I had issues with the screen for the Flip Z 5 and had taken it to the Samsung Parramatta Store for repairs on Saturday on 29 June 2024.
I was contacted by iCure last Thursday (4 July 2024) and informed that they replaced the screen, frame and screen protector for the phone by needed to perform a reset to ensure that the phone was working to manufacture standard.
I informed the person that I needed to backup the phone because there was over 500GB of data on it and asked if that could be done first before the reset. The person over the phone (female) told me they would confirm with the engineer if this could be done. I got a call back later that day where she confirmed that the engineer said it could be done, but due to their policy, I needed to go into iCure centre (in Granville) to do the backup myself.
On Friday 5 July 2024, I visited the iCure store at 9AM to do the backup. Through "My Files" app on the phone, I copied all the files on my phone into my Google Drive. There was 73,252 files (around 500GB). It was taking a while and I needed to go to work so I asked the store attendant if I could leave my phone there and if they could just help me monitor it as it was copying the data. The reception lady told me that was fine and she would monitor it for me. At around 4:50pm that day, I received a call from the lady who told me that 2,000 files were transferred (when I checked my Google Drive, there was about 12,000 so I may have misheard her) but they were closing the store in about 10 minutes and asked if they could continue it on Monday. I asked her if it was possible to let the copying continue on its own over the weekend she confirmed she could, but they can't leave the phone charging over the weekend but the phone was currently at 100%. I said that it was fine, and requested it to be left over the weekend to allow the data to be copied over the weekend. She confirmed she would do that and told me to call on Monday to ask if the upload/transfer was completed. Throughout Saturday and Sunday, I kept checking my Google Drive and no further data was being uploaded since 4:52pm on Friday.
On Monday 8 July 2024, I had a call with iCure and was informed that they would confirm with the admin at the store and they would call me back.
On Tuesday 9 July 2024, I missed a call from iCure in the morning and received a text message asking for the phone PIN so that they could confirm if the data backup was completed. I texted them back giving them the PIN and mentioned that I could only see 12,000 out of 73,000 files uploaded. Throughout the day, I spoke to iCure's call centre about the issue and was informed that the reason for the stop was because a "Software Update" popped up and interrupted the upload so it couldn't be performed.
This morning (Wednesday 10 July 2024), I attended the iCure service centre at Granville again at 9AM to restart the data backup. I was greeted by a male receptionist and provided information about my situation and he said he remembered and that the reason for the failure was because there was a pop up that some of the files could not be copied over (this was different to what I was told on the phone!).
I told him I would try it again and he went to go get the phone for me to do the back-up. Once I started the back-up on the phone, I informed the male reception that I am doing a double back-up - through the "My Files" app again (like I did last Friday) and also through the Google Drive back-up option in Settings. I asked if he could monitor it and he told me he would check it throughout the day, but asked what if there was an error. I specifically told him "If there is an error, could you please call him and tell me about it." He did not say he cannot call me other anything. He told me to leave the phone on the table and he would check it throughout the day. He asked me whether the repairs can be continued after the back-up is completed. I said once back-up has been completed then yes, I then confirmed that I would leave the phone on the table closest to the reception desk and left it there before leaving the store.
Throughout the day I kept checking my Google Drive and the uploads were stopped at around 10am. Nothing was being uploaded after that. Around 1:40pm today, I contacted iCure and asked them to check with the service centre whether the upload was completed because I can see it stopped, and if there was any issue. I spoke to Bev from iCure. She informed me that the phone was reset because it was confirmed that data was backed up. She said that I would have received something about this. I DID NOT RECEIVE ANY COMMUNICATION ABOUT THIS. MY CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS WAS THAT THE BACK-UP NEEDS TO BE COMPLETED BEFORE THE RESET.
According to my Google Drive, only 1167 files were uploaded (GB)
I have now lost almost 500GB of data thanks to iCure.
What is Samsung going to do about this?
I have been a loyal customer of Samsung for more than 10 years and buy devices almost every year.
This experience has been heartbreaking. To lose 500GB of data (which included over 43,000 photos & videos) is devastating.
I look forward to hearing what can be done about this.
Why if you had so many files they wasn't already backed up because usually they are cumulative backup and add what new.If the phone was erased I don't think you can get much out of it. Google drive ,samsung backup, one drive are very limited if you don't have a subscription .I don't believe any program will be able to retrieve any file from your phone ...sadly .
Funnily enough, I was backing up some stuff on the Friday before I had issues with my phone but obviously didn't get to finish because I was doing it old fashion way by transferring from my phone to harddrive through a computer. Also did not know you could back up straight onto Google Drive until last week (after I got the call about the need for reset). But on Saturday my screen just died during a call. I couldn't even turn on the screen so I immediately went to Samsung without second thought. They knew about the situation and documented in the service request that back up of data was requested.
I think you can ask for some type of compensation and double check how much you lost because through Google drive or other provider they get compressed to occupy less space and sometime they ignore duplicated file . So I will say to double check and hopefully you will find almost everything
I actually did not know about this. Wasn't informed about it either when I went to iCure. Couldn't have done it before sending the phone off because I couldn't even get the screen to turn on. Well I have now started immediate back up on my other devices.
Wow. First thing samsung say when you need to send phone in for repair is have you backed up. And there is normally a waiver you sign that says they are not responsible for data loss.
It occurred to me that I hadn't mentioned that there are specialists who recover data from deleted drives. Very expensive. No i haven't got anyone to refer you to. Given the size of your loss even if you have reinstalled you might recover a lot. If you want to go that way stop using your phone as everything you do is over-writing what might be recovered. It depends on how the deletion was implemented. Buy a $150 phone while you investigate,. That has to be worthwhile doing. If you have a sim card don't swap it out as that may also contain data. Just port your number to a new account. Double check if you haven't already, whether you had backup enabled under Settings, Backup, for both Samsung and Google backups. Those backups are stored on-line and can be accessed from another device being careful not to delete data in that device. As an example I updated my phone using my tablet backup.
