Android Update Could Lead to Data Loss
Sprint yesterday announced the availability of the Android 2.1 operating system to its HTC Hero phone customers. The long awaited upgrade is good news, but users risk losing all of their data if they don't read the fine print and backup their phone before installing the updated operating system.
According to Sprint's online support page: "Installing the 2.27.651.5 update will delete all the data and information on your phone. You will lose contacts that have not been synced to an email account, text messages that have not been forwarded, saved voicemail messages older than 5 days, voicemails older than 20 days that have not been listened to, and call history. The calendar and email settings will also revert back to factory defaults."
Multimedia files like photos, music and videos are stored on a removable microSD memory card. This card must be removed before installing the firmware to avoid losing these files as well.
Sprint provides directions on backing up data with HTC Sync, a free program that must be installed on the user's computer. After backing up , the data is held on your computer while the update to Android 2.1 is made to the phone and then transferred back to the phone.
However, applications downloaded from Android Apps Marketplace will have to be re-installed. HTC Sync will generate a list of paid apps to speed up the reload, but any free apps will have to be searched for again and re-installed.
Google's Nexus One was the first phone to feature Android 2.1 . Sprint rolled out the Android 2.1 update to Samsung Moment owners last Friday, and Droid owners got theirs from Verizon last month. Eager Backflip and Cliq owners will have to be patient. Motorola released a chart that shows these phones will be ready for the 2.1 update in the second quarter of this year, but no firm date has been set yet.
