MobileMe Free Trials Could Lose Your Precious Files
The MobileMe trial began to seem like it was going to go on forever, since Apple kept tacking on more time to make up for having released a half-baked service to begin with. Sadly, not so. My own trial term recently came to an end, but by the time it did, I’d become fairly dependent on the service, so I quietly acquiesced while Apple charged my credit card for the full subscription.
Some others did not go so quietly, and promptly canceled their account rather than be caught paying. The result? All of their data not only no longer synced, it no longer existed. Part of the downfall of storing info in the cloud is that when you stop paying for said cloud, it has a very short memory. What had happened was that users who’d forgotten to disable sync in their devices’ settings had indeed synced. With their information gone from the MobileMe servers, what replaced it was blank information. Long story short, sync with nothing and you end up with nothing.
It looks like the only way to recover the data is to pay for a full year’s subscription, and then cancel said subscription. Alternatively, you can just remember to turn off MobileMe syncing before canceling your account, if you haven’t already done so.
I’m conflicted as to who’s to blame here, but I’d say Apple should probably have made people more aware that this sort of thing might happen if they didn’t continue their MobileMe subscription or at least disabled the ability to sync to the account. A perfect time to do so would’ve been in those reminder emails they send out shortly before your trial subscription runs out. As a cautionary tale, the whole mess is a good reminder that the cloud is not yet the be all and end all of computing.
Gazoobee on January 13th, 2009 at 11:48 am
It would have been nice for Apple to send a reminder, but if we are talking “fault” it’s clearly the user. I’ve done some bonehead stuff like this myself in the past and you feel like an idiot when it happens, but there is no use blaming anyone else.
Look at it this way, if you were hiring someone else to do this stuff for you like a secretary or something, you would blame the secretary (even though you would hopefully also be understanding and kind about it). It’s no one’s fault but the person who synced with da nothing.
Pakitt on January 13th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
When I discontinued my trial, MobileMe showed me a pop-up windows reminding me that all information would be deleted from the servers and that I should back up first and pointed to a MobileMe site explaining how to back up. Once the sync doesn’t work anymore, even if it had been all wiped, if one had done the backup that Apple recommends, nothing really happens – apart from the “annoyance” of restoring the information.
I stopped the MobileMe trial (too expensive for the performance provided (accessing from Germany was quite slow) and the features offered) and nothing happened to the data on my MacBook or iPod.
kreatre2008 on January 13th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Who in the hell would put “precious” files on a trial membership for Mobile Me??? When you try something out, you shouldn’t put anything critical on it. Jeez!!
Brad Dodson on January 14th, 2009 at 12:07 am
This is inexcusable. It should just stop syncing – it should not suddenly think it’s syncing with an empty disk and wipe your files. It’s almost punitive.
Check out Live Mesh (mesh.com), it’s basically iDisk that works and it’s free (and it has never lost any of my data). If you delete a folder from the cloud in mesh, it still exists on your local machines, it just stops syncing.
kreatre2008 on January 14th, 2009 at 6:10 am
Any solution that is free should not ever be trusted as your sole method of backing up. If something happens, you have yourself to blame. The customer is ALWAYS responsible for backups. It is never the responsibility of the service provider.
David on January 14th, 2009 at 7:44 am
I have to call BS. This is COMPLETELY the fault of the user(s). If you cancel MM the next time your Mac syncs not only does it tell you that your data will be removed but it pops up a LARGE sync window which WARNS YOU VERY CLEARLY that there is a more than 15% difference between MM and your local copy. Clicking the more info button reveals that your contacts, cal’s, etc. will be removed locally to match. It then gives you the option to stop syncing. This is in addition to the LARGE AND CLEAR warning that Apple gives you when you cancel Mobile Me.
I get so sick of users doing incredibly dumb things and expecting Apple to nanny them to death – and then these so called blogs, yes you, repeat this crap as if it is anyone else’s fault but their own.
Computers are not toasters, you do actually have to put some thought in to using them.
Shame on the user for being so stupid to begin with, shame again for not having adequate backups. You have no one to blame but yourself!
Joe the Rotorooter on January 14th, 2009 at 8:51 am
I agree with Dodson. All other syncing programs stop syncing when you cancel — no data loss. It is and should be expected that once the subscription is terminated, any attempts to sync will fail without the local/device files being modified.
This is a problem unique to MobileMe. Which means its a problem with the program, not the user.
(It is irrelevant that Apple tells you that your files will be removed — any sane user would assume that the cloud versions will be removed. It’s also ridiculous that Apple allows a sync to take place after said files have been removed from the cloud; any sane user would assume that meant a final sync before the files were removed.)
Alex on February 27th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
I would be laughing if it did not happen to me. I used an expiring card to get my trial version of mobile me. When it was time to charge my card, the trial simply expired since it could not charge it to my card. Nothing happened to my contacts…TILL, till I removed “mobile me” mail settings from my phone… Some people are talking about warnings signs, list of things that will replaced with nothing, well it did not show itself to me. It just made all my contacts Puff…Gone….I absolutely disagree with David. I do know that PC and Mac is not a toaster. At the time of disconnecting the service it should stop syncing, not sync your contacts to a new value (nothing) That is just wrong.
Job Find on March 8th, 2009 at 1:06 am
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Gourav on March 31st, 2009 at 7:21 pm
the sync function was defaulted to update.. which should append information if there is an inconsistency between the two sources the sync should happen on… thus if it doesn’t find any data in the cloud, it should not delete anything from the phone.. but unfortunately it does..
Mobile me was a bad investment of time for me.. I now am skeptical about Apple’s other software too..
BestHelen on June 5th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
I have found what i was looking for !!! thx )