MobileMe users experience issues in Apple's transition to iCloud

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Comments

  • Reply 61 of 95
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wgb113 View Post


    Prof. Peabody...I have to disagree. I had an iTunes account before MobileMe even existed. My Apple ID was tied to a Hotmail account. How was I supposed to know at the time that Apple would then force me several years, hell almost a decade, in the future to use my MobileMe account as my Apple ID for the transition to iCloud?



    I agree with others, a one-time merge for MobileMe customers is the very least they can do. For now I've got to juggle two, one for iCloud and one for iTunes. I'd forgo the next four months of MM service for a one-time merge.



    Bill



    In your case Bill you aren't really forced to use the MobileMe account as your Apple ID. My history with Apple ID's and .Mac/Mobile Me is similar to yours.



    iCloud is a group of things, mail, calendar, contacts, music etc. On iOS there are different spots for which account to use for which service. If you want @me.com email, and to sync your calendar, contacts etc. with iCloud (iOS and Mac OS X devices) then you need to use an iCloud @me.com account. In other words, you can't use iCloud to sync your Google, Hotmail or other stuff and have to seek alternative configurations to do that.



    Now your music and apps are perfectly fine using your old hotmail email as your Apple ID. Under settings on the iPhone you can go to 'Store' you can enter that account and password for keeping your music and apps up to date across devices. In iTunes you just make sure thats the account you login to when buying or re-downloading items. It's iCloud but not associated with your email, calendar or other iCloud services.



    In other words, iCloud is a group of services but they don't have to be accessed using one ID for all of them. They can operate (mainly iTunes & App Stores) separately from the stuff that moved from MobileMe to iCloud (email, calendar, contacts).



    I hope that helps those that have two accounts. I currently use an old gmail account for all my iTunes purchases. I've had a Mac -> MobileMe account that I moved over to iCloud, which I prefer as my default email. That is what helps the iCloud experience and will sorta suck for people who mainly use gmail, hotmail or yahoo for their personal email accounts. Things like iMessage, FaceTime and the MobileMe part of iCloud services are somewhat if not completely dependent on an @me.com address (except for where your phone number will suffice).
  • Reply 62 of 95
    muppetrymuppetry Posts: 3,331member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ljocampo View Post


    I also have had my MobileMe email address as primary addresses under both iTunes and MobileMe, and these accounts use different AppleIDs. It is absolutely possible.



    So how did you set that up? I tried to add my primary me.com address (from my MobileMe account) to my iTunes account, which I originally created under a non-me.com AppleID. It failed with the message that I could not add a me.com address that was already verified under a different account.
  • Reply 63 of 95
    bwinskibwinski Posts: 164member
    Well, this is getting old.. So Apple wants us to migrate to iCloud ... Sure doesn't seem that way.. I was assured back on Aug. 28 by the Apple Support folks over the phone, that us MILLIONS of SL 10.6.8 users were going to be able to move over to iCloud - no issue. NOW, the iCloud.com website says I can't even log into the site until I upgrade to Lion !!! I CAN'T you idiots! So, like millions of others, here we are stuck in thls limbo abyss... Maybe that's why MobileMe subs last until mid-2012.....



    Hummmm.... Any ideas?
  • Reply 64 of 95
    muppetrymuppetry Posts: 3,331member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bwinski View Post


    Well, this is getting old.. So Apple wants us to migrate to iCloud ... Sure doesn't seem that way.. I was assured back on Aug. 28 by the Apple Support folks over the phone, that us MILLIONS of SL 10.6.8 users were going to be able to move over to iCloud - no issue. NOW, the iCloud.com website says I can't even log into the site until I upgrade to Lion !!! I CAN'T you idiots! So, like millions of others, here we are stuck in thls limbo abyss... Maybe that's why MobileMe subs last until mid-2012.....



    Hummmm.... Any ideas?



    I have no problem with icloud.com under SL. It works just fine.
  • Reply 65 of 95
    So, I am/was a MobileMe user with a Family Pack. First, you can have a different account for the store than the iCloud. Second, it is nearly impossible to merge accounts, though I thought I saw some news a few weeks ago that they were experimenting with a method to do so.



    One thing lost here, the issue with a preexisting AppleID that was different from your MobileMe ID was true under MobileMe, too. This has been there since the inception of .Mac. This is not an iCloud issue; it has been about the DRM from the Apple Store. Once the music match program is in effect, it will only matter for the media that has DRM, not for your music.



    I have kept a different appleid for ordering music and apps that my family shares on all of our iOS devices. When I transitioned to iCloud, I moved my MobileMe and then went to the systems preferences on my devices that I also transitioned to iCloud and changed the Store account to the store account. It worked fine.
  • Reply 66 of 95
    twentyniner's got it right, it works fine. It even states it on the pages as you transition to iCloud. You can use the separate accounts. I was worried because I WANT two different AppleID's. I don't want to share my mail, calendar, etc. But I want to share my music and apps with my family.
  • Reply 67 of 95
    Anyone else remember how angry Steve Jobs was, at the fiasco that happened with Mobile Me a few years ago? He would not be happy at this. My guess is neither is Cook. Sounds like they needed to bake iCloud a bit longer, to make sure it was ready to eat.
  • Reply 68 of 95
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bwinski View Post


    Well, this is getting old.. So Apple wants us to migrate to iCloud ... Sure doesn't seem that way.. I was assured back on Aug. 28 by the Apple Support folks over the phone, that us MILLIONS of SL 10.6.8 users were going to be able to move over to iCloud - no issue. NOW, the iCloud.com website says I can't even log into the site until I upgrade to Lion !!! I CAN'T you idiots! So, like millions of others, here we are stuck in thls limbo abyss... Maybe that's why MobileMe subs last until mid-2012.....



    Hummmm.... Any ideas?



    Yup, stick with MobileMe as long as possible, or at least till this fiasco gets straightened out. I had to stay with it, cause my desktop can't be upgraded to Lion, cause I need my old Quicken. My Air has Lion on it, but I am keeping MobileMe for now. I ain't fixin what ain't broke at present.
  • Reply 69 of 95


    deleted

  • Reply 70 of 95
    welshdogwelshdog Posts: 1,897member
    I too was unaware an @me account created an AppleID. That really seems to have been a very bad idea on the part of Apple. I <think> I have figured it out, but time will tell. I used my original (non-me) ID for iCloud and it seems to have worked. The Mobile me account is mostly deactivated as it was migrated to iCloud. I've been using Apple computers since 1982. This was one of the more confusing processes they have ever made me go through.
  • Reply 71 of 95
    I really don't see the issue and was able to convert to iCloud just fine. Sure, haveing one ID would be nice but it isn ot all that bad having two. One is your iCloud ID and the other can be your iTunes ID. That is how mine is set-up anyway.
  • Reply 72 of 95
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by muppetry View Post


    So how did you set that up? I tried to add my primary me.com address (from my MobileMe account) to my iTunes account, which I originally created under a non-me.com AppleID. It failed with the message that I could not add a me.com address that was already verified under a different account.



    That's what is screwy about how Apple merged services over time. I had .Mac before MobileMe and at that time Apple didn't insist that .Mac and iTunes were a conflict. In iTunes my account username was just XYZ and at .Mac it was [email protected] and iTunes allowed that email address to be the primary email for the account. It was of course also the primary for .Mac.



    When MobileMe arrived on the scene, Apple insisted these addresses were AppleIDs and would not let me change the XYZ iTunes username to the full email address or even change the iTunes primary email (it would not verify) now that Apple considered both usernames as AppleIDs and thinks they are different people with different AppleIDs, but all personal info is the same for both accounts. Go figure.



    So my iTunes AppleID is XYZ with a primary email address of [email protected] (since @mac is now an alias to @me). My MobileMe AppleID and email address is also [email protected]. Apple won't merge them and now with iCloud they really should. It was their doing, not mine.
  • Reply 73 of 95
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Prof. Peabody View Post


    I kind of resent the way this article spins these problems as, well ... problems, when in fact Apple has been clear from day one that you can't merge your Apple ID's into iCloud.



    It's unfortunate, but it's not a "problem" per se (one that has a possible fix), it's the way it's supposed to work and the way it's advertised to work. They may provide a method for merging ID's in future or they may not. Too bad for those that don't understand how these things work.



    Agreed. And for couples and families this is the way they would likely want it to work. One Apple ID for iTunes buys and each person has their own iCloud so contacts etc aren't getting jumbled up
  • Reply 74 of 95
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wgb113 View Post


    Prof. Peabody...I have to disagree. I had an iTunes account before MobileMe even existed. My Apple ID was tied to a Hotmail account. How was I supposed to know at the time that Apple would then force me several years, hell almost a decade, in the future to use my MobileMe account as my Apple ID for the transition to iCloud?



    But they don't. You can use that hotmail Apple ID for iCloud AND use the old MM as well. It's all about what you want to do.



    Personally I use my not mobile me for my iTunes purchases and my MM for email etc. This is great for me because I use my mobile me address for my Facebook, twitter etc and if anyone tries to hack into my iTunes off that email they won't get anywhere because its not an iTunes account. so Apple actually gave me a bit of added security with that lack of a feature.
  • Reply 75 of 95
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by muppetry View Post


    Has anyone heard a good explanation for why they are not allowing accounts to be merged? I originally assumed that it was to prevent combining ownership of music, apps etc., that may originally have been purchased by different people (i.e. it's hard to verify that one person owns both IDs), but on the other hand, why would that actually matter?



    When they get sued by someone because his ex figured out his ID and password and 'stole' his account, it would matter
  • Reply 76 of 95
    pxtpxt Posts: 683member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Prof. Peabody View Post


    I kind of resent the way this article spins these problems as, well ... problems, when in fact Apple has been clear from day one that you can't merge your Apple ID's into iCloud.



    It's unfortunate, but it's not a "problem" per se (one that has a possible fix), it's the way it's supposed to work and the way it's advertised to work. They may provide a method for merging ID's in future or they may not. Too bad for those that don't understand how these things work.



    It's also arguably very dumb of users not to see this coming. How many sites or services or email providers of any kind allow you to use multiple ID's to access the service and yet be the same person? Almost none. Aliases yes, multiple accounts, generally not.



    Of course it's a problem for many users if not in your case and users have to try to work through all the possible scenarios where this could affect them because Apple didn't have the professionalism to do it themselves.



    Apple is merging two services and their data into one, with synergies between them being described as iCloud features. This is partly driven by the product withdrawal of MobileMe which they have been unable to fix. Now they have bungled the migration process to iCloud, which means they have not learned the lessons from the MobileMe failure and this bodes ill for the quality of iCloud.
  • Reply 77 of 95
    A minor issue but still an issue: all my contact photos have been cropped during the migration to iCloud... Which is okay for contact sheets, as these all display square pics anyway. But when calling people their full screen pics are bad now. So I will spend my time updating them all....
  • Reply 78 of 95
    pxtpxt Posts: 683member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ljocampo View Post


    @Prof.



    This is very inconsiderate to all those older Apple account holders who through no fault of their own ended up with two AppleIDs, one at iTunes and one at MobileMe.



    If you were using iTunes from the beginning before MobileMe or .Mac existed, your account user name wasn't required to be a full email address and it was not understood to be an AppleId at the time. After .Mac arrived, and if you became a member like I did, you probably used your iTunes account user name to register for the service and that username became a full email address and unknowingly became a new AppleID, but iTunes didn't acknowledge or allow a merge, mainly because it wasn't necessary when their were no Apps stores or iOS syncing at iTunes.



    This was Apples oversight by not merging the accounts when they created .Mac, MobileMe, and now iCloud. I tried to merge these two AppleIDs long before iCloud was even known to the public and even when iOS was in its infancy. The problem is iTunes would not allow me to change my username, which became a AppleID automatically, to its full email address because that address was the primary email address for my iTunes BUT also another AppleID.



    Over the years since this problem arose, purchase histories for equipment at Apple Online Store, Apple forum usage, and developer registrations became separated from iTunes purchase histories and has become a big problem then and it's even worse now since iCloud wants to sync everything.



    How's that my fault and why do you believe Apple isn't culpable and should rectify the problem?



    A lot of these problems happen because Apple has a blind spot for data processing.



    This means they regularly destroy people's data, have buggy syncing in all their MobileMe apps and regularly damage features used to support people's daily workflows. Apple is good at many things but they lack the culture, skills and software tools to do data processing. If you use data or have created processes, then it's like having a virus. Apple can fix this, but they have to become aware first.
  • Reply 79 of 95
    bedouinbedouin Posts: 331member
    Do not read this topic if you're dozing off, you will become incredibly confused



    Something unique happened to me in the transition. Please try to bear with me.



    I signed up for iTools years ago; that created the @mac.com address I currently use. Then .Mac arrived and iTools transformed into a paid service, and I jumped ship. Despite not having access to it anymore I continued to use my @mac.com address as an Apple ID, most notably for iChat/AIM.



    A year or two later I subscribed to .Mac; this is where my memory fails. I remember having my @mac.com ID and an identically named, separate Apple ID. At some point these somehow became one, though I have no idea when or how. Perhaps it's possible that I just quit using the non-.Mac ID altogether but forgot.



    After MobileMe and iCloud rolled out I kept using my @mac.com address. Here is where things got a little weird. I converted my @mac.com ID into an iCloud account with no hassle on my iPad running iOS 5. Later, I went to my MacBook running Snow Leopard and Mail.app was rejecting my password despite updating the IMAP and SMTP info. I was boggled, but finally changed my Apple ID password to a new one and since then the MacBook has been fine.



    Now, if I go to iCloud's web interface and enter [email protected] the login goes smoothly. If I merely enter myID it says that, "This Apple ID must be converted to an E-Mail address" and offers to either update or cancel. Not knowing what will happen, I cancel.



    While things are working for me, I wish I understood A) why my IMAP password quit working, and B) why is the iCloud web interface asking me to convert an ID that already exists as a successfully migrated iCloud E-Mail???



    The final question regards my aliases from .Mac/MobileMe. If I delete any from my iCloud settings will I be able to add new ones afterward? It offers the option to delete in the iCloud web settings, though I'm not sure if adding is possible since I have reached the alotted number and don't want to delete any for experimentation's sake.
  • Reply 80 of 95
    addisonaddison Posts: 1,185member
    I have a .mac email address and I use the same address as both my iTunes and Apple ID. So my question is am I effected? If I migrate to iCloud will this mean I have to change email addresses. I am not quite sure what the problem is.
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