I just don't understand these two options!!

They're the same, but with a difference: if you choose the second option, you won't keep your e-mail, but if you choose the first option, you will keep your e-mail. You can choose any option, but I recommend the second, because you will keep your mail in your old iPod touch without doing anything

mende1 wrote:

They're the same, but with a difference: if you choose the second option, you won't keep your e-mail, but if you choose the first option, you will keep your e-mail.

I'm sorry, but this is not correct.

Option 1, full migration, migrates your email, calendars and contacts immediately (10.7.2 required on the machine used to migrate to transfer the calendars and contacts). You can then sync them all on any compliant machine but pre-Lion Macs will have to set Mail up manually and will not sync contacts or calendars.

Option 2. email only, migrates only email, not the calendars etc, and won't take effect until July 1. Non-compliant devices will still have to set Mail up manually. Compliant devices will be able to start syncing if required, as will devices which later become compliant.

As some of the OPs devices are compliant he should choose the first option so that they have full iCloud function and set any non-compliant devices up to access Mail.

Entering iCloud email settings manually in Snow Leopard or Leopard

Entering iCloud email settings manually in Tiger

or for iOS the same settings should be used.

Roger Wilmut1 wrote:

Option 1, full migration, migrates your email, calendars and contacts immediately (10.7.2 required on the machine used to migrate to transfer the calendars and contacts). You can then sync them all on any compliant machine but pre-Lion Macs will have to set Mail up manually and will not sync contacts or calendars.

Option 2. email only, migrates only email, not the calendars etc, and won't take effect until July 1. Non-compliant devices will still have to set Mail up manually. Compliant devices will be able to start syncing if required, as will devices which later become compliant.

I currently have no up to date devices, but will eventually update some, or at least get an iPad at some point. If I choose option 2 (mail only) for now, and upgrade later, will all the iCloud features work later as seamlessly as if I started with it from the beginning?

Basically, will I miss out on any features in the future if I use the mail only option now?

Or will contacts etc. begin to sync normally whenever I do finally upgrade? (I have never synced contacts before now, if that matters.)

You can't make a device compatible. You iPod touch 2nd gen can never be compatible because it can't run iOS 5.

^ But I can upgrade the MacBook Pro to Lion, or buy an iPad. I just don't plan to in the next two weeks, and I'd like to know the consequences of waiting.

If you don't migrate your MobileMe account before 30 June you will lose the email account. You would probably be able to reactivate it at a later stage but any emails stored there will be lost. You should migrate now - it doesn't really matter which option you choose because only Mail can be got to work anyway (other than by using a hack which may or may not work). My links above tell you how to access Mail with a pre-Lion system.

When at a later stage you acquire compliant Macs and devices you can turn the other syncing on then.

Thanks!

(Now I just need to sort out my .mac backups of the Tiger machine, that are stored on iDisk.)

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Thanks for the answers in this thread!

I happen to have a 2nd gen iTouch (which is doomed to legacy), a MBP with Snow Leopard (I still wonder if it makes sense to upgrade it to Lion), a PB with Leopard and Tiger (which already works with some iCloud mail accounts I made for my family members) and some PCs with XP. No one fulfils the specs of iCloud, but all of them just work.

I did not migrate MobileMe to iCloud yet. I hoped that in the last minute Apple would add some much needed backward compatible services to iCloud, such as Contacts and Keychain syncing and a Backup app update. Not a big deal in my opinion, but they didn't do.

Are there any workarounds for them?

I suppose I could substitute Backup with Mozy, which could be ok.

About the others, I understand that if I upgrade the mac to Lion, I should be able to sync the contacts to the iPod by iTunes (even if I saw threads around saying it doesn't work), but I can't see any chance to sync contacts (without using Google) and keychains with Leopard and Tiger.

Any hint welcome; just few days left to migrate...

Andrea

You can migrate your MobileMe account to iCloud at http://me.com/move even with Snow Leopard - when asked to confirm that you have Lion on your Mac, just lie and say 'yes'.

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. You may find the MobileMe email settings will continue to work for a time after migrating but it will stop eventually so you should not rely on this. You should delete your MobileMe email account from Mail.

You can then set up Mail manually in Snow Leopard to access iCloud email; it's a slight fudge because the 'wizard' will attempt to connect you to MobileMe as soon as you enter an @me.com address. The process, which includes a workaround for this, is described here:

http://www.wilmut.webspace.virginmedia.com/notes/icloudmail.html

You may be able to sync your calendars to iCloud by means of an unsupported hack, and there is a convoluted hack which has been reported as working for Address Book (and as not working by others - I've not tried it), but iCloud's other facilities will not work. This page outlines the situation when you migrate to iCloud, including a link to the calendar hack:

http://www.wilmut.webspace.virginmedia.com/notes/icloudSL.html

You can set up Mail on Leopard using the method linked to above but you will not be able to sync calendars or contacts with iCloud.

There are a couple of third-party solutions which may be of interest.

• BusyCal is an iCal-like calendar application with extra facilities: it can sync with the iCloud Calendar while running on Leopard, Snow Leopard or Lion. A single user licence (two machines allowed) is $49.99.
• Soho Organizer can sync Calendars and Contacts with iCloud on Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion. A single user licence (multiple machines allowed) is $99.99.

(I have no connection with either firm.)

I would have expected that you would be able to sync older devices using iTunes, but note that if you do this, all devices have to be synced using iTunes as the calendars and contacts have to reside under 'On My Mac' - you cannot sync calendars you are syncing to iCloud using iTunes, so it's one or the other.

There is no Keychain syncing.

As you will be aware, the iDisk will be removed and its contents deleted. This page examines some third-party alternatives:

http://rfwilmut.net/migrate3

The Backup application will sync to local disks or DVD but AFAIK will not sync to any online service other than MobileMe.

Thanks for the complete answer, Roger.

Just some clarifications.

- Mail: it should be the same migrate with option 1 or 2, since option 2 is compatible with MobileMe out of the box and option 1 can be configured as IMAP mail on any client

- iCal: can be done with hack or external app; are there any differences about chosing option 1 or 2? Maybe that the sync can be done only after option 1?

- Contacts: external app is the only way (or maybe also sync with Google to get the service for free); again

are there any differences about chosing option 1 or 2? Maybe that the sync can be done only after option 1?

- Backup: if I understand correcly, I could take the old backups out of iDisk and save them somewhere, and make the future ones maybe on a network drive or a dvd. Unrelated to chosing option 1 or 2.

- Keychain: is it possible to sync keychains between different macs by sneaker mail? Unrelated to chosing option 1 or 2.

At the end of the day, I really don't see much difference between option 1 and 2 in migrating from MabileMe to iCloud. Or if difference exists, then option 1 seems safer than 2.

Am I wrong?

Option 1 attempts to migrate calendars, contacts and bookmarks from the Mac doing the migration: this will work on Lion, only calendars will work on Snow Leopard (and then won't sync, barring the use of the hack), and non of them will transfer on earlier systems.

Option 2 migrates only the email, so that the iCloud calendar etc will be blank - no different effect from migrating on Leopard.

Option 1 won't do you any harm: I did it using Snow Leopard before option 2 was introduces, with the results I describe (I haven't bothered to try the calendar hack, as I use BusyCal and sync over my LAN). The hack should work either way if it works at all, but you might as well choose option 1, then the calendars are already up there.

I don't know whether you can make further use of the Backup files after downloading them, nor whether you can sync Keychain by other methods. Keychain security may get in your way.