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I'm a registered nurse. I make apps for nurses.
I live in Nashville. Contact me on gmail at jaredsinclair.rn

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  How to Merge MobileMe Data with an Apple ID and Keep All Your Purchases and Everything Else (except MobileMe email)

  
  

  Note: It’s a damn shame that I even have to post this. MobileMe customers pay $99 bucks a year or more because they value having their data sync across all their devices, and yet they’re the ones who will experience the most headache when trying to upgrade to iCloud! C’mon, Apple, get real!

  If you’re like me, you have stored all of your contacts, calendars, and bookmarks in MobileMe, but have made all your iTunes and App Store purchases with a separate AppleID. Now that iCloud is out, you want to combine all of your stuff into one iCloud account. Here’s the problem: You can turn your MobileMe account into an iCloud account, but you’ll have to repurchase all of your songs and apps with this new ID. Not interested in spending thousands of dollars all over again? Me neither. Officially, Apple says that there is no way to sync this data at all (at least not yet, unless they’ve added a solution today), but there is in fact a way to do it, but it won’t sync your MobileMe email. It can’t be done on a Mac, only on an iOS device. Here’s the solution:

  1. Backup your device, and then update it to iOS 5, but don’t set up iCloud. Not yet. If you’ve already set it up on your device, go to the iCloud settings page in Settings and delete the account from your device. If it asks you to keep your iCloud calendars, contacts, or bookmarks on your phone (and you’re sure that your MobileMe account is up-to-date by verifying it on another device, or Mac, or online at me.com) tell it no.

  2. Go to Settings and make sure MobileMe is enabled and your settings are correct, including all the stuff you want to sync over to your iCloud account. Check your Contacts, Calendars directly to make sure they’re up-to-date.

  3. Now delete your MobileMe account in your Settings app. Trust me on this. This is why you must do it on an iOS device. iOS will ask you if you want to keep your data on your phone after deleting the MobileMe account. Tell it yes.

  4. Now, go to the settings for iCloud on your iOS device, and set up an iCloud account using your AppleID — not your MobileMe account. This is the AppleID you’ve used to make all your iTunes and App Store purchases. After getting it set up, make sure all the stuff you want to use (contacts, calendars, etc.) are turned on. Give things a chance to sync.

  At this point, you’ve now copied all your old data from MobileMe to iCloud, with one sad exception: there’s no way to bring your MobileMe emails across to this new iCloud account. Oh well. Now for your Mac(s).

  1. Back up everything first! Check your backups!

  2. Update to 10.7.2.

  3. Go to iCal’s preferences and delete your MobileMe account.

  4. Go to System Preferences sign out of MobileMe from the MobileMe preference pane. Go to the “Mail, Contacts, & Calendars” preference pane and delete MobileMe from there, too.

  5. Go to the iCloud preference pane in System Preferences and log into your iCloud account you created in step 4 above.

  Give things a chance to sync, and then check Address Book, iCal, and Safari for your stuff. You should be good to go!

  [ permalink ] 12 Oct 2011