Good News, Everyone! Contact Recovery
T-Mobile has posted instructions on how to download your contacts and restore them to your Sidekick. Basically you log in to your account at my.t-mobile.com and a new link will appear on the front page, “Restore your contacts”
Once you click on the link to Restore your contacts, it’s a 2 step process to fully restore contacts. Download the contacts to your computer, and then upload the downloaded file to your Desktop Interface. It will probably take a few minutes for them to appear on your device after this.
This is only the first phase of recovery, as T-Mobile, Danger and Microsoft have stated that the remaining PIM data (Calendar, Notes and ToDo’s) as well as Photos saved to the backend and not your SD card will be returning shortly. Perhaps through a similar method.
Let us know in the comments how the recovery goes and if you were in the group that lost all their contacts, or some of them. We’re curious to know!
October 21st, 2009 at 4:18 am
Hmm …. it is still polling to download the catalog, but usually the bought stuff displays right away. It is empty. 🙁
October 21st, 2009 at 6:37 am
I didn’t have phone data loss so on my phone I have over 800 contacts minus the labels and categories which are still missing. However the CVS file I downloaded only had 716 contacts. I’m guessing the from tape backup that was recovered was *VERY* old.
October 21st, 2009 at 6:50 am
Ever since the data outage, I haven’t been able to select the Cell, Home, etc. selections from my contacts =/
October 21st, 2009 at 6:57 am
good news for me if the sidekick lx 2009 comes to aus this year
October 21st, 2009 at 7:08 am
Upon further investigation my desktop interface has 717 contacts, my download has 716, and my phone still has more than 800. I’m wondering how i force my phone to update the server? And from what I can tell the labels are still somewhere because I only have two categories. All and Unfiled.
October 21st, 2009 at 7:11 am
I lost all my contacts except 2 after recently uploading over 200. This is a hassle and anyone should be compensated by the company
October 21st, 2009 at 8:46 am
See I thought that it was really old too & that would explain the missing contacts but the weird thing is I noticed a couple numbers that I entered the night before service went out arestill there. The ones that I’m missing, were entered a few months or years ago. Then I thought maybe it was only showing the more recent ones, but no, I have some from 2003 still in there. So I can’t figure out any rhyme or reason to which ones it chose to not give back to me…
October 21st, 2009 at 9:35 am
I spent 2 hours last night “cleaning” the data in that csv file. I know of at least 3 people that I am missing, but what about the people that I can’t remember? In addition I am missing the info. of some contacts where I just have the name.
I need to get this data imported into my new BB
October 21st, 2009 at 12:09 pm
It seems like the names of contacts without any other information are a common malady. Am I the only one that is only seeing names, phone #s, and email addresses? (no physical address, no websites, no IM usernames, etc)
October 21st, 2009 at 1:17 pm
One day is not 2 weeks!!!!! Hello its people like you that enable company’s like this to get over on everyone else. All I’m saying is we shouldn’t be so overly happy when on the whole Microsoft isn’t handling anything about this well at all.
October 21st, 2009 at 2:20 pm
they messed up on a lot of my contacts as well…
great job microsoft! keep up the miserable work!
October 21st, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Ok…so I am purely speaking for myself however feel free 2 comment…..
Since day 1 of the outage I have been on the phone w reps for atleast 1 hr and as long as 2 hrs. And let me reinnerrate “everyday.” At first I just lost web use and IM services. About 5 days later I lost all contact information. On the 6th or 7th day I lost all my pictures on my phone. (I have a 1yr old son,no other camera)…u can imagine how pissed I was and still am. Through out all this I get the run arounds just like all of u….I even went to the extent of calling microsoft and their response ” we are sorry but we do not own danger and do not know what you are talking about.” …… so I continue with tmobile…..it has been 3 weeks with out web,contacts,ringtones,apps and photos….not 2 mention all emails (lets just say they are royally ruining my court proceedings right now because the emails are missing). So not only cause of this outage do I have problems but also previous problems occured such as dropped calls *service request filed- nothing is wrong in my area*, battery issues,phne freezing etcetc…so they send me a exchange, finally all of a sudden web works nuttin else though….next day phne freezes. I call for follow up with problems as well as letting them know phne still freezes….so they think they know everything…troubleshooting completed but now no web again…supervisor comes on phne still does troubleshooting n says he will call me back….offcourse 3 days later still no call back…so I call again….same routine so now they are sending another exchange….let hope for the best….by the way they are still charging me for my apps that I cnt use, so guys please make sure they are not doing it to you…..im done with tmobile! 1mnth data plan credit is not enough when I spend $95 @ mnth n bought the phne out of pocket at $375.
October 21st, 2009 at 3:25 pm
@ Grae Himself
That’s one opinion. And with that said…im STILL happy! =D
October 21st, 2009 at 4:46 pm
thanks microsoft. I got back half of my 300 contacts, and the about 150 i got back. Half of those were so messed up they are basically not usable. THey come back with only 3 numbers, 4 numbers or no numbers at all with justa name . Great.
October 21st, 2009 at 5:49 pm
all i can say is that i got most of my contacts back but its still a bunch of BS And the really effed every 1 over
October 21st, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Goddamn it, why don’t you all just stop crying and switch to the iPhone? I switched to the iPhone during the outage and am loving it! I’ve been a sidekick user since 2004 and I thought I’d miss it. . nope, all the applications on the iPhone are keeping me busy 🙂
October 21st, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Sell outs never prosper
October 21st, 2009 at 8:20 pm
oooh yeah an why the fukkc am i doing some thing that they should be doing ? humm i didnt lose this shti!!! they did so im not doin a got damn thing an no im not happy fuckk that!!!!!! now when they get this shit running rite all that ran 2 put the crap on they fone goin 2 have a tone of dubs if not more 2 delete…..an if yu moved 2 another fone whyn yu here dicck ridein us we got hr own problems .. thing on that bill gates you a puszy hole!!!!! t mo need 2 get the $$$$$$ up an buy back danger…bill dont no what he doin an all ways look @ the stock market…an see who is bankin off of hr fukcc ups…
October 21st, 2009 at 8:23 pm
microhard! cus in the end they fuccked all of us lol…..funny but true
October 21st, 2009 at 8:34 pm
That’s what I thought too since I had either 174 contacts or 177 but I can’t remember the rest so it’s not a big deal to me, I’m happy with what I see on my addressbook right now. I’m just glad it’s not nearly empty anymore all I need now are my notes and I can wait on that as I have for the contacts being recovered.
October 21st, 2009 at 11:29 pm
I had 400 contacts and only 240 showed up after I did this…WTF! Well its better than no contacts and I also had to go in there and manually discard all these 0’s that were all over the place in my contacts! UGH!
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:25 am
Hi,
I’ve been getting seemingly-conflicting information.
First, it took until last night (Oct21) before I “finally” got a text message that told me to recover my Contacts. Posts in T-Mobile’s Sidekick Forum implied that the lack (for days, in my case) of such a text message meant that my data wasn’t (at least not yet) retrievable.
So, imagine my pleasant surprise to see that text…however, when I went to my.t-mobile.com to try and retrieve my information, I got — again — the same on-screen message that I’d gotten earlier in the week, too, as follows:
“Sorry—we’re not able to retrieve your contacts at this time. Please continue to check http://www.t-mobile.com/sidekick for the latest updates on our recovery efforts.”
Anyone know why that happened?
Also, as some commenters here and in T-Mobile’s Forum noted, this data appears to be buggy, too, once it DOES get retrieved.
Anyone have insights into that, too?
Thanks,
Bram
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:34 am
Odds are, all of your data is gone, forever. 🙁
The people at customer service will tell you to “just be patient because ‘they’ are working around the clock to do all they can.” That seems to be what they’re telling everyone.
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:44 am
It tells me my contacts cannot be restored at this time and i only have 165 this is getting me pissed
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:07 am
BECAUSE why should I pay money out of MY pocket when THEY are the ones that screwed up. I paid THEM for a new phone only a few months ago. THEY need to get their shiz together & give me what I paid for and I will continue to “cry” until they do. I am entitled to as is everyone else. If you have money to throw out then why not give some to the rest of us so we can all buy iphones too?
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:25 am
I used T-Mobile’s live chat …. upshot of the conco was the CS knew no more than t-mobile.com/sidekick (and sometimes got it wrong) and did not know who would be getting the $100 (or what conditions). Just that we should put our trust in MS to tell us if we get it. She put in a ticket with MS for me saying my contacts were still not fully restored.
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:35 am
YOU Rite they owe cus we got 2 put it back hr selfs man funk that bull shtti.. 4 real… I hope apple buy danger from bill that if he sale cus he’s a fucckc up 4 real I dnt care what no one say = AN 4 ALL THEM LAMES OUT THERE ON THAT Y YU CRYING BULL SHITTI MAN FUKC YU.. GO AN PLAY WIT YUR NU PHONE AN GET THE FUKCC OTTA HERE WIT THAT BULL SHTTI!!! 4 real cus that’s all I see is haters talkin bout all yu do is cry … yu ait the one that lost all of the stuff cus a company that yu trick out money 2 on the reg fukcc’s up big time I guest we supose 2 take it like a man an just hope it wil cum back some damn man fukc that im goin 2 CRY= VENT =FLIP= TIP OVER TRASH CANS AN ALL THAT .. OOOH YEAH AN SUE THE HOLY ..SHTTI OUTTA THEM CUS THEY DROP THE BALL PPL NOT US WHAT DID WE DO NOT A DAMN THING SO IF YU JUMPED SHIT GOOD LUCK WI THAT BUT IN 2010 THEY WILL DROP A NU ONE AN LETS SEE WHAT THEY DO .. I BET YU ON THE LOW THEY AN GO COP ONE JUST 2 CUM RITE BACK HERE AN TALK BOUT WHAT IT CAN AN CAN’T DO ….. P.S. SUP 2 ALL HE PPL THAT READ MY CRAP.. AN 2 MY HATERS THAT THINK IM A LIL CHILD .= I BEEN ON THIS SK 4 SO LONG IN LIFE I MAKE UP MY OWN WORD YU THINK I GIVE 2 SHTTIS WHA YOU BUMS THINK LOL AN I LOVE TYPEIN IN CAPS DO SME THING BOUT IT LOL…….
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Can I get that in English please?
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:43 pm
use you eyes an read mf
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
U can’t download and upload @ a library and not every1 is in skool…..tried to go 2 a store n their response they dnt do that and they are not reliable.
October 23rd, 2009 at 4:58 am
In its response to the Windows 7 launch, Apple suggests that there’s one simple reason you shouldn’t buy the new operating system: (((((Microsoft))))) is not to be trusted.
Hum I wonder were in the fukccing world did they get that shtttti… humm let me think…..
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:01 pm
i just did it, it works!
yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!
i was about to have a mental breakdown..
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:43 pm
I just did and got contacts back!! yay! but my notes isnt back. I wonder if notes will come back too? i see only 3 in notes But I had alot saved for long time. I need those back! Hopefully will come back …..
October 23rd, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Same here! I input a few people about a month b4 the outage. And there were some contacts that I input back in 2004. How odd. I called custumer service to let them know that I was missing some contacts and they informed me that those were probabley lost forever. We should be able to get some sort of compensation for our lost.
October 24th, 2009 at 7:15 am
Hey I live in Puerto Rico and mytmobile comes up in spanish & there no option to restore my contacts, help anyone.. Please? Email me or something.. Goldo_the_goony@tmail.com
October 24th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Contacts finally came back. I had almost 400 and only a few are missing. But I still want 100 bux because free month of data for not having contacts for 2 weeks isn’t fair.
October 26th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
This is why you save you contacts to your sim card!
October 26th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Yes but the SIM card doesn’t hold over 1,000 doesn’t it? No and not everyone has the patience to be moving contacts over to the SIM card.
October 27th, 2009 at 4:42 am
Ok…so I am purely speaking for myself however feel free 2 comment…..
Since day 1 of the outage I have been on the phone w reps for atleast 1 hr and as long as 2 hrs. And let me reinnerrate “everyday.” At first I just lost web use and IM services. About 5 days later I lost all contact information. On the 6th or 7th day I lost all my pictures on my phone. (I have a 1yr old son,no other camera)…u can imagine how pissed I was and still am. Through out all this I get the run arounds just like all of u….I even went to the extent of calling microsoft and their response ” we are sorry but we do not own danger and do not know what you are talking about.” …… so I continue with tmobile…..it has been 3 weeks with out web,contacts,ringtones,apps and photos….not 2 mention all emails (lets just say they are royally ruining my court proceedings right now because the emails are missing). So not only cause of this outage do I have problems but also previous problems occured such as dropped calls *service request filed- nothing is wrong in my area*, battery issues,phne freezing etcetc…so they send me a exchange, finally all of a sudden web works nuttin else though….next day phne freezes. I call for follow up with problems as well as letting them know phne still freezes….so they think they know everything…troubleshooting completed but now no web again…supervisor comes on phne still does troubleshooting n says he will call me back….offcourse 3 days later still no call back…so I call again….same routine so now they are sending another exchange….let hope for the best….by the way they are still charging me for my apps that I cnt use, so guys please make sure they are not doing it to you…..im done with tmobile! 1mnth data plan credit is not enough when I spend $95 @ mnth n bought the phne out of pocket at $375.
Update: ….3exchange phnes n still having problems….2nd exchange had web browsing but it would not let me view…after loading n all it just gave me a blank screen….3rd exchange phne….email tabs scrambled all into 1. Phne powers on n off on its own. When it does shut off it erases my call history, web bookmarks,txt msg and yahoo IM log in info. … contacts: oooo got 10 bck out 148. 6 have no numbers just names but guess what else….I have someone elses
October 27th, 2009 at 4:46 am
So tmobile resolution….send me a new phne model at no charge…..sony ericsson tm506….lets hope this wrks out now……
October 27th, 2009 at 11:03 am
I got most of them back. Still need fixing. I would do it myself. But I can’t edit any of the number I received back through the recovery. So right now that’s my only problem editing and receiving the rest of the contacts that I didn’t get yet.
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:53 pm
is anyone else having issues trying to download the contacts with a mac ? i know microsoft took over danger but jeeeez , that’d be bull****. and in response to samantha juavon , your issue was your battery (more specifically, water damage to it). when you get replacement phones , you only get a handset. i had the same issues and tmobile figured it out in about 5 minutes so im surprised they didn’t when all your handsets had issues plus the turning on and off etc .. i see they sent you a new device all together . probably easier than trying to order a battery through them (trust me, i have the 08 and they discontinued the battery – ps after a year !!! >=O – had to order it directly from sharp . on the upside, the second i put in the new battery *POOF* totally back to normal ! ( minus my contacts =/ )
November 7th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
I guess I’m a bit late to do this, been on vacation and didn’t want to deal with the BS. But did the restore contacts thing today. I seem to have had the best results of anyone here so far(!). From what I can see I got ALL my contacts back (just over 200) ALL of the details are back also! IM contacts, notes, email addys and urls, not just phone #’s but all of them also, includeing thise that had mutiple #’s! Got the OTA last week so maybe that’s why(?). Or at least maybe that explains why I ALSO got ALL my old 49 Notes (as in the Notes application) back, and To Do list items AND my Calander entrys!! Seems even after the OTA and this the system still only supports back-end support of non-special characters, except in the Notes application weirdly. Haven’t got bookmarks back yet but this was unexpected! I had quite a number of things I REALLY needed back from my Notes so this rocks! Also although all the catagorys and lablels in my Address Book were wiped back to “unassigned” with the outage and remain so all my restored contacts still have their previous labels/catagorys! So I just need to put them back on the menu. Only thing missing is some of the assigned picture IDs, but that’s no biggie. Now if they would only get the Catalog back! Anyone else get back To Do, Notes, &/or Calander items also??
November 7th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Setnakt,
That’s very interesting to hear. I guess your patience paid off. I wonder if the rest of us tried to restore contacts again we’d have as much luck as you. I am going to call customer service later & see if they can help me get my notes back too…
November 15th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
So my sidekick lx reset twice the other day for no reason….. THEN I notice there were changes in my contacts list. Keep in mind I was one of the lucky few who weren’t affected by the disappearing contact lists. So I go into my list, and NOW contacts are missing, numbers are missing from some contacts, and I can’t label any of the numbers! I also can’t change any of my speed dial numbers which kind of ticks me off seeing as how two of them were numbers that are now missing thanks to some kind of phantom update.
T-Mobiles customer service has always sucked, and now its even worse. Why mess with my contacts if it wasn’t affected during the blackout? YOU DUMMIES! Sorry for the name calling but you have upset me.