A glitch in my plans
Jan. 28, 2023, 10:43 a.m.
I’m so annoyed. I had all these plans to write and post about my December, the cool things I did, the places I went, my birthday, my official honeymoon, and blah, blah, blah. And I kept telling myself I was going to do it. But I just hadn’t found the time between a full-time and part-time, editing my book, traveling for work, my husband, household and personal responsibilities, and needing time to do some things I enjoy.
Last week, I can’t remember what day it was, but it started pretty normally. Then all of a sudden, my phone said this iPhone is unavailable. Naturally, I was like, ‘what the,’ because I had never in all my iPhones seen such a message. Then it went away, but my phone restarted as if it was brand new. Immediately I began to panic because I was like, was my phone just wiped clean?! That’s exactly what happened. I went through the process of adding my information, and I felt okay because it appeared as if everything was coming back, like my contacts, notes, and photos. But for some reason, my photos stopped uploading at Feb. 2022.
This was a problem. A major problem. My April wedding, a summer trip to Paris and London, beach trips, Labor Day weekend in a gorgeous beach house, Austin, Dallas, my birthday in Miami, and honeymoon cruise to the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, and Jamaica — all gone. I googled, and I even called Apple. And there was nothing they could do. So they said. My question became, why did this happen? My friend said there are reports about a glitch with the iPhone 12 Pro, something about a faulty battery that had been wiping phones of its data. The advisor said it sounded like I tried to enter the password too many times. The keyguard may have been off, and after ten times, Apple automatically wipes phones of their data. Needless to say, I feel pretty helpless about it and even have bouts of anger, but what can I do but get another phone because I clearly don’t trust this one? Something’s telling me that I haven’t exhausted all avenues to retrieve my data, but I don’t have the energy for this to consume me. It’s even more annoying because I am paying for extra iCloud storage. So??? Like???
Anywho, with all things, there is a sliver of a silver lining. Thank God for Snapchat. Half, if not the majority, of my photos from 2022 were taken on the app. Even though I don’t post them, I always, out of habit, take pictures on Snapchat. So, that is a bit of relief that all is not lost. However, I still feel very violated. Lol. And while there are photos I’ll never get back, it’s a lesson for me to make sure I’m doing my due diligence with my technology, especially as a writer, because this could have been so much worse than photos. So, if you haven’t checked your iCloud in a while or whatever backups you may have, use this as a cautionary tale to do just that.
It’s crazy how much this little device has become a Black Box for our modern lives, but it is. I had so much going on in that phone besides pictures: storyboards, storylines, interviews, precious audio, important screenshots, and text messages that were all lost. I’m going to Best Buy later to get a new phone, and maybe I’ll get lucky because I know that even though the phone has been “wiped” clean. The data on the hardware doesn’t ever disappear. So, if you know of any tech nerds that can help a girl out, let me know. I will end it here because I could keep going on and on about this. But I need to get to editing for my forthcoming project, and my coffee is getting cold. Stay tuned for my next post, “Why is Hannibal Burress rapping?”
Update: The guy at Best Buy was no help; I still haven’t retrieved my pictures; I bought an iPhone 14 Pro; I’m checking my backups religiously; I downloaded the Google Photos app
Another silver lining: Since this happened, I’ve been reaching out to people who attended my wedding for photos and video, and I’m so happy I did. They have pictures and videos of things I haven’t seen and didn’t even know happened. So it’s been like experiencing my wedding all over again from a different view.
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