UPDATED: Microsoft Danger glitch wipes T-Mobile Sidekick data

T-Mobile Sidekick

T-Mobile Sidekick customers are still reeling from the loss of their data and have little hope of it being recovered.

UK users can brief a sigh of relief, following confirmation from Microsoft that the issue is limited to the US and no international users have been affected.

Danger, a Microsoft subsidiary, is responsible for hosting Sidekick data, backing up the information in the cloud.

However, it is now believed that a technical glitch has resulted in this off-device data being deleted.

Initially, it was thought the data was gone for good, with an apology from the mobile giant that begins Dear valued T-Mobile Sidekick customers' being sent out and posted on a public forum.

"Regarding those of you who have lost personal content, T-Mobile and Microsoft/Danger continue to do all we can to recover and return any lost information. Recent efforts indicate the prospects of recovering some lost content may now be possible. We will continue to keep you updated on this front; we know how important this is to you," the update stated.

To try and placate angry user, T-Mobile offered up some guidance as to how users can rebuild their lost content. It has since also offered a $100 'customer appreciation card' to affected users.

"...This will be in addition to the free month of data service that already went to Sidekick data customers," the statement added.

"This card can be used towards T-Mobile products and services, or a customer's T-Mobile bill. For those who fall into this category, details will be sent out in the next 14 days there is no action needed on the part of these customers. We however remain hopeful that for the majority of our customers, personal content can be recovered."

Prior to the update on Monday, the apology was not enough to avoid the ire of some users, most notably celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.

"R.I.P. My address book/2000 contacts, phone numbers, email addresses," he said on his Twitter page before lobbing a number of expletives aimed at T-Mobile USA.

IT PRO contacted T-Mobile but it had not responded to our request for comment at the time of publication.

Maggie Holland

Maggie has been a journalist since 1999, starting her career as an editorial assistant on then-weekly magazine Computing, before working her way up to senior reporter level. In 2006, just weeks before ITPro was launched, Maggie joined Dennis Publishing as a reporter. Having worked her way up to editor of ITPro, she was appointed group editor of CloudPro and ITPro in April 2012. She became the editorial director and took responsibility for ChannelPro, in 2016.

Her areas of particular interest, aside from cloud, include management and C-level issues, the business value of technology, green and environmental issues and careers to name but a few.