Personal Information Lost
If you haven’t lost your contacts from a hard reset, start copying them to something else right now. Microsoft has officially announced that your contacts, calendar, and other data has “almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger”.
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.
I am speechless.
October 10th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
[Kevin said]”.. oh and the little quirk about buy the phone if you’re a drug dealer is a bunch of bs u make it sound like all of us sidekick users are hoodlums just because its popular with the young crowd”
Um, yea, NO. Like ‘recognizedakick?? HA! Said,you interpret things wrong. So yes, Go away!
What I said was THEY (Danger/Microsoft) are marketing the device and have been progressively re-designing the device to only be worth it if you are a criminal. So THEY (Danger/Microsoft) are making you look like a drug dealer or other such criminal. My girls are the “young croud” so that’s not my problem, Danger/Microsoft acting as “professional” as a street game of 3-card monty and as damn stupid as a bag of hair IS my problem.
October 11th, 2009 at 12:24 am
microsoft shouldn’t be allowed to take over sh-it!!
you see their computer system “vista” is a huge load of glitches and crap. why on earth would you trust them to make a phone?? i have a government bailout proposition. bail the human race out from having to deal with microsofts BS. go die bill gates. steve jobbs is the only computer guru i need. written from my macbook lol.
October 11th, 2009 at 12:28 am
well obviously written from my macbook… since my sidekick doesn’t work!!
FU.CK my life.
October 11th, 2009 at 3:39 am
DEAR CEO OF MICROSOFT
Go kill your self u dumbass mother fucker if ur ever walking around on the street ima get u a fucking PHD(pumpkin head deluxe) beat so bad your momma wont fucking recognize you
October 11th, 2009 at 4:31 am
Joe is lying.
If he’d really know a way for any of you to get free phone he could just write here how to do it.
October 11th, 2009 at 8:41 am
while i appreciate your kind words in calling me a liar. i would love to point out to you that currently my inbox is filled with 87 unread messages as well as 47 answered ones. really, ignorance must be bliss. but hey you don’t have to believe me, i have spoken with the guys running this site as well. just incase you still don’t believe i am answering emails, though why i am explaining any of this to you is beyond me and clearly you are not able to comprehend simple sentence structure. good luck though, i can see your the type that is going to need it.
October 11th, 2009 at 9:06 am
Just got a mytouch for $149 +19.99 s/h…bye bye Danger/M$.
They also let me keep my sk data plan pricing for the mytouch unlimited plan, which is permanent.
When you call tell the CS rep your a sidekick user and you want to speak with an “account specialist”, CS reps cant do it.
The one I had spoke to didn’t even know there was a problem going on lol
October 11th, 2009 at 9:30 am
I will say that Joe answered my email pretty quickly… i haven’t tried calling tmo yet tho. im waiting for everything to play out before deciding what to do next.
let’s wait and see what tmo says on monday.
October 11th, 2009 at 9:40 am
@ everyone who’s talking about jumping ship to android, iphone, bb, pre.
ive tried them all and with the exception of the pre, ive also given them up soon after. even with them all, i still couldn’t/wouldn’t give up the kick.
going to another phone is not the answer.
we need to take danger back from MS
we have to direct our emotions toward the one person responsible for this disaster (im talking about the MS purchase of danger) – Roz Ho.
October 11th, 2009 at 9:54 am
I called t-mobile, they allowed me to keep my number, and terminate my contract without any sort of early termination fee. This took about 30 min of pleading my case, but I’m FREEEEEEEEE!!!!! R.I.P. Sidekick. I always knew they’d kill you, I just knew it.
October 11th, 2009 at 11:04 am
I just called T-mobile and complained, the guy was very rude to me saying that theres nothing that can be done, just a free month of data.. I even threatened to end my contract, along with my girlfriends, and parents and they guy said well you can do that and he asked if I wanted to be transferred over to the line that gets rid of the contract for $200. I can’t believe they wouldn’t try to stop me somehow on doing this. What the hell? I will miss the sidekick, but T-Mobile has been really screwing me over and my family lately. Is anyone else not seing their text messages in the sent box now?
October 11th, 2009 at 11:09 am
I’d like to know what I can do to get a new phone. But I don’t want to pay $35 for data like all other T-Mobile phones charge. What should I/we say?
October 11th, 2009 at 11:43 am
OH MY EFFEN GOD
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You have been connected to ~Kyle T.
~Kyle T: Good afternoon Myles, welcome to T-Mobile live Chat. I’m Kyle and my rep ID is 13-20808. I will be happy to assist you. Please give me a moment to review your question.
MYLES WONG: Sure
~Kyle T: Okay Myles, I understand you have been greatly affected by the Sidekick situation and you would like a phone upgrade or credits for the inconvenience. Is this correct?
MYLES WONG: yes
MYLES WONG: im prepaid customer… just to let you know
~Kyle T: I am very sorry about this Sidekick situation Myles; it will be just one moment while I pull up your account information.
MYLES WONG: okay thankyou sir
~Kyle T: The Sidekick service should be now restored but I regret it still remains unstable and all content (including contacts, calendar, and notes) are unfortunately not backed up on the network.
~Kyle T: As far as compensation for data loss, we are advising our customer to visit the T-Mobile forums for the latest updates.
MYLES WONG: yes.. im aware
MYLES WONG: okay.. i have siteded the websites
MYLES WONG: and read everythi
~Kyle T: We will proactively provide credits to all of our prepaid customers and we will notify them when we do.
MYLES WONG: i use my phone r business
Currently experiencing network delays, one moment please….
Network connection re-established.
MYLES WONG: credits for ?
MYLES WONG: so it is important that i have my contacts…
MYLES WONG: they have been gone fr week
~Kyle T: Prepaid customers will be receiving a credit for this service disruption.
MYLES WONG: ONE OF YOUR TMOBILE REPS told MEto hard reset my phone
MYLES WONG: TUS removing all my info
MYLES WONG: as in minutes ?
~Kyle T: Credit like adding prepaid card to your account.
MYLES WONG: ARE YOU SERIOUS ?
MYLES WONG: that is all they are doing abut this
MYLES WONG: 520 contacts gone
MYLES WONG: and that is what hey do?
MYLES WONG: its bad enuf that they are gone for good
~Kyle T: That is all the information I have at this time unfortunately Myles.
MYLES WONG: i lost a700 dollar JOB OFFR bc of this
MYLES WONG: ughh ! i will be calling my attourneys
MYLES WONG: this icrazy !
MYLES WONG: should have signed a contract
~Kyle T: I understand Myles. I am very sorry for the inconvenience we have cause you.
MYLES WONG: MY 2 CUINS HAVE BEEN GIVEN FREE PHONES !
Currently experiencing network delays, one moment please….
Network connection re-established.
MYLES WONG: I DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW THIS CAN BE ANY DIFF FOR ANY OUTHE COSTOMER
MYLES WONG: CRAZY JUST CRAZY… AND I DUNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS NOT YOUR FAULT…
MYLES WONG: IS HERE ANY HIGHER UPPER MANAGEMENT THAT I CAN SPEEK TO ?
~Kyle T: I regret we do not have a program like that Myles. All the recent updates regarding how we can handling the situation is on http://www.t-mobile.com/sidekick.
Currently experiencing network delays, one moment please….
Network connection re-established.
MYLES WONG: THIS IS SOO WEIRD
~Kyle T: I understand your situation Myles and I am sorry. I can see if there is any management available to speak to you.
MYLES WONG: MICRODANGER IS TELLING ME SOMETHING AND TMOBILE IS TELLING ME SOMETHING ELSE !!
MYLES WONG: OKAY THANK YOU SO MUCH
~Kyle T: What is Danger\Microsoft telling you Myles?
MYLES WONG: (haha i spell bad when im typing sorry for that )
~Kyle T: No problem Myles.
~Kyle T: What is Danger\Microsoft telling you Myles?
MYLES WONG: that for sure i have lost all contacts and other informaon… just got off the phone las nite.. they told me to wait another week(tmobile told me to wait the extra week for further update
MYLES WONG: i hope that what imsaying is making sense to you
~Kyle T: Okay Myles, please give me 4-5 minutes.
MYLES WONG: sure
~Taunjia Y has entered the session.
~Kyle T has left the session.
MYLES WONG: hello
~Taunjia Y: Hello Myles.
~Taunjia Y: For your reference my rep. ID is 13-47281.
MYLES WONG: okay thankyou
~Taunjia Y: I understand that you upset about the recent outage that was experienced by our sidekick users.
MYLES WONG: yes VERY UPSET
~Taunjia Y: I do understand how frustrated you must be by losing your contacts. I would also like to assure you that we are trying to find a solution.
~Taunjia Y: Danger/Microsoft is working to restore these services for you.
MYLES WONG: Okay…
MYLES WONG: To restore My contacts ?
~Taunjia Y: That is correct.
MYLES WONG: Okay… Well MicroDanger has told me that all 520 of My contacts and info have been lost…
Currently experiencing network delays, one moment please….
MYLES WONG: I missed out on a 700 dollar Job offer !
Network connection re-established.
MYLES WONG: I mainky Use my sidekick for BUSINESS
~Taunjia Y: I am so sorry to hear that you missed that job offer.
MYLES WONG: Okay….
~Taunjia Y: I understand that you were looking to change your phone.
MYLES WONG: One of YOUR tmobile reps old me to hard reset my device !… LOOK AT WT HAPPND NOW ?!
~Taunjia Y: You were also looking for a discount on a new phone.
MYLES WONG: Yes
~Taunjia Y: Have you considered going with a monthly service since you are using the line for business?
MYLES WONG: i was.. but not anymore i dont think
MYLES WONG: I had a bad expirence with At&t contracs
~Taunjia Y: May I ask why?
~Taunjia Y: I do understand that.
Currently experiencing network delays, one moment please….
Network connection re-established.
MYLES WONG: I had trouble with at&t with their iphone services… and i was pctly tied to at&t when i wanted to get out of this deal ! BUT at the time i could not afford to break the contracr
MYLES WONG: and i wasn not paying for the monthly service either
MYLES WONG: but NOW i am
~Taunjia Y: I can understand that. We do offer a number of phones at discounted rates but only to new contracted service.
~Taunjia Y: Unfortunately with the account type that you have we are not able to offer any discounts on the phones.
MYLES WONG: okay.. listen,,, My cusin and 2 friends Recived free phone BC of this sitution…
~Taunjia Y: I do not know how they received new phones.
MYLES WONG: I dont think that they are prepaid though
MYLES WONG: Me and my cusin purched our sidekick 2009’s at the same time and location
~Taunjia Y: That may be why. They may have done a handset upgrade.
MYLES WONG: okay i see…
MYLES WONG: yes but as i said the lx09 has not been out fr a half yeaar yet
MYLES WONG: dont you need 2 years to qualify ?
~Taunjia Y: However on a regular monthly account they would have qualified for a partial discount.
~Taunjia Y: Even that can be significant depending on the phone they purchased.
MYLES WONG: ughh… okay… i do understand that this is not tmobiles fault… but ehat are you guys going to be doing for the prepaid coustomers with this problem
MYLES WONG: One got a My touch
MYLES WONG: one got a blackbrry
~Taunjia Y: We are looking to issue a credit onto your account, however this could take sometime to complete. They are being issued to all sidekick users.
MYLES WONG: okay and how much would this credit be ?
~Taunjia Y: At this time we are not sure of the amount. We are still trying to figure that out.
MYLES WONG: Do you…. Speaking for yourself think that a credit is all that the coustomers should recive if they lose sutch a big loss ? 520 contacts + 700 dollars ? !
MYLES WONG: crazy ! just out of this world
MYLES WONG: hello ?
~Taunjia Y: I do believe that if I was in your situation right now that I would be upset.
Currently experiencing network delays, one moment please….
Network connection re-established.
MYLES WONG: extactly… ughh
MYLES WONG: Who else can i speak to about this situation ?
~Taunjia Y: I do however not depend on my mobile phone as my only form of communication for work and have my contacts backed up on my computer. So I am not in the same situation as yourself.
~Taunjia Y: You could speak with our customer relations department for any additional complaints or concerns.
MYLES WONG: yes i understand and that was one of the main reasons i shose sidekick… B/C cour info is backed up online
MYLES WONG: Okay is it possible for you to trandsfer me please?
~Taunjia Y: I mean I back them up on my computer in a word document. I could provide you with their address.
MYLES WONG: Im seriously sorry about thisb/c i am just soo tiked off
MYLES WONG: adress? email adress?
~Taunjia Y: Mailing address.
MYLES WONG: 520 contacts would take forevto back up… however i wsth that i had done it !
MYLES WONG: ughh ! okay please do that
MYLES WONG: I WILL BE CONTACTING MY LAWYER
MYLES WONG: JUST SO CRAZY
~Taunjia Y: One moment please and I will get you the address.
MYLES WONG: MICROSOFT WES YOU GUYS BIG MONEY
MYLES WONG: SURE
~Taunjia Y: T-Mobile Wireless
Attention: Customer Relations
P.O. Box 37380
Albuquerque, NM 87176-7380
MYLES WONG: OKAY THANK YOU FOR THIS INFORMATION tAUNJIA
~Taunjia Y: You are welcome,
~Taunjia Y: Myles, is there anything else I can assist you with today?
MYLES WONG: UGHH WHAT AM I GOING TO DO… OK MAM THANKS FOR THE HELP T YOU PROVIDED ME ?
MYLES WONG: NO THAT IS ALL….
i am speachless !
October 11th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Uh…What was the point of this convo?? If youre gonna post something like this at least let there be some kind of result. You’re left right where you began. This just shows that you failed at trying to get another phone. Not helpful to me at all.
October 11th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
i aint get a free phone but they giving me a full upgrade price on any phone better then nothing i guess
good looks to joe
October 11th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
i turned off my phone for the weekend, and i read this, i got really scared…. but i turned it on, and everything was there…..i feel really sorry for the people micro$oft screwed….
October 11th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
HOW CAN I GET MY APPS BACK WHEN I DELETED THEM FROM CATALOG ND HOW DO I GET BACK MYSPACE TWITTER FACEBOOK ND GPS!!!!!!! BACK.??????????????????????????? PLZZZ ANSWER BAK
October 11th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
So pissed fuck you micosoft
October 11th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
ok joe well my i need to no how to do this and quick im done with my sidekick.pleaseeeee helpp
October 11th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Hey Cristian, no offience but why would you DELETE your apps from your catalog? That aways erasses them forever. Hell I wouldn’t even uninstall my data apps (like Moneyclip) since I noticed that NONE of the supposedy “saved” data comes back (and that I noticed a MONTH ago and wrote out a long and tedious paper back-up). When the catalog is restored re-“purchace” them, if there is a cost, maybe T-Mo will give you a break given all the mistakes they’ve make themselves reciently. Good luck, seriously!
I don’t even know if I’m going to stay with Sidekicks after this, and I was an origional purchacer, had the old B/W model, still have a 8mg Tmail/email account/email application. Lived through the 1 week data outage a few years ago when I had the SK II (everyone got a month of free data then also~NO ONE lost any data then however…), but this is insane. I’m going to try Joe’s advice (and thanks Joe, FAST reply!) if they don’t ether a) get our data back or b) offer something a LOT better than just a lously one month of “free” data (what “data”?). That was good enough before, but this is NOTHING like before!
October 12th, 2009 at 11:27 am
What about all of the ringtones and backgrounds and what not that I paid for…will I get those back?
October 12th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
$100 for lost contact information? That’s it? There wasn’t any surge protection whatsoever on these servers? What kind of company doesn’t take precautionary measures like that, especially a company that is a subsidiary of Microsoft? With all of the data recovery and disk mirroring options available, all they can seem to conclude is, ‘Oops…we lost your contact and client base of information along with your personal thoughts stored in notes because we failed miserably to take precautionary measures.’ This is not only going to hurt Dangers PR, but also T-mobile and Microsofts. Even Myspace, Twitter and Project Playlist have been able to recover their users personal information. This is very disappointing for the company, which will certainly influence its subsciber base.
October 13th, 2009 at 7:30 am
Ha! Get the fuck out of here T-Mobile with your patronizing B.S. $130 dollars still doesn’t fix my $500 dollar sidekick lx 2009 that still doesn’t work. Plus even if you release a new OTA what is guranteeing that this huge data loss won’t occur again. So I’m calling today and demanding a full refund for this phone and getting out of my contract without paying a canellation fee. Going to either Verizon or ATT. Yeah T-Mobile is pretty much done because they just lost their main phone and a hell of alot of customers
October 13th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Forum.sidekickfail.com has recently been created as an open and neutral place sidekick customers can exchange ideas and vent without the fear of their valuable thoughts, ideas, and opinions being deleted and disrespected as T-Mobile has been doing on their forums.
October 13th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I DON’T THINK CURSING AND COMPLAINING ON THE INTERNET HELPS WE SHOULD BE CURSING AND COMPLAINING TO CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! ha ha **** YOU CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!!
October 19th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Oh well more concrete example that Unix rules and Microsoft SUCKS.
May 15th, 2012 at 5:34 am
Used this phone unlocked with another contract for months, and this morning my contacts and important messages were deleted. They were messages I don’t have the chance to get back because the person isn’t here anymore. I will be switching back to my LG Neon after this.