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Apple officially killing MobileMe sync for keychains, widgets, accounts, preferences

Sunday, August 7, 2011 · 11:05 am · 39 Comments

“While many of the features of MobileMe are simply being upgraded in the move to iCloud, Apple has previously noted that Gallery, iDisk and iWeb are on the chopping block,” Daniel Eran Dilger reports for AppleInsider. “Now, the company has further made it clear that data sync features will also be canceled in its iCloud transition steps.”

“MobileMe currently allows a user to sync a variety of settings between Macs, including the layout of Dashboard widgets, Dock items, passwords and credentials saved in the Keychain, email account information including Mail Rules, Signatures and Smart Mailboxes, and System Preferences,” Dilger reports. “However, all of these features will terminate as soon as a user migrates from MobileMe to the new iCloud, according to Apple’s transition pages at me.com/move.”

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Comment Feed

39 Comments

John

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 11:10 am · Reply

Bummer. Ironically it’s iDisk, gallery and keychain sync that are the features I really use with MobileMe. I hope they come up with something to take their place….
- TowerTone
  
  Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 11:25 am · Reply
  
  Ditto
- s
  
  Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 1:45 pm · Reply
  
  Ditto 2
- Don Funk
  
  Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 5:30 pm · Reply
  
  Ditto 3
- MacRaven
  
  Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 10:55 pm · Reply
  
  Ditto also, and also iWeb going is not making me happy. I have some nicely made, functioning Web pages using iWeb. So now what?
- mdmac
  
  Monday, August 8, 2011 - 12:55 pm · Reply
  
  Agree! It was iDisk, Gallery & Keychain/Account syncing that made MobileMe worth the $60-$90/year. So now that it’s free I guess Apple feels compelled to remove the “high” value products… too bad…
  - kdMac
    
    Wednesday, October 12, 2011 - 1:08 pm · Reply
    
    I want Keychain Syncing to be added to the iCloud services. I depend on this feature between my office & work computers. And I wish iOS5 would provide an application to search/review Keychain entries.
FTB

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 11:22 am · Reply

Keychain and email rules I always used. That sucks.

The dock sync I don’t care about, and I don’t use dashboard..

iDisk I use, but dropbox will work for me.

Gallery… That sucks but I’ll use another site.
Uploading directly to my MobileMe gallery from the iPhone/iPad is great.. Not sure how it will work for another site.
- TowerTone
  
  Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 11:25 am · Reply
  
  Ditto #2
Jeff Zacharias

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 11:24 am · Reply

This totally suck since I rely on this, especially the Keychain sync. Of course if they adapt Keychain to use iCloud so all my keychain data is available to all my devices that would be good.
- cogitoergomac
  
  Monday, August 8, 2011 - 11:20 am · Reply
  
  Ditto
- Krioni
  
  Tuesday, August 9, 2011 - 1:36 pm · Reply
  
  I highly recommend using 1Password instead of Keychain. It is easier to use and can be synced across all your devices, including iPhone/iPad.
  - Eileen
    
    Sunday, September 4, 2011 - 12:50 pm · Reply
    
    Krioni,
    I would prefer to use 1Password, but I already have 400 accounts & passwords in Keychain. I have researched and can’t find any other password sw that I can sync my Keychain with, including 1Password. Have you or anyone else out there found anything? I really just want to get the passwords onto my iPhone.
David F.

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 11:25 am · Reply

I am a bit baffled by the discontinuation of some of the sync features. For example, whenever I’ve added a new computer to my workflow, I have been able to set up MobileMe account and almost immediately get all my (non-Exchange) email accounts and their corresponding signatures synced to the new machine. The same has been true for Wi-Fi credentials etc. The keychain synchronization has been especially useful.

In short, these features have been really valuable. I am really baffled as to why Apple has chosen to abandon them. In some respects, it makes setting up every new Mac less simple. For the sake of consistency signatures will been to be manually copied over from one machine to another and credentials will need to be reestablished.

Isn’t this somewhat antithetical to the idea that the cloud is central and the various machines are all equal?

Baffling indeed!
- TowerTone
  
  Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 11:29 am · Reply
  
  I did this exact thing with Mail yesterday when I reset my iPhone 4.
  
  As soon as the 5 comes out, the 4 will be passed down and I will again do this with all my email accounts (if iOs 5 allows it).
  
  Hopefully, a new method will eventually replace it.
- Don Funk
  
  Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 5:33 pm · Reply
  
  Right on. I absolutely rely on Keychain sync when going from one Mac to another. Ditto with Safari bookmark and iCal syncing. If they’re going to offer iCloud for free, hopefully they’ll have an iCloud Pro that restores the sync features of MobileMe.
- Brian Allen
  
  Monday, August 8, 2011 - 9:04 am · Reply
  
  I personally think the syncing is being dropped, because of the all the issues. App preferences have to be designed with MobileMe syncing in mind, which most are not.
  
  Presently, the syncing feature simply copies the preferences around to all of the boxes. This cause a lot of problems. Apple only suggestion is to turn off syncing.
Zuno the Clown

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 11:29 am · Reply

iDisk is most important for me. Photostream sounds like it will have gallery functionality.

The article indicates that iDisk is going to be replaced by a new file syncing model, so we’ll have to wait to see what that is all about. Perhaps it will be more like Dropbox, which is much more reliable than iDisk.
ra

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 12:13 pm · Reply

Probably cause they’ve had problems w some of the sync-ing, such as bookmarks and contacts (anyone else have 10,000 contacts that you’ve tried to erase but they just keep on living for 10!years??). So, in true apple style, they’re killing the things that cause problems and keeping the ones Steve likes? (he probably just beams new keychains to new computers thru his positronic net)
TheConfuzed1

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 12:15 pm · Reply

I really don’t get it.

I’ve had my account since the first day of iTools, and the features I’ve used the most are email sync (including rules and folders), iDisk, and Keychain sync.

I really hope these features will eventually be replaced by iCloud equivalents.
TomPMRI

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 12:45 pm · Reply

The one MobieMe feature that I still have not seen any iCloud replacement for is Back To My Mac, which I use regularly to access my primary iMac at home when I am traveling, mainly to grab data that I don’t want to travel with, and do not want to put in a “cloud.” Has anyone seen any indication of a replacement?
- Fabian
  
  Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 12:53 pm · Reply
  
  Back To My Mac is already works with iCloud.
HolyMackerel

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 12:51 pm · Reply

Maybe that rumour of the Home>Library folder being moved to the cloud is true. If so, MobileMe iSync becomes redundant.
Jax44

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 12:52 pm · Reply

I really like Gallery, use it a lot to post job photos and family photos. I have a simple iWeb site set up for my construction business, have to switch over at some point.
I use iDisk some and Dropbox some, so I will wait and see if there are more file sync features as yet unannounced in iCloud.
I tend to use 1Password for all logins.
MacDaddy

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 12:59 pm · Reply

Losing Keychain sync is a BIG BIG loss to me.
- Flibbity Floo
  
  Monday, August 8, 2011 - 11:47 am · Reply
  
  Don’t switch to iCloud, yet. I’m waiting.
Pamela's Blog

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 12:59 pm · Reply

I use iWeb for my website and Gallery for my blog. Not sure what i’ll do :/
- h2a
  
  Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 1:20 pm · Reply
  
  Buy some hosting space somewhere else and continue using iWeb to make your website.
- TowerTone
  
  Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 1:59 pm · Reply
  
  …and congrats on the show.
  - Pamela's Blog
    
    Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 3:16 pm · Reply
    
    Thank you We just shot the pilot, so it still has to be sold the the network!
Holy Moses

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 1:38 pm · Reply

Oh Mighty Lord Jobs, hear the plea of your children:

BRING THIS SHIT BACK !!!
Brau

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 2:53 pm · Reply

Dumbest move Apple’s made IMO. MobileMe has been a major sales maker over Windows PCs for me. People are flat out amazed when setting up MobileMe duplicates almost their whole system on another Mac (laptop), complete with Keychain, System Prefs, email settings and dock layout. To Windows users this concept is but a utopian dream, as the effort to do it would be monumental and leave them vulnerable to having viruses automatically duplicated across all their PCs.

Dropping MobileMe is one instance where Apple is *following* recent trends rather than forging ahead with their own superior standards. They should be making MobileMe more in-depth (syncing photos, documents etc) rather than following Google and MS down the largely failed cloud route.

ps. Many buy Macs in large part for their reputation of security and will NEVER trust their personal data to an online *cloud* service.
- Ballmer's left nut
  
  Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 4:05 pm · Reply
  
  Since SJ’s extended leave, there have been quite a few brain dead decisions at Apple.
- kingmel
  
  Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 4:31 pm · Reply
  
  iCloud is not active, yet. So Apple has not officially “done” anything besides announce what functions of MobileMe will be eliminated. Wait and see what functions iCloud offers before declaring that Apple is nuts. You may be correct, in the end, but that is yet to be determined.
  
  What exactly do you think that MobileMe is other than a “cloud service?” The data in MobileMe (iDisk, Gallery, etc.) resides on a server somewhere external to your home or business…
  
  MobileMe has not been that great for me so far. About a $100 a year for four years, and not a whole lot to show for it. Gallery was useful for posting photo albums for my homeowner’s association, but that job is history. I have no doubt that Apple intends iCloud to be a superior successor to MobileMe (formerly .Mac). Some functions may be eliminated and not replaced, others will be improved, and still new ones will be introduced.
  
  Be patient — wait and see what happens. It took a few years for Mac OS X 10.0 to evolve to 10.3 and become truly useful. And then consider how Mac OS X has evolved since that time, now becoming simple OS X. Sometimes Apple takes a convoluted path, but the end result is generally pretty good. So try to be optimistic…
Mike

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 4:30 pm · Reply

I still don’t get “iCloud”, Apple seem to be taking functionality away from loyal MobileMe users for the sake of selling more iTunes wares. At the moment, I’m dreading the transition. I hope all these things we’re rumored to lose will resurface, new and improved, in iCloud.
Nofx

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 5:23 pm · Reply

I love the ease in using iWeb. So far I don’t like the icloud. It just seems to me like I’m losing a lot of stuff that I like and that I use. What is going on at apple? Why are they taking stuff away? I’m still upset Rosetta isn’t in Lion. That really caused some issues for me with Quicken.
Jack

Sunday, August 7, 2011 - 9:36 pm · Reply

Wow. I am seriously unimpressed. Apple is killing off all the things that made .mac and then MobileMe service important. Web hosting? Gone. Okay I redesigned and moved my web site. It sucks that they eliminated the service but okay.

Cutting synching though? I thought that’s what the cloud was about, having all your data all the time. This makes no sense at all and makes iCloud pretty much worthless to me unless there is some sort of synchronization feature in iCloud they haven’t explained yet.
jkpinpdx

Monday, August 8, 2011 - 2:03 am · Reply

Fret not. Im sure Apple will have some kind of solution to these features that will be better than the original. Maybe not at first but in future updates for sure!
Richard

Thursday, August 11, 2011 - 10:19 am · Reply

I agree with every user here. I have 3 computers and I sync my keychains, Calendar and Contacts with Mobile Me. While the last 2 will still be available, it REALLY sucks to see the Keychain synching going away. Does anyone know another way to sync Keychain? – Willing to pay for a software that does it well.