Leopard. )

But Snow Leopard does not accept the iCloud id and passworld or the (new) mobileMe email address and password. what's up.???

Just to be sure : by iCloud ID, you mean the one you created from your iPad just after upgrading, and by new mobileMe address, you mean the @me.com email address you created afterwards, right ? Or do you mean you had a paying mobileme subscribtion before ?

And you're entering these infos in the MobileMe preference pane in System Preferences ?

So I go on to create a new mobileMe email account, but now Snow Lepord dosen't accept my MobileMe nor the iCloud id !!!!!!

If you enter your iCloud ID in the MobileMe preference pane in Snow Leopard, it won't work ; as I said, it is not supported. If you enter your new @me.com email address, it won't work either, since it's a iCloud email address.

I'm not sure when I'll upgrade to Lion, Help!!! How do I sync my stuff? Calendar etc. I used to the MoblieMe sysn for that.

You are a Gmail user, so you can sync your mail, contacts and calendars natively and wirelessly between your Mac and iPad : http://www.google.com/sync/mac.html for the Mac and http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=138740&topic=14252 for your iPad.

If you want the other features of iCloud (Photo Stream, Find my friends, backups to the cloud for your iPad, Back to my Mac) you'll have to upgrade to Lion or wait till Apple updates Snow Leopard with iCloud integration, if they do.

As near as I can tell, you have to downgrade back to iOS 4 (I think 4.3.5 was the last v4) OR upgrade to Lion if you want to synch.

Personally, I HATE this choice. I still have some PPC games that I play and a couple of pieces of non-game software that I rely on. Thanks, Apple. Thanks a lot.

Martin Gallo wrote:

As near as I can tell, you have to downgrade back to iOS 4 (I think 4.3.5 was the last v4) OR upgrade to Lion if you want to synch.

Personally, I HATE this choice. I still have some PPC games that I play and a couple of pieces of non-game software that I rely on. Thanks, Apple. Thanks a lot.

Why would you NEED to "downgrade" iOS ??

You can still disable icloud on iOS5 and still use the good old iTunes sync to have your Snow content transfered to the iOS device. iTunes v10.5 runs in Snow, you can even profit from Wifi sync - that is not dependant on using the iCloud service at all.

You can also use your iOS device as a single unit and profit from the cloud service. It does not "need" a Mac on the other side to work.. In fact Apple promotes the "PC-free" idea, so people get used to operating only their iOS devices as independant "machines". In fact iPhones/iPods and iPads profit more from iCloud then even Lion. For example the iWork09 suite in OSX 10.7.2 has no iCloud upload features while the iOS iwork apps have and do sync - but only across other mobile devices, never to a Mac over the cloud. Clearly a sign on the wall where the train is heading in the coming years.

I have Lion on my MacBook Pro and the move from MobileMe to iCloud was flawless. Now the problem . . . On my MobileMe Account, I had my wife as a Family Member. She uses an iMac with Snow Leopard (10.6.8). I can't upgrade to Lion on that machine. We moved her MobileMe id's to iCloud and she can receive and send mail from iCloud. However her Mail (4.5) will not work and I cannot add an iCloud account in Preferences. I have heard that an upgrade my be available for 10.6.8, but cannot confirm. It's a shame that Apple did not realize the problem, but maybe they just want us to buy a new generation Mac . . . which I cannot afford. I may just stop using Mail and Address Book and go back to Outlook :-(

I cannot add a new account in Mail. The pup-up only allows a MobileMe Account . . . and I don't have one anymore.

floridalarry wrote:

I have Lion on my MacBook Pro and the move from MobileMe to iCloud was flawless. Now the problem . . . On my MobileMe Account, I had my wife as a Family Member. She uses an iMac with Snow Leopard (10.6.8). I can't upgrade to Lion on that machine. We moved her MobileMe id's to iCloud and she can receive and send mail from iCloud. However her Mail (4.5) will not work and I cannot add an iCloud account in Preferences. I have heard that an upgrade my be available for 10.6.8, but cannot confirm. It's a shame that Apple did not realize the problem, but maybe they just want us to buy a new generation Mac . . . which I cannot afford. I may just stop using Mail and Address Book and go back to Outlook :-(

Unfortunately Outlook for Mac ( 2008 and 2011 versions ) can't sync Calendar data from iCloud. Only Mail via manual IMAP servers filled in . Microsoft needs to re-build the Caldav features in Outlook or Apple has to provide a fix. Momentary Outlook and iCloud are no good companions. ( on windows yes, on Mac not ).

I would NEED to upgrade to Lion or downgrade to iOS 4 so I could easily keep my iPhone and desktop synched live and in real time, rather than be chained to some sort of synching routine like we did in the mid 90's.

MobileMe worked well enough for this purpose and that capability did not NEED to be abandoned. Cloud computing has been around for a while now, why are we in need of the 'cult of the new' all of a sudden?

It appears that my wife will lose the ability to use Mail, iCal and Address Book. I guess I will also lose the ability to have her email on my iPhone 4. She really doesn't care about iCloud, but now will be forced to change her email address. What a bunch of crap.

I'm in the same boat. 1/2 my family "could" upgrade, but why should I?

I love how iCloud is being touted as "free" when clearly you need to fork out for Lion to run it! Not the mention the requirement for new hardware if you want to go down that route.

I'm actually thinking of jacking MobileMe / iCloud in for good and going down another route using other providers for email / address book and DropBox for iDisk.

Makes you want to get an Android phone and throw in the towel!😠

I am not quite ready to go Android, or to abandon Macintosh. I am not happy with Lion, though, and Apple is starting to disappoint me. Apple used to flaunt its backwards compatabiility with older hardware/software but it appears that those days are over. I was going to buy a new iPhone when I qualify for an upgrade but I fear the cost of possibly having to buy new computers to support it! Yes, that is hyperbole, but what happens if the current trend of obsolescence continues? Will my house have to be replaced?

Microsoft got away with it because the hardware was cheap, but I cannot afford to keep up with Apple hardware costs.

I am in the same situation as many of you. I've been using mobile me with a core duo imac for years. Synchronizing with an iphone 4 and a newer macbook pro worked well for me so added a macbook air as well, anticipating all would work together well with icloud. My itunes and iphoto library are located on my imac which can't be upgraded to lion. As a resutl, I'm not in market for any new mac products until I determine if I this situation is going to require a new desktop.

Who do we write to to complain about the lack of backwords compatibility?

You can use iCloud mail on a 10.6.8 by following thse simple steps:

Thanks for the straightforward and accurate info on switching both mail and iCal from MobileMe to iCloud. They were working fine on all devices and my desktop (Lion) but not on the macbook with Snow Leopard. Both worked perfectly on the first try.

BRAVO! After changing my password from 7 characters to the alleged new "me.com 8 character password minimum" I was able to successfully integrate iCloud, macmail, iCal on 10.6.8 using sarcaster330's steps above. Thank you. After a day in the Apple store and 3 days on the phone with 4 Apple Care techs (2 regular techs and 2 senior techs) I finally connected to a Sr tech who; had success with and recommended I change my password.