MobileMe: Resolving WebDAV File System message for Mac OS X v10.4 users who are no longer MobileMe (or .Mac) members

Products Affected

.Mac, Mac OS X 10.4, MobileMe

Symptoms

If you used to be a MobileMe (or .Mac) member and you are using Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, you may occasionally receive the following message in the Finder from WebDAV File System Authentication:

"Enter your user name and password to access the server at the URL 'http://idisk.mac.com/<your membername>/' in the realm 'idisk.mac.com.'"

WebDAV File System Authentication message

This article explains how you can resolve this issue and stop these alerts from appearing.

Resolution

The WebDAV File System Authentication message appears when the Finder, or in some cases iDisk synchronization, triggers a connection to MobileMe iDisk and your MobileMe (or .Mac) credentials cannot be validated by the MobileMe iDisk servers. In Mac OS X v10.4.11, this can easily happen if your MobileMe account is expired but the .Mac System Preference is still configured to access your MobileMe account.

You can easily resolve this issue in one of two manners:

One method is to renew your MobileMe account. For information on how to renew your MobileMe account, please review this article as well as the current System Requirements and pricing information for MobileMe, in order to make sure you are using an operating system and Internet connection that will work with MobileMe.
The other method is to simply remove your MobileMe account information from the MobileMe (or .Mac) System Preferences pane:
1. From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences.
2. When System Preferences opens click the View menu and choose .Mac.
3. Once in the .Mac System Preferences pane, delete your Member Name and Password entries.
4. You will be prompted with the following message: "You have removed the .Mac account info for <your membername>@mac.com." Click OK.
5. Close the .Mac System Preferences window.

Note: In some cases it may be necessary to enter incorrect account information in the .Mac System Preferences Member Name and Password fields in order to cause Mac OS X to query the MobileMe Account Servers and refresh the operating systems state for MobileMe. If you follow the instructions above but do not get the message noting you have removed the .Mac account info, or if your .Mac Member Name and Password fields are already blank, but you are still getting the WebDAV File System Authentication message, you should enter an incorrect member name and password then press enter. After you receive an alert about entering an incorrect member name or password, delete the member name and password entries as directed in steps 3-5 above.