How do I create an iCloud account on my PC?

David Goodall wrote:

Again - it really depends what you want it for. The businesses I know of use it to share calendars, notes and contacts between a few computers. They do not use it for documents etc.

Document sync is not offered, so that's a good thing.

We'll agree to disagree, an email system that operates under those restrictions (and has 48 hour + outages) would not constitute a functional system for my business, and I have 6 emal address users total.

Document sync is offered, but I don't think it's a great idea - having said that - I find it very useful for trailing the iPad around, that I can access things I need.

But I'm with you on things like email etc. I don't encourage those folk using iCloud for Calendar etc to abandon their email system.

Thanks for the discussion.

d

David Goodall wrote:

Document sync is offered,

Document sync is only offered OSX-IOS, document sync between Macs is not supported.

It is offered between Macs on Mountain Lion.

David Goodall wrote:

It is offered between Macs on Mountain Lion.

For iWorks apps only, not much use to me at all.

Zidane007, your accusation of racism is offensive, ignorant and ill-informed. I shall report u to Apple for inappropriate posts. You either don't know how to read or you don't know what racism means. And you definitely do not keep up with the news. Here is just one of hundreds of links to explain how wrong you are:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2103798/Revealed-Inside-Apples-Chinese-s weatshop-factory-workers-paid-just-1-12-hour.html

My comment was in defence of the Chinese workers exploited by an overbearing multinational like Apple, hence as far away from racism as can possibly be imagined. I have nothing more to say to such a complete imbecile such as you and I have already wasted too much of my time writing these words to reply to your idiotic post. Apart from being offensive, you added absolutely nothing useful to this thread. Stop wasting everyone's time with your pathetic comments. You are not interesting.

Unfortunately I've come to the conclusion that csound1 and freakkk are right. iCloud offers such a limited and basic service that it can only be of use for personal recreational purposes. As far as I'm concerned it represents a massive step back compared to MobileMe, at least in terms of what I used it for (working between several computers, both Mac and PC, and having all my documents easily accessible). The fact that iCloud only really syncs iWorks documents makes it about as useful as a pretty toy for amateur leisure users. For calendar syncing in businesses of all sizes I think Outlook is probably far more useful and reliable. Personally I am a one-man business so I don't have the issues that csound1 and Goodall are referring to.

To answer the original post, it does indeed seem impossible to set up an iCloud account on a PC unless you have first activated it on a piece of Apple hardware. When I first moved from MobileMe to iCloud everything worked kind of ok, but evidently that was a grace period before Apple decided to cut off the likes of me without Apple hardware, and from one day to the next, without any warning, I could no longer access my email that I had been using for nearly ten years. I tried to activate my account with my wife's iPad but it was only possible to disassociate it from an iCloud account once every 90 days. Apple seems to have changed this limit as a friend with an iPad managed to complete this operation for me a month ago (successfully reassociating his iPad to his account immediately afterwards). So now, although iCloud doesn't come anywhere near meeting my requirements, at least I can access my .me email. Having said that, it's all too late as I've now switched to gmail, which is great for syncing contacts, and dropbox, which covers my document syncing needs. The important thing is that I can check my useless .me account every now and then to keep track of any stray clients who may have missed my change of email address. Thanks anyway to all those (unlike Zidane007) who have tried to offer useful info on how to resolve this issue.

By the way, more trouble at Foxconn in China yesterday with exploited Chinese workers revolting against Apple's slave-like working conditions. Zidane, do your research before making wild, offensive accusations, you ignorant clown.

Best of luck with it - and do feel free to call me David!

Thanks, David (!), and good luck to you too in this Mac jungle! As you neatly point out, "horses for courses". It does strike me as somewhat ironic, however, that for an out-of-the-box service as iCloud bills itself to be, these Apple forums are remarkably crowded with people with apparently unsolvable problems, far more so than analogous forums for other, similar services. Or perhaps that's just my impression.

if you have a ipad/iphone you can go in mail and enter your apple id

Kappy wrote:

Darned if I know. 🙂

Sounds like a lack of imagination...

What happened to your longer post that was on this thread yesterday? It was a good summary of the argument dealt with here. My reply has vanished too. Are there Apple moderators editing/deleting certain posts? Is there some kind of censorship at work here? If so, it's most disconcerting.

Apart from the useful info in your post, MGmirkin, you also made an interesting point about "tying" iCloud to Apple hardware devices: to access iCloud, Apple obliges you to buy a product that you neither want nor need in order to access the product that you actually want. To my mind, this scam sounds so close to the illegal practice of tying that I really can't think of any other way to define it (see United States vs. Microsoft, found guilty of tying Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system in the interests of monopolisation). If someone can suggest a reason why this situation of iCloud being tethered to iDevices does not constitute tying, I'd be curious to hear it.

And my apologies to the admins if they felt my post was out of line in any way. Seems one or two of my posts may have been 'deleted.' *Sigh* Kind of rude, not exactly good customer service, but whatever...

To rephrase, I guess 'more neutrally' (perhaps someone thought I was being overly negative, or something):

1) I have downloaded the PC iCloud client.

2) I have tried to log in with it using my existing Apple/iTunes ID.

3) I have been told by iCloud that is is not a valid iCloud account.

4) It gives me no method to create an iCloud account, so I'm stuck there.

5) Documentation seems... Lacking, in this area.

From the documentation I have been able to find, I cannot find a method (via the PC I've installed the client on) to create said iCloud account. The documentation appears to indicate this can ONLY be accomplished via Apple hardware and/or software.

To me, as an end user, this does not make sense. I've downloaded PC software, why do I need Apple hardware/software in order to flip a bit on my account to allow me to log in to iCloud?

To me, it seems I should not need apple hardware/software simply to change my account from being able to log in to Apple/iTunes to being able to log in to Apple/iTunes/iCloud.

And, to me, that seems like the definition of tying (trying to sell me unrelated hardware/software I DON'T NEED in order to make use of something I already have installed; I won't link to it, in case that's what got my post delete, but feel free to look it up on Wikipedia: Tying_(commerce) ). Sorry if this point offends anyone's sensibilities. But, perhaps it should, as it kind of offends mine (as an end user being told that I can't use the software I already have installed unless I pay for goods/services I will never use, since I already have a Windows-based desktop and a laptop and a cell phone and have no plans to upgrade or replace them any time soon).

In my personal opinion, if there is a PC client for iCloud, there should be a PC-based method to upgrade one's account to be able to log in to the client on one's PC. Else, what is the point of having the software to begin with?

It looks like good useful software. Essentially a digital storage locker online and a way to push/stream iTunes purchase to various heterogeneous devices. I'd like to try it out and see if it lives up to the hype.

But it's quite useless to me if I can't actually USE it. So, how do we resolve this, amicably? (Without me having to purchase software/hardware I have no need of, nor wish to purchase...)

Again, sorry if the question offends anyone or is viewed as 'stirring the pot,' but I think these are fair / valid questions and I've not yet seen a good answer regarding whether or not one can create an iCloud account out of an Apple/iTunes account via a PC, and if not, why not, other than it's "tethered" (read: tied) to Apple hardware/software in some manner I can't quite fathom.

the6millionliraman wrote:

What happened to your longer post that was on this thread yesterday? It was a good summary of the argument dealt with here. My reply has vanished too. Are there Apple moderators editing/deleting certain posts? Is there some kind of censorship at work here? If so, it's most disconcerting.

I thought so...

As you say, that it has vanished is disconcerting both from a freedom of expression perspective and a customer service perspective. Apparently someone doesn't take legitimate criticism / discussion well, nor wish to directly answer the tough questions? And yet they left my second slightly snarky comment. Go figure... Inconsistent overactive moderator, it would seem?

Hopefully the more neutrally worded discussion above will be allowed to remain. Else I shall likely have to lodge a more formal complaint with the site's ownership over overactive moderators overstepping their authority. I should hope it wouldn't come to that. But, I'm an opinionated fellow, with a keen/incisive wit about me. I cut through the bull pretty quickly and don't much care for small talk when thing need addressing, so sorry if anything's too direct. Just trying to clearly express a specific view / criticism / question.

But, also hoping for an amicable discussion / resolution, if one is to be had...