Comments on: MobileMe Free Trials Could Lose Your Precious Files

By: Strlng

Strlng — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:49:43 +0000

A mobileme system service update took place November 17, 2009 as alerted by mobileme. One could not login into the system as alerted by mobileme. However, they did not specify what time of the day the outage would occur and for how long. At around 4pm (PST) on the 17th, I noticed the names to the contact list along with the phone numbers on our mobileme site are gone for 80% of our contact list, which are customers. All we see are empty cells that say No Name. We are on our second week of trying the service. So far so good we thought until now :( I am sure there is a way to retrieve the data (we hope). The contact list on the iPhone also have the contact names missing BUT the phone numbers are still there. I noticed on the iPhone under Settings/Mail, Contacts, Calendar one can sync back to a specified time listed: Events 2 Weeks Back, Events 1 Month Back, Events 3 Month Back, etc. (would this even work?). Unfortunately they don’t have days. Their support page doesn’t offer a way to contact support that I can notice. Any suggestions? Thanks

By: alext

alext — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:00:47 +0000

All it needs Apple to do is to add a pop-up that states – deleting the mobileme account with contact sync ON will delete your contacts PERMANENTLY.

I have now restored from a recent backup and now deleted the account from my iphone with the sync turned OFF.

Simple – but all it takes is a bit of polite advice to avoid some needless pain.

One day those egghead geeks will get off their pedestals and be a bit more friendly…

Enjoy all.

By: alext

alext — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:55:22 +0000

I’m against apple on this.
I put all of my contacts on my iphone, then it offered me to use this rubbish mobileme service.
I get to the end of the trial period, I’ve hardly ever used it because it’s less than useful, so I go for the quick option get rid of it…
Come back to my contacts WHICH WERE ON MY PHONE BEFORE I USED THE POXY SERVICE and they’re gone…
Luckily the only thing I have lost is my contacts on my iphone – I have them backed up other places, now I just need to get them back on without doing it manually…

I will think twice before doing anything further apple…

By: medicsolu

medicsolu — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:23:39 +0000

My Mac freezes up when synching and evidentially I have the option to schedule off hours. Not very well thought out.

By: BestHelen

BestHelen — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:10:39 +0000

I have found what i was looking for !!! thx )

By: Staying in sync with SpanningSync — StayInSync.net

Staying in sync with SpanningSync — StayInSync.net — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:20:11 +0000

[...] but I already have working solutions in place for most of those things. Also Apple seems to be doing evil things to customers who cancel their MobileMe [...]

By: Gourav

Gourav — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:21:34 +0000

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..

By: Job Find

Job Find — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 08:06:12 +0000

Hello. Great job. This is a great post. Thanks!

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 03:12:03 +0000

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.

By: Joe the Rotorooter

Joe the Rotorooter — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:51:17 +0000

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.)

By: David

David — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:44:25 +0000

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!

By: kreatre2008

kreatre2008 — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:10:31 +0000

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.

By: Apple MobileMe deleting local data after trial subscriptions cancelled - SlashGear

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:06:21 +0000

[...] Worth Reading? Apple’s MobileMe launch in 2008 was not the slick roll-out we’re all used to from the company. Poor synchronization and general service instability prompted Apple to offer subscribers a full three months of free service (first a 30-day block, then a further 60-days). Since then, things have been pretty quiet – which is really what you want from something like MobileMe – unless you’ve reached the end of your free trial and decide not to buy a subscription. Then, many users are finding, not only your cloud but your local data can end up deleted. [...]

By: Brad Dodson

Brad Dodson — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:07:47 +0000

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.

By: kreatre2008

kreatre2008 — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:21:11 +0000

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!!

By: jkOnTheRun » Blog Archive Cancel MobileMe- lose all your local data «

jkOnTheRun » Blog Archive Cancel MobileMe- lose all your local data « — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:05:30 +0000

[...] TheAppleBlog) [...]

By: Pakitt

Pakitt — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:57:53 +0000

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.

By: Gazoobee

Gazoobee — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:48:12 +0000

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.