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MobileMe trial users beware – Protect your iPhone’s contacts and calendar data

By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 4:22 PM

The MobileMe push-data service from Apple is starting to really come into its own. With patches and updates fixing security holes and other bugs, Apple’s MobileMe service has become a decent push email and data service. But, MobileMe trial-users should take care to backup their contacts and calendar events before terminating the trial service.

A minor oversight in MobileMe’s data-synchronization flow exposes trial users to the risk of losing all contacts and calendar data upon canceling the service. The bug rears its ugly head when former MobileMe users’ iPhones or iPhone 3GS attempt to synchronize emails, contacts, calendar, and other data with a canceled MobileMe account. Once a MobileMe account is terminated, all the data is deleted from the “cloud” (MobileMe’s computer servers), leaving behind a “blank slate.” Any iPhone that synchronizes with a canceled account will reportedly over-write its own data with this blank slate.

Unfortunately, Apple only maintains data for paid accounts – once a MobileMe account is canceled, the data is lost forever. MobileMe users thinking of terminating the service can avoid data-loss by turning off all push-data services on the iPhone prior to canceling. Don’t say we didn’t warn you…

[Via: Register]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...