Just got a text message from T-Mobile linking to this:
Sidekick customers, during this service disruption, please DO NOT remove your battery, reset your Sidekick, or allow it to lose power.[…]
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. —T-Mobile, t-mobile.com/sidekick, Oct 10 update
Notice the opening warning. They do provide information on how you may be able to reconstruct some of your data, such as entering (or using pre-existing) contact information in another system (say, Outlook or Google Mail) and then export/import it. Unfortunately just getting it back into the sidekick isn’t sufficient because they are still working on the data service back-end — “new” stuff you enter will still not be backed up on the servers. Until the data service is fully operational, you’ll still need to keep your data elsewhere … which is actually a good plan anyway. Backgound at my “Sidekicks out planet-wide”
The first lesson to be learned is: don’t keep important stuff (solely) in a remote email account, because you never know when someone or something will take it away. —me, Losing your stuff
