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Facing the MobileMe Calendar upgrade

04.03.2011
MobileMe subscribers, who joined prior to October 1, 2010, can currently choose between the old Calendar service and the new one based on CalDAV. More precisely, if you still use the old service, you are not required to upgrade to the new one. This option is about to change. A : "On May 5, 2011, MobileMe will transition to the new Calendar service. You must upgrade to the new Calendar to maintain calendar syncing between your devices and to continue accessing your calendar at me.com."

For many users, this is not likely to be greeted as welcome news. Rightly or wrongly, there is a widespread belief that the new service is more trouble-prone than the old one and that the best way to avoid the trouble is to avoid the upgrade. I covered some of these concerns in a . Unfortunately, this avoidance strategy will no longer work as of May 5.

My best advice at this point is to upgrade as soon as possible. Don't wait until the last minute. Here are a few personal tips to assist in your transition:

1. According to Apple, you should be running at least Mac OS X 10.6.4 and iOS 4.2, on your Mac and iOS devices respectively, to be compatible with the new Calendar service. If you haven't already upgraded, do so. If your hardware is not compatible with these software versions, it's time either to consider a hardware upgrade or look for a third-party calendar alternative.

2. Make sure that your Calendar data is backed up. If you don't perform a regular automatic backup of your drive's contents, archive your iCal data (via the Export command in iCal's File menu). That way, if anything goes dreadfully wrong with the MobileMe transition, you should be able to recover.

3. Begin your upgrade process at the . Just click the "Upgrade now" item on the Calendar page. If you don't see this option, you're already using the new Calendar. After a bit of a wait, the new Calendar should appear. You're done!