Backup Assistant Problem

[madman32395]

When I went to download it on my Jest, I went this route. Contacts>BackUp Assistant> and pressed ok to download, 1st time ever to download, then it stops white screen then said unable to verify account information. Call Customer Support.

EDIT: like what is causing this?

[chrisp6712]

Backup Assistant is still down. There is no estimate for when it will become available.

[madman32395]

really? bummer i thought it was a problem on my end and then i was finally able to download it.

EDIT: where does it say that? 

[budone · Accepted solution]

If you check the many threads on the BA, there are Verizon reps who have confirmed it is down.

[rhoel6]

as of November 11 I still can't backup my online contact list to my phone (Samsung Reality) for almost a month.  Response was that since BA was free, I should get no compensation (read - your info is also worthless).   Do not rely on Backup Assistant, look for another alternative as I am stuck manually re-entering over 400 contacts.

[n2tfc]

I have the need to replace an old VZW  phone with a newer unit. In preparation for a replacement and after adding some new contacts I manually invoked the VZW Backup Assistant on the old phone to push my contacts to VZW's server. The BackUp Assistant program's response to complete this task was less than one second which to me raised a failure flag.  I went to the VZW site, signed in to the phone's account, located BackUp Assistant and found it empty - no contacts were listed even though the program on phone said it synchronized 198 contacts (luckily all contacts still show on the old LG flip phone).

Today (11/23/2010 @10:00) I checked with Tech Support about the BackUp Assistant problem and its failure to work on my line. The Tech Support person who was very pleasant and courteous replied that they know it has been broken recently for at least four days and it has had an ongoing history of being "down" more than working! She said they have no idea when it will be working again, but she had some suggestions:

•  Rekey all contacts into a replacement phone - not acceptable.
•  The second option was to find a Verizon company owned store and pay a $20 labor charge to move the contacts from my current phone to a NEW phone -not acceptable. She said very few VZW stores have the computer, program and associated cables to offer this service anymore.
• The third option I was told to do was to buy a USB data cable (LG proprietary) and purchase or find a program on the Internet to backup the contacts to my PC - not acceptable.

The VZW BackUp Assistant service is crucial to all users especially when they make constant changes. Having the false security that your contact data is being backed up successfully everyday is not acceptable in any circumstance!

Verizon Wireless claims to have the best coverage and most reliable network in the USA - that is their tag line in all of their ads! As consumers we pay an EXTRAORDINARILY EXPENSIVE monthly fee for this service of which we are locked into a two year agreement where we have limited rights. Reliability is not the case when the basic "security blanket" of backing up your contacts has failed (BackUp Assistant). On the phone BackUp Assistant gives the false impression and message that it has backed up successfully everyday when it has not !

VZW needs to fix this problem ASAP. As consumers we need to remind companies like VZW that service and an expedient response to problems is the reason for their success or failure. Situations like this are the reason for Class Action suits!

[sueilla]

I agree!  I just got the new Droid Pro and was lucky enough to get my contacts into my phone within the first few days but now they are missing from the online website and I cannot upload them.  I can only add to my phone and don't know if they will upload to the site properly if and when the site comes back again.  I have called several times regarding this issue and it took several calls to even get a proper answer regarding this.  Apparently some people can see their contacts on the site and not in their phone and some can see on their phone and not on the website... very frustrating.  It is going on 6 days now (since Nov. 18, 2010).

[budone]

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n2tfc wrote:

VZW needs to fix this problem ASAP. As consumers we need to remind companies like VZW that service and an expedient response to problems is the reason for their success or failure. Situations like this are the reason for Class Action suits!

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This is NOT a reason for a class action suit, but it IS a major annoyance to 90+million subscribers for over 2 months now.

[Grothka]

Honestly, class action lawsuit over a free feature (keep in mind, this used to cost money and was eventually converted to a free feature for all customers)? As has been mentioned, this is an annoyance, but for most (read: all) not the end of the world. I've also seen that the main problem is with the website not showing the contacts, but for most the system should still work properly on the phone. So if you can, download the program and try to transfer contacts. If you can't download it... input the important ones by hand, gripe a little and then get over it... then try again later.

[sueilla]

Just an update to my initial posting... I finally found the most amazing Verizon rep who talked me through a few things.  I am now officially NOT using Backup Assistant anymore and just using my gmail (Google) account for my address backup.... hope you all can figure this out.  It is really more streamline and a much better system.  I had to reformat my phone but it was totally worth it.  You basically have to not accept Backup Assistant in the beginning when it asks you to put in your password... just bypass that altogether (as long as you've saved your contacts in gmail or a .cvs file offsite).  Hope this helps & good luck!