Well, this is shaping up to be one of the biggest disasters in the history of cloud computing, and certainly the largest blow to Danger and the Sidekick platform: T-Mobile's now reporting that personal data stored on Sidekicks has "almost certainly has been lost as a result of a
server failure at Microsoft/Danger." They're still looking for a way to recover it, but they're not giving users a lot of hope -- meanwhile, servers are still on the fritz and customers are being advised not to let their devices power down because anything that's still on there will be lost the next time the device is turned on. Another communique is promised from T-Mobile on Monday to give everyone a status update on the recovery efforts, but at this point, it's not looking good at all.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jacob @ Oct 10th 2009 3:51PM
Anybody else think this may be the end of the Sidekick line? After this, I'm never gunna buy a Sidekick. I'll stick to my Blackberry.
Brandon @ Oct 10th 2009 4:03PM
"...not to let their devices power down because anything that's still on there will be lost the next time the device is turned on."
That's a weee bit difficult seeing as the battery life sucked on SKs...
digittante @ Oct 10th 2009 4:25PM
This critical Sidekick vulnerability of storing all your data on the server w/o a comprehensive device-export/backup function has been there from day 1. It'd be a shame if the Sidekick's legacy as an innovative & enabling communicator that attracted a loyal user-base (hip-hop kids and the deaf community) is reduced to a warning about over-reliance on the cloud...
jasonsm8 @ Oct 10th 2009 4:52PM
The deaf community has largely moved away from tty machines and a lot of them rely on sidekicks. I can only imagine the nightmare that this is causing some people.
pathymo @ Oct 10th 2009 6:06PM
As an interpreter in training, I was thinking the same thing....
the4thheat @ Oct 11th 2009 12:25AM
Luckily there's plenty of alternatives nowadays.
gamepete64 @ Oct 10th 2009 4:56PM
Fuck this. Everything went back to normal a few days ago for me but my battery died(it’s been acting weird and dying more quickly). I didn’t understand how to use my calendar so I’m good and the notes were simple tidbits I didn’t care about. My pics are on my memory card and about 3 weeks ago this happened to me and as soon as I got the things back I copied all my contacts to a piece of paper. This is beyond suckage though as I’m probably going to have to get a new phone since mine is just a brick with a screen now.
r4paws @ Oct 18th 2009 9:52PM
ya i got the same problem with my battery too. i charge it all night every night and dont use it that much, its on all day, and it still need charge it by the time i get home. and its got to the robot alot more now. so does this mean i have to get other battery now?
what it you do? or what can i do?
Matt S @ Oct 10th 2009 6:04PM
LOL @ people still using sidekicks. I hope everything is wiped spic and span clean from your phone.
Ravibhau @ Oct 10th 2009 6:21PM
In this day and age, losing server data is simply unbelievable. Whatever happened to DR plans? Backups? Were the servers never backed up on tape? Or did the main data center (in American Samoa?), the mirror site (in Taiwan?) and the backup center (in Phillipines?) all get washed out at the same time?
I am off to getting printouts of all my Google docs before it's too late.
funcityguy @ Oct 10th 2009 7:12PM
Can you hear me now? How about now? Now? Tmobile
PEZOLLA @ Oct 10th 2009 7:41PM
Better sync your stuff to outlook !
Raf @ Oct 10th 2009 9:39PM
If you’re a Sidekick owner, I’d contact T-Mo Executive Customer Service. Here’s a contact:
Octavio Robertson, 505-341-8059
(courtesy Consumerist)
Punchdrunkbrian @ Oct 10th 2009 10:30PM
Oh man, I convinced a friend of mine to buy one a couple years ago. I hope for his sake that he's moved on to a non-crappy phone.
rytr23 @ Oct 10th 2009 11:52PM
I am sure the server room is filling with sweat off the brows of many server guys trying to figure WTF to do. I guess someone will test a backup once in a while.
Sam @ Oct 10th 2009 11:56PM
MICROSOFT IS FAULT THAT IT…….
MICROSOFT IS DIRTY BUESSINESS
MICROSOFT MUST DOWN!!!!! AND DANGER IS BEST
MICROSOFT IS EVIL
MICROSOFT NOT SUPPORT!!!!
WE MUST KICK OUT OF MICROSOFT IS OUT!!!!!
brokensticks @ Oct 10th 2009 11:59PM
Sorry for all those who lost their data, but I just simply ROFL'ed when I read this news: Like who would've thought that Microsoft servers would crash? (yes that was sarcastic)
On a more serious note, I hope all these users get compensated for this COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE mishap on the part of Microsoft/Danger.
Big Poppa @ Oct 11th 2009 12:20AM
Thats what happens when Micro$oft gets there hands on something.
funcityguy @ Oct 11th 2009 8:04AM
Even with this news it really does shock me how disfunctional Microsoft is. You'd think with a clear majority of owning desktop, generating all that money, from all those years they would execute maintainance and software that would dominate the phone. It is predicted that they will be #3 in mobile OS's in 2012. Sort of like not making the playoffs. That must so frustrate guys like Steve Ballmer. I bet he's a guy that yells at people.
rishid @ Oct 11th 2009 8:08PM
I have always knew this day was coming, at some point some cloud service would totally shit the bed and people will then realize local applications will always win, especially in the enterprise area.
I actually want to find someway to backup my Gmail account, since my life depends on it.
samantha @ Oct 12th 2009 10:30AM
I actually want to find someway to backup my Gmail account, since my life depends on it.
@rshid You have multiple ways to back it up. You can use a pop mail client and download all mail to it like ScottJ does. Just set the option in your pop client to leave mail on the server. Another option is to use gears for gmail. This puts a fully working copy of gmail on your computer that you can use even when there is no network connectivity.
The problem isn't the cloud. The problem is lack of backups. The problem with Sidekick is that they specifically made it so data could not be backed up, and then failed to use even ordinary care while doing an upgrade.
ScottJ @ Oct 11th 2009 10:44PM
"I actually want to find someway to backup my Gmail account, since my life depends on it."
Same here. So, although I use gmail via imap in browsers on my several machines 99.9% of the time, here's what I do:
o I have a separate POP email account set up.
o Its server is set to forward all emails to my gmail account. I do most of my correspondence in gmail, in my browser. It bcc's emails I send to the aforementioned account.
o Thunderbird is installed on my Mac, and every few days I run it. It pops the emails off the server for my main email account, giving me local copies of everything.
So, gmail can fail but I'd still have my backups.
Dale @ Oct 12th 2009 4:30PM
A much simpler way would be to add your Gmail account to Mail.app or Thunderbird. As it supports POP already, it's one less step.
Matt @ Oct 12th 2009 5:08PM
Someone please fill in this GIANT BLANK AREA for me: why was all the data lost? Isn't that saved on the phone? The way I read this is that your phone doesn't hold information, T-Mobile servers hold information and "loan" it to your phone. WTF?
Punchdrunkbrian @ Oct 15th 2009 1:18PM
WTF indeed. Sidekicks don't store their data on the phone itself, its all uploaded onto their servers. Ever see on the internet where some celebrity's sidekick pictures got leaked online? This is how. In theory this is a good idea when you think about not having to worry about storage space and if your phone breaks you can restore easily, but we've now seen how it can fail.
Michael Superczynski @ Oct 13th 2009 7:06PM
Ha.
Microsoft and T-Mobile get an F in Data Processing 101.
Make backups and verify them.
And users should always have the ability to make/verify local backups.
One copy on a remote server is hardly sensible.
berrytan28 @ Oct 15th 2009 5:49PM
But now I hear there working hard to recover it ? So those $100 credits don't have to be sent out? Just feels to me there not really caring so much. Trying to pay us off with small comps and credits. Not really caring if we lost data ,sure we could of back it up but we pay for the to take care of it. The least they could of done was warn us by saying system maintance please back up data or so. Then this big mess could of been avoided .