Palm Pre Woes — When the Cloud Goes Down
The big news in the Palm world yesterday was the release of webOS 1.2. This new version had been delayed once or twice and contained a lot of fixes and new features. Like most Pre owners I jumped on the update as soon as the word spread, and after a brief inability to get it due to the slammed servers I was able to download and install the 79 MB update.
The update process was typical Palm, smooth and without event. That wasn’t the case when I grabbed the Pre this morning after letting it sit overnight. It turns out the Palm Profile server, where all Pres get backed up and synced continually, had gone down. My Pre could not talk to the mother ship, so it forced a hard reset. Investigation showed I was not the only one, and owners were not happy. The Pre Synergy syncing is a thing of beauty, unless the cloud goes down. Then the phone is a brick.
I have my Pre set to backup at 2 AM every morning. It does so while it is sitting on the Touchstone charger, and I don’t have to worry about it. It keeps my data protected, photos, music and the like, and also backs up any programs I have installed. It is a great example of how vital the Palm Profile server is to the Pre owner. Synergy on the Pre merges my email accounts, Facebook account, Google account, and with the new version 1.2, my LinkedIn account. It’s what sets the Pre apart from the rest of the smartphone crowd. It also requires the Palm Profile server to be up and running all the time.
When you buy a Pre the first thing you must do is create a Palm Profile account. This ties your online information with the phone, and the Pre must remain logged in to the Palm Profile server all the time. When the Profile server went down, even temporarily, many Pres were instantly logged out of the server. The phone then forces a “restart”, which in reality is a factory reset, and the phone is wiped. Until the reset process completes, and the Pre is able to log into the Profile server, the phone is a brick. It won’t do anything other than make manual phone calls. Many owners set out to start the day as I did, and found the phone was not usable.
When the server came back up, the Pre was able to log in properly, but it was like the very first time. All accounts mentioned above had to go through an initial sync process before the phone was fully usable. My personal data was restored from my Palm Profile account, so all my photos and music files were back on the phone. My theme customizations did not make the trip, however, and while any apps I had installed through the App Catalog were back on the phone, none of the many homebrew apps I had installed survived. Palm is not backing up all apps, only the ones installed on the phone and any installed through the Catalog.
This dependence on the Profile server is unsettling. All servers go down occasionally, that’s a given. When it bricks your phone in the field, that is a huge problem.
Hello James,
that’s the very reason why, aside from modifying Pre’s behaviour when disconnect from Palm Server, Palm should come up with a Sync and Backup software of its own, in order to back up your data/profile on your computer…
Cloud-based stuff is great
, but as you mentioned, sometimes, stuff goes online…either on the server side or on the device side (What happens if you’re out of coverage at 2 am?)
Tariq
(Waiting for Pre to launch in France)
that wipe thing sounds like a corp feature. fail to dial in at x interval, wipe all data as the phone may be stolen…
still, i get a bit of a yeiks out of that, if one happen to have data on the thing thats for some reason not synced when the “bomb” drops…
W-w-wait… Palm backs up your photos and music now? I’ve done hard resets before and this stuff doesn’t get backed up… perhaps your phone only underwent a PARTIAL erase, where all the stuff that’s synced via USB survives but the other changes (as you noted) occur.
Mine was restored. I am assuming it was from the backup, perhaps you’re right and this data was still there in the background.
Actually, now that I think about it the photos and music are stored on the memory card so that wouldn’t get wiped. It was too early in the morning to get faced with this to think clearly.
Correct. Palm has never backed up photos and music in the past. Perhaps this is a new feature? I am wondering if James had some other issue occur because it sounds like his music and photos remained on the Pre through the hard reset.
My experience is that a full hard reset on my Palm Pre under webOS v1.1.0 completely wiped the device including photos and that the back up on webOS v1.1.0 did NOT restore any photos.
This happened to me, although it was on 10/1, rather than during the other meltdown. I had to do a full web doctor erase, and all of my photos and usb files were deleted.
Not fun, and a colossal FAIL on the part of Palm!
Mine appears to be fine this morning — what do you think appears to have caused the incident for you (and those in the thread) but not others?
My Pre is fine, but I expected it to be — I don’t use the Palm backup.
The service sounded good when the Pre first hit, but when looking at the details, it’s actually pretty feeble. For many features / apps, it doesn’t backup data at all (Amazon MP3, for example). And where it does, it generally backs up the credentials of the app (like for email) and then simply re-downloads or re-syncs. Apps don’t get backed up, for example: the list of apps you have installed does and a “restore” simply pulls them back down from the App Catalog.
Yeah the backup service could definitely use some improvements, like contact links, launcher organization, etc.
Though in 1.2, bookmarks and web history are now saved, which is a plus.
I’m sure there’s higher priorities than backup though, at least there are for me.
The issue is not the backup, it’s the fact that the Palm Profile server went down. When the Pre tried to access it, perhaps for the timed backup, the Pre was knocked off the cloud.
The issue is how the Pre handled the lack of the server. The only real option given was to “restart” the phone. This was in fact a factory restore, not clear from the message.
Makes no sense that they do not have it set like any other backup service – if the service is not available, then skip to the next scheduled time and nothing is changed. The fact that the Pre has to be reset due to missing a scheduled backup is a fatal design error, IMO.
True, the actual issue is the Palm Profile server, but my point is that it appears to be manifesting itself with the backup. You’re saying that Synergy is great (which it is), provided that the Palm servers are up. I’m not certain the second part of that is correct. Why? Because my Palm Profile has 2 contacts while my Palm Pre has hundreds. I’ve never backed up the phone because the backup service is a little weak. Essentially, I can’t see where or how my Pre has used the Palm Profile or the Palm servers other than day one and for the device updates.
So my ultimate point is: it sounds like folks had the issue because of the backup dependency on the Palm Pre profile server. Palm’s servers don’t appear to affect Synergy or any other functions of the phone that I can think of if they go down, aside from Palm Profile related services, i.e.: backup. In other words: if Palm’s servers go down, my phone won’t be a brick, nor is it “knocked off the cloud.” Then again, I wasn’t up in the middle of the night when servers were offline, so it’s conjecture on my part.
Palm needs to address some graceful error handling in case like this without a doubt. I could be wrong, but the phone and it’s use isn’t totally dependent on Palm’s servers from what I can see. Maybe I’m not understanding the architecture of Synergy? It appears to be client-driven, not server driven in my use. Palm’s own explanation of Synergy says “Whatever you do on your phone, it will either sync with the web service you chose above, or it will be backed up to your Palm Profile.” I read that as meaning I can use my phone and the Synergy accounts / data regardless of Palm’s server status.
People will understand that over time. Cloud is taken too far to the extreme.
Mails in GMail is one thing. But general data and media without your own backup is silly. And apps is well going that extra silly step.
If this is how Pre is managing the platform then you are better off to a more balanced system/platform, where you have the power to decide what is and what is not in the cloud.
Tal
Odd. I don’t recall text messages being backed up. They always disappear after a factory reset, yet mine are all there. For that matter, I thought photos and such were also wiped after a factory reset. Didn’t have to turn Advanced Gestures back on, either.
Perhaps this is a geographical thing; I’m in California.
This doesn’t sound good.
What happens if you are out of country and roaming? Do you have to have a data connection back to the mothership? If so that could get very expensive.
With this keyed-CDMA device, I’m thinking you cannot use the Pre overseas.
That said, I recently had the Pre with me on a trip to Turkey (to use wifi in the hotel room) and nothing crazy happened. It was off network.
Doesn’t The Missing Sync backup everything from the Pre?
There is a Missing Sync version for the Pre but I don’t use it. I prefer syncing with the Google cloud, not a given computer.
Ya it’s a bit worrysome relying on having a service up to get an activation going.
As for backups, ya it could be better. I wish it would backup information on how different accounts are linked. On restore, how an AIM/gtalk account, Facebook contact, and Google contact is linked is lost.
James, why was the blogosphere so quiet about this issue? Your post is the first I’ve even heard of this issue occurring, and it looks like it happened 2 days ago? Did the tech blogs cover this besides you and the PalmPre Central forums?
Can’t tell you. We cover what we use and first-hand experience drove this report.
A local backup feature would indeed be welcome.
After tracing the traffic it seems that palm has a single image to handle all traffic and every service is coming from the same set of servers. This is a major architectural disaster. Did someone say they got kids from school running amok in the service delivery department. Besides broken security, mixing up all different services in one box is so stupid. I see smoke coming out of their servers. This is height of incompetence. Sold my Pre on ebay while I can still get more than 50 bucks for this piece of crap.
Personally, I did not experience any problems. But I turn my phone off at night!
The sync FAIL and hard reset problem sounds like a bug to me. Could not possibly be an intentional design goal. Let’s hope Palm has its ear to the ground, has heard these complaints, and is hard at work devising a remedy! After all, they have been responsive to other concerns.
When everyone moans about the Pre’s backup strategy, why is no one concerned about security?!?
I have my life on my PDA, and I really don’t want my whole schedule and all of my contacts and *personal* notes in a web service backup that can be hacked and exposed at will.
Palm Pre’s backup strategy stinks, and I won’t buy it. It’s a shame. I used the original Palm for years and currently carry a TX.
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