MobileMe: Data transfer limits
MobileMe enforces certain limits on the amount of data transferred from your website to visitors of your site. This limit exists regardless of how much bandwidth your Internet connection has. Data transfer refers the amount of data moving to and from your website - not how much you have saved, but how much is being accessed.
When a visitor accesses content on your MobileMe website, such as movies or podcasts, they use some of your allotted data transfer amount. For example, if a movie on your website is 7 MB in size, each time a visitor views the movie they use 7 MB of your allotted amount.
Note: Apple measures the amount of data that has been provided to the Internet from the MobileMe servers, but cannot track whether someone has successfully completed a file download or not.
MobileMe
| Total MobileMe storage | Monthly MobileMe data transfer limit (regardless of ISP) |
| 20 GB | 200 GB |
| 40 GB | 400 GB |
| 60 GB | 600 GB |
Note: Contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to see if your Internet connection has different data transfer limits, or if an existing limit can be increased (regardless of MobileMe).
You can use up to half of your allotted MobileMe data transfer limits within the first 15 days of the month.
How do I know if I'm approaching my limit?
You will receive an alert email when you have used 75% of your limit, another email when you have used 90%, and yet another email when you have used 100%.
When you exceed your allotted limit, your site will be unavailable to visitors (blocked). You will still be able to view your own site, publish updates with iWeb, and access other MobileMe services, but other people will not be able to visit your site until your data transfer rate is reset to zero, which happens on the first day and sixteenth day of each month.
How do I avoid going over my limit?
Here are some tips:
- Compress or remove videos and podcasts from your site (and encourage visitors to download your videos or podcasts, rather than visit your site repeatedly to view the same content)
- Purchase more iDisk space, which increases your limit (your ISP may have different limits)
- Password-protect your Gallery albums or published webpages to limit page views to those who know the password
How can I monitor my data transfer history?
You can do this from the Account area of MobileMe online:
- Log in to www.me.com/account.
- On the Summary page, locate the Data Transfer line and click the Details link to view your monthly usage. Note: The Details link does not appear if no data has been transferred.
- Click Done to return to the Account page.
How can I increase my limit?
If you are interested in purchasing more capacity, do the following:
- Log in to www.me.com/account.
- Click the Account Options tab on the left.
- Click the Upgrade button.
- Select a storage option and click Continue.
- Follow the instructions to enter your credit card information and purchase the upgrade.