There is no need to panic if you hadn’t moved your MobileMe account to iCloud before Apple closed MobileMe on Sunday night. Apple has extended the opportunity to move accounts to iCloud, download photos from Gallery and download files from iDisk, but only for a “limited time”. However, the company hasn’t specified when the extension to the deadline will end.
If you’re a MobileMe subscriber, you’ve been warned repeatedly over the past month that you need to transfer data from the MobileMe service to the new iCloud. The latest extension means that customers have a bit more breathing space before Apple pulls the switch on the service that hasn’t been without issues.
Apple decision to extend the deadline may suggest that a number of MobileMe users have yet to make the transition to iCloud, there may be a reason for this.. A big concern for some users of the MobileMe service is that not all the MobileMe services have made their way to iCloud. With the closure of MobileMe customers lose some high-profile elements including iDisk, iWeb site publishing and hosting, and Gallery.
Unlike MobileMe, iCloud is free – at least for the first 5GB of stored data – and it does duplicate many of the service’s marquee features.
Apple is encouraging users to download all of their files during the transition between both services, likely to protect against loss of data since Cloud services are not infallible – for example, the recent Amazon Cloud outage took down multiple high profile websites.
Author: Karen Haslam, Editor
Macworld editor since 2008, Karen has worked on both sides of the Apple divide, clocking up a number of years at Apple's PR agency prior to joining Macworld two decades ago.
Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs’ legacy on the BBC. Her focus is Mac, but she lives and breathes Apple.