Mobile me as back up and restore?

[Gokunama]

I rarely use my old PC, it takes far too long to turn on and move, and it decided a couple months after I got my iPhone to quit syncing my mail, contacts, and calendar, since then I've used online services to back up my important info.

I recently got Mobileme cause some of the apps I use require a MobileMe account and I've been pleased with how MobileMe syncs contacts and calendar events. But I need to know if I can rely on MobileMe to restore contacts in case my iPhone crashes (or heaven forbid, it gets stolen again), since trying to do iPhone back-ups takes eons upon eons to do, PC doesn't sync that stuff to Outlook, and yeah.... that's about it.

I only use the PC to do restores, iPhone upgrades, and very occassional to download a large app that won't download over WiFi at work.

I'm also wondering about bookmarks as well, does that get restored over the air as well?

 

[crewrules101]

H@ll Yes

To your question: YES!!!

MobileMe was designed so that you can access all of your emails, contacts, bookmarks, and calendars from any internet connected device. The way it works is that there is a server at apple that stores all your information (email, contacts, etc.) called "the cloud." When you create, edit, or delete anything it is automatically changed in the cloud, whether you are on your Mac, your PC, your iPhone, or at the library logged in to the website.

I originally broke my old iPhone and I went in and had it replaced. I registered it in the store, and before I could walk out the front doors of the store, I had all my contacts, emails, bookmarks, and calendars available on my new iPhone.

This sync also pushes all changes from the cloud to all your authorized devices so that all of your devices have the most up-to-date information. If you get a new mac or your mac dies, all of the information is safely stored in the cloud.

Do not though think that this will be secure enough. There was a time when the sync failed, and I lost some contacts. Use the program "Backup" that comes with the MobileMe subscription (available on Apple's website), to upload a daily backup of all of your contacts, bookmarks, calendars, and emails, plus any important documents to your iDisk. It is a smart application that only backs-up what has changed since the last backup.

If u have any other questions, PM me.

 

[Gokunama]

Awesome! Thanks! I'll check out that back up to iDisk ASAP.

 

[Gokunama]

Another question, since my iPhone is pretty much my main computer (old and very slow PC that I only use to restore my iPhone or upgrade the iPhone software), is that back-up to iDisk program available for PC users, and is it redownloadable (I generally use net cafe computers to do anything that I can't do from my iPhone)? I'd buy it if I could download it to a PC again whenever I was at a net cafe...

 

[crewrules101]

Backup

The program Backup is not available for Windows users. I'm sorry if my last post did not convey that. I must have glossed over the fact that you are a windows user. One option that you have is to store all your valuable files directly on your iDisk. You can access the drive either as a "Network Drive" or through the web interface at http://www.me.com/idisk For directions to map it as a network drive, go here http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3264

When the new iPhone 3.0 software is release, you will be able to view all your documents on your iPhone (http://www.apple.com/mobileme/whats-new/) its about half way down the page. The only drawback is that you can't actually edit the files from the iPhone, though you can read them, and view them offline once you download the file you want.

A solution that you may want to use is GoogleDocs. You can save all of your files on their server and edit them in a web interface. Google it, I'm sure you will find it. You could also buy a flash drive (thumbdrive) and store all your docs on that, and then you can just plug it into any net cafe computer and work on your file from there. Beyond that I am out of ideas. Let me know if you need anymore ideas or help...