Q&A: Cleaning Up the Mac’s Sidebar

Q.

Apple killed off the service, but I still have this iDisk icon in the list of drives in my Mac’s window. It gives me an error every time I accidentally click on it, so can I just remove it?

A.

Apple’s iDisk online storage drive, part of its overall MobileMe service, was among the features discontinued earlier this summer when the company retired MobileMe in favor of its newer iCloud service. Parts of MobileMe can still be floating around Mac OS X, including that icon in the Sidebar area on the left side of an open desktop window.

To remove the defunct iDisk icon from the Sidebar, click on the desktop area to go to the Mac’s Finder program. Under the Finder menu on the left side of the screen, choose Preferences. When the Preferences box opens, click on the Sidebar tab. A list of items that can be displayed in the Sidebar panel of an open window appears. In the Devices section of the list, remove the check box next to iDisk and close the Preferences box. (You can turn on items you actually wish to see listed in the Sidebar panel here as well.)

As a shortcut, you can usually remove the icon by right-clicking (or holding down the Control key) and clicking iDisk or any other item in the Sidebar panel. Choose the “Remove From Sidebar” option from the contextual menu.