Sidekick data lost in server crash

No backup was available

Sidekick data lost in server crash
View more images

12 October 2009 10:31 GMT / By Duncan Geere

Danger, the Microsoft-owned company which produces the T-Mobile Sidekick, has admitted that it's managed to lose every single scrap of data that was being held on its servers. For good. Everything. Contacts, calendars, photos, to-do lists - if they're not locally backed up on your device then they're gone.

Even if you do have it saved on your device, if it runs out of battery or you turn it off before you sync it up again with the servers then it'll be gone too. Worst of all, the data loss appears to have occurred because no-one thought to take a backup of the data before Microsoft undertook an upgrade of its storage systems.

T-Mobile, Microsoft and Danger have jointly issued an apology to customers, saying: "Based on Microsoft/Danger’s latest recovery assessment of their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on your device – such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos – that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger".

Affected customers are likely to be offered some sort of compensation - "We recognize the magnitude of this inconvenience. Our primary efforts have been focused on restoring our customers’ personal content. We also are considering additional measures for those of you who have lost your content to help reinforce how valuable you are as a T-Mobile customer".

If you've been affected by the data loss, we'd like to hear from you. Drop a comment below, or use our feedback box to tell us your experiences.

Read
Related
Full tags
Phones, Mobile phones, T-Mobile, Danger, Sidekick, Biz
UK Shopping
mobiles.co.uk, three.co.uk, carphonewarehouse.co.uk, Nokia.co.uk, o2.co.uk, orange.co.uk, phones4u.co.uk, t-mobile.co.uk, vodafone.co.uk, ebay.co.uk
US Shopping
bestbuy.com, ebay.com

share Subscribe to RSS feeds email story save story print story pdf

Comments

  • 1,000 name countless emails business contacts 2 kids birth photos and much more 7 years a loyal customer i better get a new phone and a month or 2 bills free or im done with t mobile something liek a my touch i also am considering a small claims case as this stuff was saved and I lost many contacts in business i will never regain Posted by Ryan Magoni, USA
  • I've been with T-Mobile since 1997 (back then it was Arial Communications) and I lost everything in the Sidekick crash. Beyond this, my Sidekick has been freezing up for months. I called today and was basically told "tough $h!t." I told them that after 12 years, my three accounts would be leaving them. They encouraged me to go try to find something better... I had thought that after 12 years of loyalty, they woud do more to keep me (offer a new phone, upgrade, something...)

    As far as the MANDATORY 2 YEAR CONTRACT that accompanies Sidekick, I'd be happy to go to small claims court with them. As far as I'm concerned, they breached the contract when they failed to store the data that I was PAYING them to store... If all 800,000 affected customers take them to court of this, maybe we can get through to these a-holes.     Posted by C. Wright, USA

(Will not be published)

  (Next time sign in to bypass captcha)

Latest in Phones

Latest on Pocket-lint.com

About Pocket-lint

Pocket-lint is your one stop shop for gadgets, technology and consumer electronics, bringing you the low-down on the latest televisions, cameras, phones, GPS and much more. Whether it's learning about what's hot in the world of Apple, finding out about the latest home cinema kit from Samsung and Sony or merely seeing what not to buy, we have you covered. So check out our reviews, news, comment, hands-on photo galleries and videos. Enjoy.

Pocket-lint.com poll

Q. Do you still buy CDs?

Vote YES Vote NO

» LAST TIME
When asked Do you want the Droid by Motorola? 53% said yes and 47% said no

Top 10 Broadband

Compare 50+
broadband packages

Home Broadband »

Top products

tip us on news

Rss feed

Follow us on Twitter