I don't have system requirements for icloud, will I lose my mail ?

No, you won't lose your mail.

Basic Information About Moving From MobileMe to iCloud

Apple IDs and iCloud

Creating an iCloud account- Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently asked questions about the MobileMe transition and iCloud

MobileMe services that no longer sync after moving to iCloud

MobileMe- About moving to iCloud

No.

If you want to keep your MobileMe email address you still need to move your mail only to iCloud.

As of May 1, you can choose to keep using your mail after MobileMe ends, even on devices that don’t meet the iCloud system requirements. Just go to http://me.com/move and select the option to keep using your email after MobileMe ends. Once you have completed this short process, your mail will continue to work on devices that don’t meet the iCloud requirements after MobileMe ends on June 30th, 2012.

When the migration has taken place you will need to set Mail up manually to access your iCloud emai: please follow the instructions here -

Entering iCloud email settings manually in Snow Leopard or Leopard

Thanks for that great tutorial! My question is: At what point do I need to change the settings? Midnight tonight? I use my .me address primarily to sync Notes, and although I've backed my my 900+ Notes, and I know they'll still be on my iPhone (iOS5), I'd hate to lose them from my Mail app.

D'oh! I just saw "after the migration has taken place" ...never mind. I need coffee... Thanks again!

Thanks for spelling all this out. It very much helped me decide what to do. Im not upgrading from Leopard to Lion right away, since I dont really sync that many things, (and it seems like I can still sync manually thru iTunes, tho its awkward, and not my point here). So I did the option where "not all devices are compatible" but I want to keep my email. And my old Mail client settings are still working, now that its July 1. That is: Incoming mail to my name at mac.com comes to my ios 5 devices (phone and iPad), and also to Mail on my tower running Leopard *with the same old settings as ever*.

Is this temporary for the transition period and will I have to change the settings to iCloud email eventually? Is there something Im not understanding? -- maybe something subtle, such as: everything works except Sent Mail syncing to the not-updated Mail Client?

You need to set up Mail on your Mac to access iCloud email:

Entering iCloud email settings manually in Snow Leopard or Leopard

The old settings may still work for a bit but they will stop eventually.

On your iOS devices you should sign into Settings>iCloud and enable Mail, which will be set up automatically.

Thanks for the swift reply Roger.

I am trying those steps: So far, my iPad will not allow me to Sign In at iCloud, returning a message that reads "To use iCloud, move your Mobile Me account." I suppose I did not "move my MobileMe account" when I did the simple not-compatible perserve-email only option. Hmmmm...

I will try setting my Mail client running under Leopard to iCloud settings now.

Hopefully this is useful to others.

Heres the immediate confusion that could have been easily avoided: The main page at me.com/move seems to strongly suggest that if your computer is not yet upgraded to Lion, the main requirement for iCloud, you cant move to iCloud. The statement is that ALL devices must be compatible in order to "move".

But then, at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4929

the first sentence is

"If you cannot update all of your devices to the iCloud system requirements, you can still move to iCloud, but iCloud services will work only on the devices that meet the system requirements".

So, if you want iCloud features on your OTHER devices, (most useful if you have more than one other device), you would move to iCloud (paradoxically -- in my case-- using a computer that will not (yet) be able to use iCloud), and reset your Mail settings as per the link above. You can still access some synced data on the non-Lion machine via a browser at iCloud.com.

From my read of HT4929, if instead you opted not to move, but only "keep using my email", (if you did not care about any other syncing), you might NOT have to change your Mail settings, (thats been my experience so far) or you may have to soon, when things actually shift (sometime after the supposed deadline) at the mail server-side, (as per Rogers comment above).

Thats how I see it.

This morning, my MobileMe email account wasn't in my Mail sidebar, though it was still in my Accounts. I tried changing it to the iCloud servers as Roger described, but Mail wouldn't let me. Before deleting it and creating a new iCloud-based account, I tried simply re-enabling the account in Mail, and voila! All my Notes were back 🙂 So for now, it seems to be working. But I've bookmarked Roger's page in case it stops...

I already miss iDisk, but that's another story.