APPLE 'iCLOUD' -
PERTINENT QUESTIONS
What is iCloud?
What about MobileMe?
Different
IDs for iTunes and iCloud
iCloud, iTunes in the Cloud, and iTunes Match
Can I use
iCloud with Snow Leopard?
Web-only account
More Frequently Asked Questions
iCloud facilities
Links to my other help pages
Links
to Apple iCloud Help pages
What is iCloud?
iCloud
is Apple's online service, introduced in 2011. Pitched in part as a
replacement for the now-defunct MobileMe, it's
designed to sync your contacts, calendars, bookmarks, photos, and iWork
documents between devices. It also allows downloading of music
you've
purchased from the iTunes Store - in the future or the past - to other
devices. (Online storage and downloading of material you've added
yourself, for example
by ripping CDs, is provided at a charge.)
These facilities are free to users of OSX 10.7.5 '
Lion' and
above, and iOS5 and above
for
mobile devices, and these systems are the minimum requirement to set up
or transition to an iCloud account. Most facilities are not available
to earlier systems, though Mail can be accessed from any email client
provided an iCloud has been set up in the first place. There is
currently no indication the other facilities will in future be
available on Snow Leopard - see
below.
It would appear that
Support
is available only to people with '
AppleCare'
- which is free for 90 days after purchasing hardware, or has to be
paid for to extend it. You might want to consider whether you should
entrust your email to a service which has no support contact should
there be problems (though the same probably applies to the other free
email services).
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What about
MobileMe?
As
was announced in June 2011, MobileMe was terminated on 1 July 2012. If
you had a MobileMe subscription, and did not migrate your email,
contacts and calendars to iCloud and your iDisk contents and Gallery to
your computer or another hosting service, then you can no longer do so
and the contents of your account have been deleted.
If you haven't migrated your account you can treat it as expired and
sign in to System Preferences>iCloud with it to open an iCloud
account and reactivate the address (but not recover the emails
previously stored on it). However if you had both @mac.com and @me.com
versions of the address you can only reactivate the @me.com version
(it's not clear yet whether this is still possible now that new iCloud
addresses are @icloud.com):
the @mac.com one is no longer viable.
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My Apple ID for iTunes and my iCloud login are
different
Many people are in this situation
because they opened an Apple ID to use with iTunes, the Discussion
Forums or hardware registration, and then joined MobileMe or iCloud at
a later
date - the @me.com email address is an Apple ID itself.
You can't merge these two IDs. As you have a different ID for iTunes
you should continue to use that
for iTunes, iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match. There is no problem
about using two different IDs in this way; and indeed I think it's
preferable, given the number of complaints about hacked accounts on
iTunes, not to have your iTunes login the same as your publicly
available email address.
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iCloud, iTunes in the Cloud, and iTunes Match
It may be helpful to clarify the
differences between iCloud, iTunes in the Cloud, and iTunes Match,
because re-downloading your songs and movies doesn't actually have
anything to do with iCloud - Apple persist in using the name for both
and it's confusing a lot of people.
iCloud is your own account
which enables syncing of calendar and contacts data, transfer of iWork
and TextEdit documents between your devices, transfer of photos taken
on one device onto all the others, an email service, and the ability to
find a lost device which has been set up correctly. It does not provide
general file storage, and it does not store your movies or music. It's
free at basic level of 5GB for the items mentioned above with extra
storage purchasable.
iTunes in the Cloud does not
store anything except in the iTunes Store. It simply recognizes that
you have previously purchased an item and allows you to re-download it
on other devices, or, as you say, re-download it onto the original
device if you've deleted it. No extra storage is required because the
items are already in the Store. As Complicated
rights issues means that not all items are available this way, and that
different countries have different availablilities. Also if an item is
withdrawn from the Store you won't be able to re-download it even if
you already purchased it.
iTunes Match applies to music
(not films) in your collection which you did not purchased from the
iTunes Store, but downloaded from elsewhere or ripped from your CDs. If
the item exists in the Store it allows you to download a version from
there; if not you can upload it to space allocated for you. This
facility costs $24.99/£21.99 per year, limit 25,000 songs (purchases
do not count towards this limit). This is not part of the iCloud 5GB
free storage.
iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match require an iTunes account; they do not require an iCloud account.
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Can I use
iCloud with Snow Leopard?
Officially, no: Lion 10.7.5 is
required. If you have already opened an iCloud account on a Lion Mac or
an iOS5 device you can set Mail up
manually to access email on
Snow
Leopard or Leopard, or on
Tiger;
you can't open a new account on older systems than Lion or OS5.
This page lists the situation when
trying to use iCloud in Snow Leopard in more detail, including a few
workarounds and some third-party software which may be of interest.
Web-only account
You can create a 'web-only' account by signing in with an Apple ID at
http://www.icloud.com;
this has only 1GB of free storage and limited facilities, in particular
no email. You can upgrade it to a standard account with 5GB of free
storage and full facilities by signing in in the iCloud pane of System
Preferences/Settings on a Mac or an iOS device (not Windows or
Android). The information in this page applies to the standard version.
There are more Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers)
here.
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iCloud
facilities
MAIL
An
@icloud.com address is provided, together with up to 3 '
aliases'
(additional addresses). (People
who already have @me.com and @mac.com address will retain them but new
ones cannot be created.) Webmail is provided. Mail storage counts
towards
your free 5GB space
(upgradeable, see bottom of table). Note that
automatic
spam filtering is applied, which it is admitted may cause
occasional false positives and consequent silent deletion.
CHECKING, AND SENDING USING,
EXTERNAL ACCOUNTS
This facility is not available
CONTACTS
Contacts are automatically
synced to your other devices.
CALENDAR
iCal Calendars
sync to
iCloud and from there to other devices. Pre-Lion Macs cannot sync
with it: an
unofficial method of syncing Snow Leopard's iCal
has been published: use at your own risk.
GALLERY
Photos can be
shared privately to invitees or by enabling 'Public Website' to a generally available website gallery.
'
PHOTO STREAM'
A conduit for syncing photos to
your other devices: all photos on Macs, last 1,000 on iOS devices.
Photos held in the cloud for maximum 30 days, and not available to
other people. Does not count towards your free 5GB space.
Shared Photo Streams
enable you to share selected photos with other iCloud users (Mountain
Lion 10.8.2 or iOS6, and iPhoto 9.4 or Aperture 3.4 required).
BACKUP
Backup of Apps, books, music,
photos, settings, SMS & MMS messages and ringtones from your iOS
devices (not backup from your Mac). Counts towards your free 5GB space
(upgradeable, see below).
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FIND MY iPHONE
is available in iCloud, enabling you to locate a lost phone provided it is on and able to connect to a network.
FIND MY FRIENDS
is available in iCloud, enables you to allow friends
to see where you are (temporarily if required) and vice versa (with
their permission).
WEBSITE HOSTING
iCloud does not provide
website hosting. See
here for alternatives.
DOCUMENTS/DESKTOP IN THE CLOUD'
This works through the iCloud Drive (see below)
'
iTUNES IN
THE CLOUD'
New and past purchases available
for download to all your devices. Does not count towards your free 5GB
space.
'
iTUNES
MATCH'
Music in iTunes not purchased in
the Store can be uploaded to be available to all devices. $24.99/£21.99
per
year, limit 25,000 songs (purchases do not count towards this limit).
This is not part of the 5GB free storage. Remains available to those
who don't subscribe to Apple Music. (Notstrictly part of iCloud.)
'
APPLE MUSIC'
Streaming and saving for offline listening access to a large proportion
of the iTunes Store music catalogue; $9.99 per month. Songs play only
in iTunes. Also includes streaming 'radio stations'. (Not strictly part
of iCloud.)
iBOOK SYNCING
Purchased iBooks from the
Bookstore made available to all your devices. Does not count towards
your free
5GB space.
APP SYNCING
Purchased iOS apps are,made
available to all your iOS devices. Does not count towards your free 5GB
space.
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BOOKMARKS SYNCING
Safari Bookmarks syncing is
provided in iCloud: bookmarks are not viewable on the iCloud
website.
OTHER DATA SYNCING
In
Mountain Lion or above, Mail Rules, signatures, flag names and Smart Mailboxes
are synced if you have 'Documents and Data' syncing enabled. Syncing of
Dashboard
Widgets, Dock Items, Keychains, and Address Book sharing all ceased
with the termination of
MobileMe and are not available
in iCloud.
BACK TO MY MAC
Is available,
connection to 'AirDisks' has been made available in an update.
FAMILY SHARING
With iOS8+, and OSX Yosemite or above,
iCloud provides '
Family Sharing' where family members
including children can have accounts linked to and controlled by the main account.
iCLOUD DRIVE
A general file storage area
(similar
to the old iDisk) is now available in iOS8+ and OSX Yosemite or above.
If you enable iCloud Drive and don't have Yosemite or above you
will
not be able to access your documents at icloud.com - see
this note.
With OSX Sierra and iOS10 you can transfer your Desktop and your
Documents folder to iCloud so that you can access them on all your
devices. More details
here.
COST
Free
for OSX 'Lion' and above and iOS5,
including downloading of purchased iTunes songs, and 5GB space for
Backup, Mail, Photo Journal, Documents and iCloud Drive if enabled.
Storage and
downloading of
personally added iTunes songs at $24.99 p.a.
Additional storage (replaces the free 5GB, not adds to it); pricing
is charged monthly(there is no annual option). 50GB $0.99 p.m., 200GB
$2.99 p.m., 2TB $9.99 p.m. (UK £0.79, £2.49, £6.99;
other countries detailed
here.)
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Links to other of
my help pages:
Technical
notes index
Moving calendars between 'On My
Mac'
and iCloud
Restoring iCloud calendars from a Time Machine
or other backup
iCloud and Snow Leopard
Entering iCloud Mail settings manually in
Snow Leopard
Entering iCloud Mail settings manually in
Tiger
Some
useful links to Apple iCloud Help
pages:
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And a useful page from MacWorld about the two ways of syncing iOS
devices:
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©
Roger Wilmut. This site is not associated with Apple.