The Sidekick Smartphone has fallen victim to a glitch on the part of T-mobile and Danger's server (which crashed--Microsoft stressed that it was not its technology but Danger's that failed). The Sidekick communicates in real-time with Apparently what is happening is that if the battery was removed from the phone (which can also happen unintentionally at least with my phone if i drop it the battery gets a little lose) or the battery was not charged before it dies, you may lose all your contact, calendar, photo and to-do list data.
Apparently at least a majority of people's phones froze which prompted them to remove and replace the battery, at which point they lost everything.
Microsoft was trying to change something and didn't backup the data first, when the server crashed the users' information was lost--irretrievably.
Bottom line, if have a sidekick and you lost your data--it is most likely gone for good. And if you didn't, do not let your battery go dead or remove it for any reason!
Read more here or here
Check out the forum posts here. A post was made by T-Mobile warning its customers about this problem:
Sidekick customers, during this service disruption, please DO NOT remove your battery, reset your Sidekick, or allow it to lose power.Updated: 10/10/2009 12:35 PM PDT
T-MOBILE AND MICROSOFT/DANGER STATUS UPDATE ON SIDEKICK DATA DISRUPTION
Dear valued T-Mobile Sidekick customers:
T-Mobile and the Sidekick data services provider, Danger, a subsidiary of Microsoft, are reaching out to express our apologies regarding the recent Sidekick data service disruption.
We appreciate your patience as Microsoft/Danger continues to work on maintaining platform stability, and restoring all services for our Sidekick customers.
Regrettably, 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. That said, our teams continue to work around-the-clock in hopes of discovering some way to recover this information. However, the likelihood of a successful outcome is extremely low. As such, we wanted to share this news with you and offer some tips and suggestions to help you rebuild your personal content. You can find these tips in our Sidekick Contacts FAQ. We encourage you to visit the Forums on a regular basis to access the latest updates as well as FAQs regarding this service disruption.
In addition, we plan to communicate with you on Monday (Oct. 12) the status of the remaining issues caused by the service disruption, including the data recovery efforts and the Download Catalog restoration which we are continuing to resolve. We also will communicate any additional tips or suggestions that may help in restoring your content.
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.
We continue to advise customers to NOT reset their device by removing the battery or letting their battery drain completely, as any personal content that currently resides on your device will be lost.
Once again, T-Mobile and Microsoft/Danger regret any and all inconvenience this matter has caused.
Do you have a Sidekick Smartphone? Did this happen to you?
ok that really sucks because at some point generally everyones phone will die. Is there anyway for you to back up your data to your pc? I know I have a blackberry desktop manager that I back up to.
While at work I read they will begin allowing Sidekick customer to terminate their contracts with no ETF. What I read was that Danger was working on servers without backing up the data first. They lost everything and had no backups to restore from. At least that's what I read. If I find the links again I'll post up.
Son does and yes he lost all his contacts, but not his pics or his music which is weird... thing is though that when I call him, it still shows up as "mom", so we can't figure it out..
I think i heard last night that they're offering like a $100 gift card, I was half asleep so I'm not sure of the details.
thing is though that when I call him, it still shows up as "mom", so we can't figure it out..
just goes to show you can NEVER escape mom
The thread is entitled "The Epic Data Disruption Thread" --how appropriate.
So apparently T-Mobile and Microsoft are not sure if they can even fix this problem (they said the chances are very low) so the battery warning is indefinite (don't take out your battery or let it die today, next week, next year), and customers aren't able to end their contract because of it. That Sucks!