iDisk on Vista - problem after restart

[milani]

Alright, well there are clear insturctions about how to map your MobileMe iDisk onto your Vista based computer, so that the drive shows up in the Computer folder and you can access it as if it were a native Windows folder. That all works fine... until I shut down and restart my computer.

Whenever I do, instead of seeing the iDisk's normal working icon, I see an icon with a big red X over it, telling me that it is unable to connect. If I click on it, it tells me it won't do it because the user hasn't been authenticated, and so the connection has not been restored. The only solution is to erase the mapped drive and to remap it every single time.

This is pretty annoying as you might imagine. Is there any reason this is happening? It doesn't happen on my XP computer, and I tested it on a Win98 laptop and it works fine as well. It seems like a Vista problem. Any ideas?

[milani]

So no one uses Vista? or no one has any idea how to fix the problem?

[dylanbrown]

Milani,

I have a Mac (Which I love) and a Windows Vista gaming PC (Which I hate!!) Indeed I am having the same problem as you, in the fact that after restarting/logging-off, the iDisk does not mount on my PC.

I decided to contact MobileMe and try to sort it out... here's what they said:

"Thank you for contacting Apple about this. Apple is currently investigating the issue you have reported and hopes to resolve this issue. I am providing the details of your report to the MobileMe Specialist team"

Hopefully this gets sorted!

[milani]

Thanks a lot for the response! I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one with a Vista computer (which really wouldn't surprise me at this point). Good to know the problem has been reported and it's being investigated! By the time it's fixed I'll probably have a Mac, but at least it'll help the next guy!

[rasmasyean]

It's not surprising that a Mac product won't work on Vista, but more people use it than you...
It's actually Apples job to make it compatible with Vista if they want to.

17.85% of internet users are Vista
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=11

1.46 billion internet users
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Assuming the usage rate is consistent around the world…
1.46 billion * 17.85% = 260 million Vista internet users

The actually user base would be significantly less (i.e. 180 million as per MS sales) than the above number only if for some reason, Vista users surf the internet WAY MORE than all other OS's to skew the percentage up to 17.85%. It’s probably more likely that that some Vista users don’t use the internet much because it’s for work mostly. Hence there is likely more than 260 million Vista users.

Hitslink logs statistics in the “rich” (and more regulated) nations. Here Vista adoption is probably held back a little by expense. So that could mean that Vista adoption in other “poorer” (Gov’t don’t give a crap) nations is much greater than 17.85% since you can like buy it at the local fruit shop for like $1, etc.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_sof_pir_rat-crime-software-piracy-rate

Hey, if you include ALL of Asia? 500 million Vista users??? ;)

Keep in mind that Windows is prolly the most pirated software in history.

[BBcamel]

I have the same problem; the only workaround I know of is to change your Vista username and password to match your mobileMe username an password. :confused:

[TLewis]

Being cursed with sucky vista x64, I haven't solved the reboot problem, but the next best thing is a network shortcut. It's not 100% reliable, but it seems to work most of the time. Just create a new shortcut to:
\\idisk.me.com@ssl\USERNAME
Replace "USERNAME" with your me.com user name, like "johndoe" (do not add a "@me.com"). The "@ssl" tells vista to use a secure connection to idisk.

(However, I just realized that my vista login name and me.com name are the same, and so your mileage may vary.)

[TLewis]

Being cursed with sucky vista x64, I haven't solved the reboot problem, but the next best thing is a network shortcut.
Also, when you're asked for your login name, I think you have to enter your usename with "@me.com" appended.

[ggersch]

After reading through this and other threads, it occurred to me that standard PC drive map syntax would probably work best here. The '@ssl' is a new trick (for me), but the rest of this has been around a while.

Open a command window, and use this syntax:

net use i: \\idisk.me.com@ssl\username password /USER:username@me.com /PERSISTENT:YES

All on one line. I've exaggerated the spaces. You only need one.

You can omit the 'i:' if you want, or specify another drive letter. I still like drive letters, as they make scripting easier, and i: seemed appropriate.

I haven't proven that the persistent option works through reboots for idisk yet, but it works in other environments. If you change your MM password, you'll need to dismount the drive (net use i: /d) and remount it again with the new password.

EDIT:
Dang. The 'persistent' keyword is not working. <sigh> Guess I'll have to try putting it in a startup script. Also having a rights issue with some scripting, but that's probably related to Vista UAC. I'll keep poking at it.
<end edit>

Now I just need to see if I can get Vista Sync to do the syncing, since the MM service doesn't seem to.

[milani]

Thanks guys. I'll try out the SSL suggestion tomorrow! And yes, I agree, the "i" is an appropriate drive name haha! iAgree :p!

[tachyon46]

Open a command window, and use this syntax:

net use i: \\idisk.me.com@ssl\username password /USER:username@me.com /PERSISTENT:YES



Does this still work for you? I have been having no success for the last week or so mapping my iDisk on Windows XP Pro. It worked OK before that.

I am just wondering whether the server code at MM has changed, or whether one of the recent updates to Windows XP is at the source of the problem...:confused:

[milani]

Does this still work for you? I have been having no success for the last week or so mapping my iDisk on Windows XP Pro. It worked OK before that.

I am just wondering whether the server code at MM has changed, or whether one of the recent updates to Windows XP is at the source of the problem...:confused:

Honestly I haven't tried it in a long time. I would hope that Apple would have addressed the issue - I did report it to them, but I suspect they probably haven't. I don't think it is an update to XP, because I tested it on my Vista computer, and on a fresh XP box that I was building (prior to any updates whatsoever, certainly before SP2 or SP3), and the results were the same. Every restart broke the connection to MM.

I've since given up on mapping the drive, and have settled with using a browser to upload files (although it is certainly not optimal by any means).

[Sesshi]

It's never bloody worked. I can get Vista to work with other WebDAV services so it's unlikely to be solely a Microsoft problem.

I use Webdrive - which, for WebDAV at least has worked out better for me in the end.
http://www.webdrive.com/products/webdrive/index.html

Gives you an uber-iDisk under Windows. set up offline copies, etc etc

[tachyon46]

It's never bloody worked. I can get Vista to work with other WebDAV services so it's unlikely to be solely a Microsoft problem.

I use Webdrive - which, for WebDAV at least has worked out better for me in the end.
http://www.webdrive.com/products/webdrive/index.html

Gives you an uber-iDisk under Windows. set up offline copies, etc etc

It has worked. It worked for me without using the comman line "net use ..."
until recently. So something has changed.

A question about webdrive: I can't figure out from their web site whether

they provide a file server,
or this is just a tool to map MM to Windoze


If it is just a tool it is priced rather steeply...

[mattcooper]

+1
Same problem on my vista pc.
Annoys me so much!

[vorkorsigan]

Probably a stupid question but have you tried just double clicking the Xed out drive. I see this on a Vista laptop on my network and if you do this it just opens the drive even when red crossed?

The cross then goes away and the correct volume usage is shown as long as the airport base station agent is running.

[milani]

Probably a stupid question but have you tried just double clicking the Xed out drive. I see this on a Vista laptop on my network and if you do this it just opens the drive even when red crossed?

The cross then goes away and the correct volume usage is shown as long as the airport base station agent is running.

Yah it doesn't work. From what I recall it gives and error and fails to reconnect. So basically mapping the drive is utterly useless because upon restart the drive fails to reconnect 100% of the time.

[d21mike]

Here is my solution. Works well for me:

Create a BAT File (example: idisk.bat) with the following command and place it in your startup folder. If necessary, secure the bat file with only your user windows logon.

net use i: https://idisk.me.com/userid password /user:userid /persistent:no

[MAC-PRO-DEMON]

Is a bad bad idea...

:D

J

[d21mike]

Is a bad bad idea...

:D

J

What is, and why?