Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Enterprise, Odds and ends, Internet, MobileMe
The T-Mobile Sidekick data failure, and what it means to iPhone users
You may not have heard about the recent loss of data for T-Mobile Sidekick users; after all, this is an Apple-focused site and there probably aren't as many Sidekick owners out there as there are iPhone users. I'll explain the situation, and how it could happen to anyone depending on cloud-based data stores for their mobile devices.The Sidekick is made and supported by Danger, which since April of 2008 has been owned by Microsoft. As such, all of the personal information on the Sidekicks was stored on servers owned and operated by Microsoft. During the last week, Danger / Microsoft had hired Hitachi to do an upgrade to their Storage Area Network (SAN). That's usually not a problem, as the owner of the data (Microsoft in this case) performs a backup of all the data in case of an issue.
Well, something went wrong, and it appears that Danger / Microsoft did not have a backup in place. The result is a catastrophe for Sidekick users. T-Mobile sent out a statement last week explaining the situation, and placing the blame directly on Microsoft and Danger: "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."
The Sidekick has been likened to a dumb terminal or "thin client" by Om Malik over at GigaOm. What he's referring to here is that the device is in constant communications with the servers, which actually check for email, grab web pages, and watch for SMS messages. Address books and calendars? They can be stored on the servers. Photos? Ditto. The Sidekick acts mainly as a display device and user interface to that data. Thus, a "thin client."
This cloud-based syncing has been a nice feature for Sidekick users. They could store their data in the cloud so that it's available even if they switch to a different Sidekick.
Any information on those T-Mobile Sidekicks is now gone if the smartphone loses power, if the battery is removed, or if the battery is fully drained. In those instances, the Sidekick would go out to the cloud and try to grab data that no longer exists. Sidekick users who stored their data locally (on the device) or backed up their data on a PC through a sync still have their data and should not be affected, but for those customers who were depending on Danger and Microsoft to keep their data safe, they're in a world of hurt.
How does this relate to iPhone users? Well, most of your data is stored on the local device. In other words, you have a local copy of your address book and calendars on your iPhone, and although you may be syncing with a cloud-based service such as MobileMe or Google Calendars, you're not totally dependent on that service. In fact, you get to test the local storage on the occasions when MobileMe is totally off-line or your device is out of range of a cell tower.
When you sync your iPhone to a Mac or PC, you are backing up all of your data to another location. Any time Apple sends out an iPhone OS update, your device data is totally backed up onto your computer prior to the start of the update. That's what can take so blasted long when you're doing an update.
So are iPhone users safe from any possible data loss due to a failure of cloud services? Probably, especially if you occasionally go in and force a backup of your iPhone to your Mac or PC. How about Mac users who rely on MobileMe for backups of their important data? Well, unless you're also making a backup of your device to an external hard drive or to another offsite backup service such as BackBlaze or Mozy, you could find yourself in a bad situation if your Mac's hard drive decided to fail at the same time as MobileMe.
What the Sidekick incident should point out to anyone using cloud-based services is that they're not fail-proof. These systems are run and administered by human beings, who have a sad record of making poor decisions. The servers are strictly machines, which have an equally poor record of failing when they're needed the most. Those of us at TUAW want to use this as a reminder that you should back up any and all electronic devices on a regular basis. Today it's happening to Sidekick users, but tomorrow it could be you.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Steven McGrath said 5:19PM on 10-12-2009
MS Fail. Danger died it's slow death and T-Mo stores are being told to no longer sell the SK anymore.
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Rob47 said 5:21PM on 10-12-2009
Lol this sounds like "I've got a iPhone you've got a sidekick mine is so much better than yours" kind of article. I'm not knocking it it's the truth but still.
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NutMac said 5:31PM on 10-12-2009
Somewhat off topic, but regarding iPhone sync, I wish it would sync over WiFi already. This feature exists in Apple TV, which syncs over WiFi or the ethernet.
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Joshua Ochs said 5:35PM on 10-12-2009
Me too, +1, agreed. :) It is a bit silly that iTunes can't network sync to an iPhone. My (very) old Palm could do that...
Aerospeed said 6:02PM on 10-12-2009
Yeah! Who needs battery life anyway?
Dave said 9:11PM on 10-12-2009
+1
I would love to be able to sync over wifi to iTunes.
Mike said 6:25PM on 10-12-2009
Well, there always is the sync corruption where all these sync methods our phones just "trust" decide to delete all our contacts, bookmarks, etc. I guess the. Options are good.
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greg.schmeer said 5:46PM on 10-12-2009
the idea is that you have to plug in the phone to charge anyway, why not sync the data at the same time. It is faster sync and doesn't drain batteries.
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Justin B said 5:58PM on 10-12-2009
Not true. I plug my phone to charge in the wall. Not the PC. very rarely in the Pc actually
ketsugi said 11:05PM on 10-12-2009
For example:
My desktop is in the study. At night I keep my iPhone by my bed, to use as an alarm clock. It would be great if I could wake up in the morning, hit the Sync app on my iPhone to sync up all my podcasts, and then head out to work where I charge my iPhone at my desk. Right now I have to take the extra step of taking my phone to the computer, syncing it up before I leave. Being able to do it over local wifi would be nice.
But being able to use Back To My Mac to sync over the internet would be even better. Push-style syncing with my own Mac, without having to use MobileMe as a medium. That would be lovely.
herman said 6:12PM on 10-12-2009
Storing your data with "Danger" - well you don't have a GENIUS to figure that one out!
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Itomi said 6:47PM on 10-12-2009
I lol'ed
DrWho said 6:04PM on 10-12-2009
Just goes to show we are all different, I always plug mine into my iMac.
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ilo.vekdl said 6:05PM on 10-12-2009
"Sidekick users who stored their data locally (on the device) or backed up their data on a PC through a sync still have their data and should not be affected"
Are you sure that is true? My understanding is that it is impossible to keep data "on the device" (that survives a reboot). It is also impossible to sync the handset data to your PC, except through the server. Everyone who has a Sidekick is doomed to loose all of their data eventually, and has no real way to get it off the handset. The only workaround I have heard is emailing the contacts from the handset to yourself, ONE record at a time.
The only Sidekick users who won't loose ALL of their data are the rare few who happened to be using third party Intellisync software to sync the Danger server to their desktop. This was only possible before the breakdown. The Intellisync software cannot sync with the handset, only the server, so this approach is no help to all the doomed Sidekick users with data only on their handset.
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ronl12 said 11:13PM on 10-12-2009
My understanding is that there is only SRAM in the device for user data, so a power off or reset wipes it. A web search for local backup for the Sidekick came up blank, so apparently there is NO WAY to make a local backup copy of your data. The Palm Pre is similar except that The Missing Sync can be used to make a local back to PC or Mac.
As the article points out, iTunes always makes at least an incremental backup of your data every time you sync to your Mac or PC, and your MobileMe data most likely also appears on multiple systems.
Because I use Time Machine and Retrospect to make offline copies of all of my critical information, I should be safe if MobileMe goes offline or corrupts my information. My Retrospect backup media goes into a fireproof safe.
If you do not take backups of your critical data, you are living dangerously my friend.
PR0F3TA (PSN - PROPHETA) said 6:42PM on 10-12-2009
thats alot of sad 12 year olds... seriously tho, if you are over 19 and STILL own and use a sidekick as your smart phone then you aren't so smart after all
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bananamonkey said 6:51PM on 10-12-2009
let the bloodbath begin: t-mobile has already discontinued sales of the unit, and is allowing users to break contract w/o penalty and/or 1 month service credit. sidekick? more like groinkick.
oops, gotta go, sync is complete
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Jaden10 said 7:01PM on 10-12-2009
and this is nothing like Snow Leopard's guest account issue???
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/12/snow-leopard-guest-account-bug-deleting-user-files-terrorizin/
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puhsitch said 12:11AM on 10-13-2009
The Snow Leopard thing is definitely bad, but at least you can easily recover the lost data from your backup.
Matthew Hirschey said 8:14PM on 10-12-2009
Would this be a good reason for Apple to include MobileMe disks in the time machine backup?
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