The following is a copy of what I just posted on the Palm Prē forums:<\/p>\n
I woke up this morning to find that the webOS 1.2 upgrade had been pushed to my Prē automatically. I was happy, until the reboot finished and I saw:<\/p>\n
Signed Out<\/p>\n
You are no longer signed in to your Palm Profile on this phone.<\/p>\n
If you plan to use this phone again, you can leave the files on your USB drive intact.<\/p>\n
If you’re done using this phone, you can erase all your data on the phone and return to its factory default.<\/p>\n
[Just Restart]
[Erase All Data]<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe [things in brackets] represent buttons.<\/p>\n
And I hit "Just Restart", and I wait about 8 minutes while the phone reboots, and then I see the same screen again<\/em>. I’m effectively locked out of my phone.<\/p>\n
Is there any way out of this that doesn’t involve blowing away all my data, files, apps, bookmarks, and other customizations? Hell, I had photos on there that I hadn’t offloaded! I had calendar reminders for upcoming events, and I can’t recall what they were – if I could remember all that, I wouldn’t need a calendar app!<\/p>\n
How do I get out of this without losing all my data?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Obviously, this is a less-than-optimal user experience. Just as obviously, not everyone is experiencing this. But my satisfaction with the Palm Prē has been dropping steadily for the past few weeks, as I wrestle with the near-impossible text-selection and cursor-control problems and snarl at the interminable waits to open applications. This has just sent me into raging, livid territory.<\/p>\n
If I have to nuke all my data, I doubt I’ll bother putting much of it back. I may actually migrate back to a Trēo, even though its web browser is nearly unusable for most of my purposes. Since I’m on a shared Sprint plan with my girlfriend, jumping over to the Android isn’t really an option, so I might just drop my smartphone altogether and use a netbook for my mobile computing platform. At least then I can run the OS of my choice, and set up the backup system of my choice to insure against data loss.<\/p>\n
Right now, my phone is a brick until I either learn of a way to break out of this loop without losing data, or give up and decide to accept the loss.<\/p>\n
Please, if you want a smartphone and you value your sanity, happiness, and data: Don’t get a Prē<\/em>. That’s my heartfelt personal advice. You have been warned.<\/p>\n