/ 13 October 2009

Apple admits existence of data-eating bug

Apple has admitted that its latest operating system harbours a bug that can accidentally delete data belonging to the computer’s owner.

The glitch occurs when some users who upgraded to the Snow Leopard — which was released at the end of August — log into a “guest” account on their machines. When they log back in under their own name, all of the files in their home directory — such as documents, music and videos — have been deleted.

Reports of the problem first surfaced more than a month ago, but it was only on Monday that Apple finally responded by recognising that there was a problem for some customers.

“We are aware of the issue, which occurs only in extremely rare cases, and we are working on a fix,” said the company in a statement.

Although some users have been able to restore their data after being hit by the bug, many others have simply been left without any way of recovering the files and information that have been erased.

“When logging in to my regular account, everything was gone,” said one user on the Apple discussion forums. “Nothing has been renamed to something else. My home directory still exists … but it is just empty.”

“After I had logged out of that account and back into mine my enter home directory had been wiped,” said another user. “All of doc, musics, etc gone.”

Some reported only minor data loss, however.

“I accidentally logged into the guest account and then logged out and noticed that my background picture was different, and folders that were on the desktop were gone,” said another user. “I was mad, but nothing hurt me too much.”

As well as concerns over, the episode also highlights the importance of properly backing up your data — a hot topic in recent days, given a massive failure to by Microsoft.

Apple’s admission comes just days after its rival admitted that a problem with its own backup systems had left tens of thousands of American mobile phone customers stranded without access to their data.

Customers who had subscribed to use T-Mobile’s Sidekick handset, which uses software produced by Microsoft subsidiary Danger, were told that they would not be able to recover any of their personal information — including phone numbers, photographs or messages, after the company failed to properly back up user information.

Unlike most cellphones, which let users keep a copy of their information locally, the Sidekick keeps all of its information “in the cloud” — synchronising with Danger’s servers online. When Danger’s servers crashed last week, however, it emerged that there were no adequate backups to replace the data that had been lost.

“Personal information stored on your device … that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger,” T-Mobile customers were told. “That said, our teams continue to work around-the-clock in hopes of discovering some way to recover this information. However, the likelihood of a successful outcome is extremely low.”

Although it became popular several years ago in the US and has a devout following, the Sidekick has not been sold in the UK for some time and it is not believed that any British users were affected. – guardian.co.uk