Technology SUX

[contender]

Many here may remember a few months ago I had a computer crash,,, and all the issues I had trying to recover my business data.

Well,,, friday,, my smart phone disappeared.

There are only 2 places in public it could have gotten lost. The main suspected place is on the road, outside the cable gate of my gun range. It may have dropped out of my truck there. Or, a short while later, when Miss Penny & I went to dinner,,, it may have fallen out of her car at the restaurant. We did a quick return to the restaurant & it wasn't there. (It's a small country diner,,, just 2 miles from the house. All the same cars were there when we went right back.) But,, outside my range,,, a road that if it fell out there,,, it would have been easy to spot & have somebody pick it up.
Either way,,, it's gone.
We did all the things we knew to do. Calling my number,,, and it wasn't anywhere on our property anywhere. So, we shut it down friday night. Now,,, my cell is used primarily for my business. I need that dern thing,,, so technology has me in it's grasp.
I had to go & buy a new phone yesterday. AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!
It took that sales clerk over an hour to just get me set up & out the door. And then,, it still wasn't right. when I tried to call anybody,,, it went to a strange lady's cell phone. Not even a customer of mine. After calling her a few times,,, AND apologizing profusely,,, I told her to ignore any calls from my number until we got it all figured out. It took 2 calls to tech support to get it all fixed. That was another hour of work just to get it going.
And since last night,,, I've been working at getting as many of my "contact" phone numbers into my new phone. And to those who want to ask,, no,, my contacts were not in some "cloud" storage anywhere. I've also been trying to put stuff into the new phone that I used in my old one.
It does NOT help that I went with a new I Phone,,, and my old one was an Android system.

I hate technology,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,!

 

[redhawker]

If you'd had an iPhone to start with it would have been a piece of cake to restore everything. I back mine up regularly. By choice, not long ago, I picked up a new iPhone because I wanted more memory on it so I could keep more photos and videos (New grandson 9 months ago so...). I didn't even have to go to the AT&T store, got a refurbed one off eBay, put the sim card from the old one in the "new" one and then restored the backup I had on the computer. Was up and running with everything back in about an hour. Just be sure you do regular backups. BTW - sold the old phone on eBay after wiping it clean (memory I mean) for just a little less than I bought the "new" one so the upgrade from 16 GB to 128 GB cost about $80. Also, as a side note, iPhone have an app on them that you can turn on to track them if you lose it.

 

[Big Old Boy]

Ty, once you get it figured out I think you'll like the I phone it's all I have used for years and everything sinks with my iPad.

 

[coach]

Never had an android but I'm stuck on my iPhone now. I never had to use the find my phone app but it seems like a good idea especially for business. Even just keeping contacts and stuff in the cloud is handy.

 

[Xsales]

For most phones you can simply put all contacts in a folder that is on the SD card
Then when you put the SD card in the new phone it is all there & transferred in seconds

We just upgraded our 2 phones with our existing Virgin account

Ordered the phones online through them, got in 2 days, activated in our account, up & running in 15 minutes each with NO calls to a tech

That part of technology is nice

 

[Fox Mike]

Ty, I feel your pain! Linda's old phone 'died' and she got a new one. The problems started immediately. A bad sim card ended up being the answer to one problem but she couldn't receive a call. Ended up back with the tech for a couple more hours. Took almost three days, off and on, before it was right.
BTW, is your number still the same?

 

[Rancher Will]

I sympathize with you, Contender, and hope I never have the problem. I do not have a "smart phone" and never hope to get one. My cell phone is a simple AT&T cell phone that only has the ability to let me call out, others call me, and if I don't answer, the caller can leave a message. I carry the cell phone in a tool pouch on my belt that I bought at Home Depot. That tool pouch fits the phone and is secure and tough enough that I don't think it will ever wear out. I had to insist that AT&T sell me my cell phone a few years ago when the salesman tried very hard to get me to buy a Smart Phone, or what ever they had then. I finally convinced him that I would not buy what I didn't need or want.

I have four computers. All four are over 35 years old and none have ever crashed, lost data, stopped working, or in any way needed repair. My computers are one Epson QX-10 in the office of my south Ranch, one Epson QX-16 in the office of my North Ranch, two portable computers that I carry for work in which truck I am using each day. One is an Epson HX-20 and one Epson PX-8. My computers permit me to do all the computer work that I need to do, except that I cannot send photos through them. (That technology had not been developed in the Early 1980's when I bought them.)

My computers use a system called VALDOCS that works for me for my trucking and ranching business. All interact with each other so that I can transfer data between each and every one as needed. The QX computers also have a Spreadsheet System, developed in early 1980's, that is much further advanced than Microsoft EXCEL Spreadsheets. There are numerous other features of the four that are unique also. For example, the HX-20 is briefcase size that has it's own built-in printer. I know of no other computer of this size with a built-in printer.

Unfortunately Epson stopped making computers years ago trying to compete with Microsoft and Apple. My wife uses an apple but I still think my Epsons are the best.

 

[reloader]

The old saying "Two is one, and one is none" comes to mind here.
I've made it a habit to back up everything to a couple SD cards and a couple external hard drives, then switch off the drives. Not sure if you can do that with a I Phone though.
I even keep an extra phone or two handy. Too much customer contact info to take a chance on loosing.

 

[pete44ru]

.

I feel your pain.......

Being long retired now, I only want (need ?) a dumb (flip) phone with BIG numbers. :roll: :roll:


:mrgreen:

 

[contender]

Thanks all.
I've spent a good part of the day (off & on) recreating the things I needed on my phone.
I couldn't buy one online & wait 2-3 (or more) days to get it. I have customers to touch base with daily.
And as for the features,,, such as "lost phone locator," are now on this new phone. My lost one I've been using for 8 years now. It didn't have the lost phone feature available.

I'm already backing up my contact data & all.

And my phone number hasn't changed. We just "killed" the old phone. Sadly,, whoever has it can still get into my data. But,, we are working towards a more secure system set-up & all.
The biggest thing I haven't tried yet is to transfer pics from my computer to my phone,, yet,,,,!

 

[exavid]

Worse than losing a phone is my laptop that died last month. If there's anything that's more annoying than having to move to a new computer, especially when you have to rebuild a bunch of files. There is of course the good part of having a newer faster computer of course but it still took me a week to get this one set up the way I wanted.

 

[redhawker]

The biggest thing I haven't tried yet is to transfer pics from my computer to my phone,, yet,,,,!

Get the Dropbox app. Very easy to transfer things, files, pictures, and videos from phone to computer and vice-versa.

 

[Pat-inCO]

Being long retired now, I only want (need ?) a dumb (flip) phone with BIG numbers.

Like this?

 

[GP100]

Thanks all.
I've spent a good part of the day (off & on) recreating the things I needed on my phone.
I couldn't buy one online & wait 2-3 (or more) days to get it. I have customers to touch base with daily.
And as for the features,,, such as "lost phone locator," are now on this new phone. My lost one I've been using for 8 years now. It didn't have the lost phone feature available.

I'm already backing up my contact data & all.

And my phone number hasn't changed. We just "killed" the old phone. Sadly,, whoever has it can still get into my data. But,, we are working towards a more secure system set-up & all.
The biggest thing I haven't tried yet is to transfer pics from my computer to my phone,, yet,,,,!

I still say it was some sneaky critter that stole it.. He stole Ty's phone so he could call an animal rights lawyer to protest his unfair relocation after Ty caught him.. perhaps it was stolen by the opossum that Gramps put in the driveway..

Oh my.. They have access to your data? Oh dear.. Think of all that porn.......Err. Gun porn that is.. Yeah, that's what I meant.. :mrgreen:

 

[Captain America]

If the phone is an Android and you set it up with a google account just go into google account and click on find your phone. That function is active on a new phone and would have had to have been turned off for it not to work. I have an iPhone and my wife has an Android, my opinion is the iPhone is the way to go if you have other Apple products, if you have a Microsoft PC then you should have an Android. If I didn't get a free iPhone from work I would own an Android.

 

[Scout943]

They are not phones anymore , more trouble than they are worth , a simple phone and a decent camera is all you need .

 

[contender]

exavid,,, I did have my business computer die a few months ago. PIA to try & recover data & customer files. Until I PAY for another QB program,,, I can not access "old" info. We are slowly rebuilding my customer database,,, and a different (& free) recoverable database.

Pics. I figured out how to do a few pics last night. Since I'm now on an IPhone,,, I had to set up an icloud account. I'm using that,, and happily,,, the transfer from my Win10 computer to icloud has been easy,,, slow,, but easy.

GP-100,,, critters that get around my place either meet my chamber,,, or my gun. Unless it's a nice black snake. That possum that gramps had,,, well,,, he got sent to some property about 30 miles away.

Animal rights lawyers are located with the animals I bring here. They too are not welcome!

My pics on my old phone,,, gun porn,,,, (Does a picture of Jesse Duff & KC Escubio & myself count?) We were at a match together. I've got to rebuild my pics to share with folks. Gun pics,,, job sites showing my work, & family pics. It'll happen.

And I've been able to figure out this morning about my hacked account. It wasn't hacked. A customer wrote me a check out of an account that had been closed. She is meeting me at my bank later today to pay me & any fees I may have associated with her bad check.

 

[gunzo]

This thread reminded me of something I promised to do last week. I too lost my phone, last Wed. While I was looking I fussed about all the numbers I was gonna have to try to get back. I said then that I when I got the numbers back I was gonna get an old fashion pencil & paper & manually write them down & physically store them. I was lucky in the fact I found mine, but have yet to log the numbers. Tech does sux sometimes. I didn't realize I had become so dependent on the thing till it was gone.

 

[Rick Courtright]

I said then that I when I got the numbers back I was gonna get an old fashion pencil & paper & manually write them down & physically store them.

Hi,

The "smartest" phone I've had until a couple of months ago was an ancient Blackberry, and I learned early on that a pencil and paper are the best ways to both preserve and reproduce contact lists. Kind of a PITA, but simple, reliable, and the batteries don't go out in my pencil. Or notebook. As to the new Android thing I had to buy if only for the mobile hotspot, well... where do we get one of Pat's phones?

Rick C