T-Mobile & Microsoft SideKick Data Loss Warning

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If you happen to be one of T-Mobile’s subscribers currently employing a SideKick handset for all your communication needs then I bet you are pretty pissed off right now. Not only has T-Mobile lost all the data of all SideKick users but it looks like the data in question is irretrievable. Microsoft’s Danger is in charge of T-Mobile’s cloud computing for the SideKick but they won’t be able to do much good at this point.

Before you pick up your big fork and join the disgruntled masses you should know what really happened or, at least, what they’re telling us. A major server outage has caused SideKick owners to lose personal data like calendar, contacts and photos. T-Mobile has apologized for this fiasco and promised to work around the clock in order to fix the issue. A week after the disaster hit SideKick servers, Microsoft was still unable to recover any data. Yes, Microsoft was involved in all this mess but not directly.

Danger, a company purchased by Microsoft, is the one to blame. Danger offers various services and applications to T-Mobile’s SideKick users like contacts, calendars, instant messenger or SMS support. But everything went utterly wrong on October 2 and Microsoft’s and T-Mobile’s employees still haven’t been able to figure everything up. Disappointed and upset, T-Mobile called it in over this past weekend:

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.

T-Mobile has also stopped SideKick sales while current SideKick users have been advised not to remove the battery, reset the handset or let it completely lose power.

Now that you have all the details you can join the angry mobs and attack T-Mobile’s customer support with questions, complaints and threats of changing carriers. At the same time you have to realize that cloud computing is still at an initial stage. While companies such as Microsoft, Apple and others will try to offer you as many features as possible and store your data as safely and securely as possible, accidents like these will still happen. That’s why it’s a good idea not to put all your eggs in the same cloud basket. Backup your contacts and calendar on your computer and store your precious personal photos and videos on actual drives. That way, when a Danger-like service fails completely you’ll still have an alternative.

UPDATE: See T-Mobile Sidekick Data Loss Compensation Confirmed [T-Mobile Offers $100 to Sidekick Owners Who 'Experienced a Significant and Permanent Loss of Personal Content'].