.Mac user tip

Earlier today I linked (under 'Enjoying') to the news that Apple has (freely) increased user storage space from 100mb to 250mb. That's great news and all, but by default nearly all of that extra space was automatically allocated to email storage, with a measly extra 25mb going to iDisk storage. So for a user like myself, who subscribes to .Mac for the convenience of syncing and backing up data, the uptick was hardly something to shout about. That is until Dan Herwig, a reader of this site, dropped an email my way noting a feature I'd never noticed -- .Mac Storage Settings -- where a user can allocate disk space however they please.

Here's the walkthrough -- log in to your .Mac account in your browser, and select the "Account" option at the bottom of the left nav. Click on the "Storage Settings" button in the next window you come to. You'll then see an interface to manage your storage allocation however you want.

Because I never used my .Mac email address, I lowered my email space as far as it would go, and gave the rest to my iDisk -- 235mb in all. I'm probably the last .Mac user on earth to figure this out, but hey -- better late than never.

Update: One small detail I left out. If you've created a local copy of your iDisk, you have to rebuild it to reflect your new storage size. I tried both logging out and restarting, hoping OS X would automagically change the disk size, but it didn't. So to change it manually, go to your ".Mac" preferences, click the "iDisk" tab, and uncheck "Create a local copy your iDisk." Then click "Show All" (or anything outside of the preference pane) to verify the change. OS X will create a backup of your current iDisk in the form of a dmg and put it on your desktop. Then, go back to the same iDisk preference pane, and re-select the "Create a local copy" option. Click out of the preference pane again, and you should see a dialog window containing a progress bar and a message that a new copy is being created. The Finder will then accurately reflect your new iDisk storage size.