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MySpace Has Reportedly Lost All Photos, Videos and Songs Uploaded Over 12 Years Due To Data Corruption During a Server Migration Project (cnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

MySpace may have lost your digital memories in a server migration. From a report: "As a result of a server migration project, any photos, videos, and audio files you uploaded more than three years ago may no longer be available on or from Myspace," it said in a note at the top of the site. "We apologize for the inconvenience. If you would like more information, please contact our Data Protection Officer at DPO@myspace.com."

Andy Baio, one of the people behind Kickstarter, tweeted that it could mean millions of songs uploaded between the site's Aug. 1, 2003 launch and 2015 are gone for good. "Myspace accidentally lost all the music uploaded from its first 12 years in a server migration, losing over 50 million songs from 14 million artists," he wrote Sunday. "I'm deeply skeptical this was an accident. Flagrant incompetence may be bad PR, but it still sounds better than 'we can't be bothered with the effort and cost of migrating and hosting 50 million old MP3s,'" Baio noted.

33 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. You know the saying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...and nothing of value was lost.

  2. Okay but by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3

    nothing of value was lost?

    To be honest I thought the whole site was gone years ago, or was that Geocities?

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    1. Re:Okay but by sg_oneill · · Score: 5, Interesting

      nothing of value was lost?

      Um. No. Before Bandcamp and Facebook, MySpace was *the* social network used by musicians for promotion and putting out music. Sure it was an absolute crime against good taste, but it was where you had to be. Shit, towards the end, if you didn't have a bunch of thousand followers, no bar would give you a gig (Guess where the "Buy likes" industry came from). It was a horrible system, BUT, there was a lot of important music from bands that had finished so never set up a bandcamp, soundcloud or facebook account. And now its gone. Millions of songs from bands around the world.

      Its a modern day burning of the Alexandria Library, A lot of history just got killed.

      --
      Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
  3. Comic Book guy replied, by magusxxx · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Biggest-Takedown-Notice-Ever."

    --
    Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
  4. They were still around? by Daerath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The real story is that MySpace is still operational at all. I thought it shut down years ago.

    1. Re:They were still around? by AvitarX · · Score: 4, Funny

      And apparently something has been uploaded in the last 3 years.

      I'm highly skeptical of that though.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    2. Re:They were still around? by c · · Score: 2

      And apparently something has been uploaded in the last 3 years.

      Nothing's been uploaded in the last 3 years; they just don't want to say outright that they lost everything.

      --
      Log in or piss off.
  5. The bigger story... by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think the bigger story here is that Myspace is still around. Or that it's still around and someone thought it was worth moving to a new server.

  6. Nothing of value by Confused · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It happened before and it'll happen again. Although all the companies talk a good game about how safe their storage is, in reality archiving your old stuff is really hard.

    * I still have a box full of 5"1/4 floppy disk, some hard sectored.
    * I have more than a few boxes of cds, many of them so badly aged that I can't read them any more.
    * I have a few account son platforms where I'm not even sure they still exist. Some were secure picture storage.
    * I have a few boxes of old photographs
    * I have a few boxes of super 8 films
    * I even have a box of VHS cassettes with stuff I care about.
    * No vinyl disk left, I sold those. In retrospective, probably a bad idea. Some of the songs on those seem to be lost.
    * A cupboard full of paper with stuff from school and university.

    Of all those things, I guess the box of photographs and the super 8 films have the best chance of surviving me and of interest to my future grand-children. Most digital media is already lost today to me. For the rest, I just hope there's no fire and no flood.

    On a larger scale, enormous amounts of knowledge and art has been lost due to fires and wars affecting libraries and museums. Last famous occurrence was probably all the stuff destroyed wilfully in Cambodia and in Iraq.

    So MySpace losing a few boxs of memories of people who mostly can't even remember they had it is sad, but nothing tragic or surprising.

    Get used it it.

    1. Re:Nothing of value by Nidi62 · · Score: 5, Informative

      On a larger scale, enormous amounts of knowledge and art has been lost due to fires and wars affecting libraries and museums. Last famous occurrence was probably all the stuff destroyed wilfully in Cambodia and in Iraq.

      Don't forget last year's fire in Brazil's National Museum. Out of roughly 20 million artifacts housed at the museum, so far they've recovered about 2000 that survived. That's .01%.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    2. Re:Nothing of value by chrism238 · · Score: 2

      Get used it it.

      Indeed; and who can forget The Big One from 2007?
      https://www.theonion.com/break...

    3. Re:Nothing of value by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      I always equate people issue with someone hosting your data to be like flying.
      While the math shows you are much safer with your data in the cloud, vs you doing it yourself. There isn't a 100% chance your data will stay with the cloud company. And like with an aircraft or a bus, when there is an accident, the loss is huge.
      However with people trying to hold onto their data themselves, there is a much higher chance that it will go away. Disk Rot, CDs getting discolored or scratched, Flooding, over heating, fire...
      Sure if you dedicate a good portion of your life to make sure your personal data is secure, you will probably be better off then a cloud company, but that would require, a lot of money in infrastructure, climate controlled buildings, Server area, to support older media storage, RAID storage, that need to be managed and upgraded.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    4. Re:Nothing of value by Kjella · · Score: 2

      On a larger scale, enormous amounts of knowledge and art has been lost due to fires and wars affecting libraries and museums. Last famous occurrence was probably all the stuff destroyed wilfully in Cambodia and in Iraq.

      Art, yes. An original statue, temple, painting or artifact can never be truly replaced by photographs and descriptions. But knowledge of any real significance? We're increasingly preserving every bit of trivia about the world and digitizing historical records to the point that you can go swimming in an ocean of history. Go to project Gutenberg and you'll find many works I very much doubt saw any contemporary popularity, but as long as one copy survives conservationists will add it to the historical record. Same with artists, you can find much more obscure bands on Spotify than I ever saw in a retail store. And from the 21st century they'll have YouTube, recording a zillion minutes of unimportant people doing unimportant things.

      Yes, it takes a bit of effort but most people "outsource" that to Facebook, Instagram, iCloud and whatever. Before, if people had a fire they typically did lose everything. Now it's like you lose memorabilia and stuff but most people have the photos stored in the cloud. And a lot of people have private off-site backups too, of course. And that's private individuals, if this is your business and it's just documents and things that fit on a thumbnail... I don't know that we've ever like completely lost a big chunk of our past.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    5. Re: Nothing of value by Miamicanes · · Score: 3, Informative

      At the moment, the best passive long-term storage medium we have is the original (high-to-low) standard for single-layer BD-R.

      Note this is NOT the newer & cheaper "low-to-high" (LTH) standard that came out a few years later.

      HTL starts out as a shiny substrate that gets melted & dulled by the laser. LTH uses organic dyes (like DVD+/-R) that fade over time, especially if exposed to light or heat.

      Players capable of reading them might not be common cheap consumer items 25-100 years from now, but they absolutely WILL exist as items for libraries, universities, governments, etc (so they might not be CHEAP, but they'll definitely exist & be reasonably available).

      Avoid multi-layer discs. Lower layers START OUT with (recoverable) errors, and only get worse over time.

      The main advantage of HTL (non-LTH) BD-R is the fact that it decouples the reading apparatus & electronics from the media. If your only copy of something is on a 40 year old SATA hard drive that no longer works, you're going to spend an UNHOLY amount of money to recover the data... if it can be recovered AT ALL.

      Flash storage is COMPLETELY unfit for long-term storage... it's like a leaky bucket. And newer flash is LESS long-term stable, because the margin for error in MLC flash is a fraction of what it was with SLC flash.

      By all means, keep additional backups in the cloud or on hard drives... but if you have to gamble everything on a single media type, go with HTL (non-LTH) BD-R.

      Also... use common, open, well-documented & non-proprietary formats. Think twice about using encryption & ask whether you'd be more traumatized by disclosure or permanent loss... and assume the lesser evil you choose WILL happen.

      Assume anything that's DRM-protected is likely to be gone in the long-term... by obsolescence & obscurity, if not outright disappearance.

  7. Unbelievable by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I mean that literally. It's impossible to believe there are literally no backups at all, still less that this was all lost as a result of a server migration (what is this, is it run on an old 166MHz Pentium in the closet? Did they take the 40Mb IDE hard drive out of one containing EVERYTHING ON MYSPACE and slot it into the brand new spiffy Intel Core i5 they bought from eBay?)

    The real question is why does MySpace not want to restore the old data? To which the answer could be anything from "They want to reduce bandwidth and storage costs because they're broke" to "They found a shitload of stuff that could get them into trouble and have no time to sift through decades of data."

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    1. Re:Unbelievable by postbigbang · · Score: 2

      No one will fall on their sword over this one. Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace, and I'm sure its failure has been a thorn in the side of it management.

      No one will lose their jobs. You're data's gone. Move on. That's the message. Here now, look over there while we build a new site to suck you in.

      --
      ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
    2. Re:Unbelievable by DigiShaman · · Score: 2

      Truth be told, your media content should be backed up on your end. If it's text, back it up to TXT or DOC file. Whatever. Don't rely on free web services to retain your data for you.

      You get exactly what you pay for. You pay nothing, you should expect nothing. Them the cold facts of life!

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
  8. Laugh now, cry later. The Internet is evolving. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The Internet of the 1990's and early 2000's is dying. There are a large number of sites I enjoyed that have died. Some get resurrected (like Nekochan and Nectarine radio - two casualties that recently came back). However, for the most part many sites die when their former hordes of users quit providing clicks to pay the bills. I have to remind myself how ephemeral the content was in the first place. It was only going to last as long as the clicks made it profitable. That is definitely not the mentality that started the 'net. Having seen HTTP birthed right after GOPHER, Verionica, FTP, Archie, and other now archaic services I felt like hypertext was really going to set the world on fire in a good way. The interconnections made the system stronger and they didn't seem as impermanent. Now it feels like everything is just a sandbar, shifting in time. I am not going to miss anything specific from MySpace except a few band pages I saw there for the first time and haven't visited for years. However, knowing that any cultural landmark on the Internet is destined for "rm -rf" makes life seem that much more transient as well.

    1. Re:Laugh now, cry later. The Internet is evolving. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I recently retired from a 30 year career as a programmer and database designer. I worked on projects from telephony inventory tracking and provisioning, telephone call routing, educational government-required reporting system, and pension line-of-business management. Along with a lot of smaller contract stuff too numerous to mention.

      All of it is gone. Either the companies for whom it was custom made are no longer in existence, or the systems have been replaced by newer systems. The very last things I worked on before retirement were to prop up the legacy system while the replacement system was being installed and tested. I'm pretty sure that not a single line of code or database I designed is currently working, anywhere, at all.

      My entire career might as well never have existed, as far as any trace of it to be found.

      Computers are the very definition of ephemeral.

  9. How much did you pay to store them? by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Insightful
    You are not a customer of MySpace. You are the product. You paid nothing to store your tracks in the cloud. They did it, hoping they can sell your eyeball time.

    It is not valuable anymore to MySpace. So they deleted the data you up loaded.

    If those tracks are valuable to you, you would taken proper backups or paid someone to store it properly.

    You paid them nothing. They owe you nothing.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:How much did you pay to store them? by karlandtanya · · Score: 2

      You gave them something of value (your data, and the opportunity to grab your eyeballs).
      And they gave you the expectation that they would store your data for you.

      The term you should be looking at is not "payment" but "consideration".

      I'm sure some lawyer somewhere is trying to figure out how to file a class action suit.

      --
      "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
    2. Re:How much did you pay to store them? by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 2

      You gave them something of value (your data, and the opportunity to grab your eyeballs).
      And they gave you the expectation that they would store your data for you.

      The term you should be looking at is not "payment" but "consideration".

      Putting aside whether the examples you give would actually be deemed adequate consideration, the term you should be looking for is "freedom of contract." The MySpace terms and conditions are crystal clear that (1) their liability is limited to the amount actually paid , and (2) specifically disavow any additional liability for "destruction of the MySpace services":

      NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY CONTAINED HEREIN, MYSPACE’S LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CAUSE WHATSOEVER AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION, WILL AT ALL TIMES BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT PAID, IF ANY, BY YOU TO MYSPACE FOR THE MYSPACE SERVICES DURING THE TERM OF MEMBERSHIP. THE FOREGOING LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY WILL APPLY EVEN IF ANY OF THE FOREGOING EVENTS OR CIRCUMSTANCES WERE FORESEEABLE AND EVEN IF MYSPACE WAS ADVISED OF OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH LOSSES OR DAMAGES, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER YOU BRING AN ACTION BASED IN CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING WHETHER CAUSED, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, BY NEGLIGENCE, ACTS OF GOD, TELECOMMUNICATIONS FAILURE, OR DESTRUCTION OF THE MYSPACE SERVICES).

      I'm sure some lawyer somewhere is trying to figure out how to file a class action suit.

      Probably not any of them that have a passing understanding of contract law. No reasonable person reading the MySpace T&Cs could come away with the notion that MySpace was taking on the legal obligation to perpetually backup and insure a user's data.

  10. By all means by guygo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But don't let this put you off keeping all your data on the cloud. Who needs local files, amIright? Local files are so hard to manage... so put 'em on the cloud so the next time some underpaid operator forgets a command-line switch you can lose it all.

    1. Re:By all means by doconnor · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Local files got lost at a higher rate then then cloud. The difference is when you lose your local files, it doesn't make Slashdot.

    2. Re:By all means by PPH · · Score: 2

      Hah! I backed up all my stuff on Megaupload.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  11. Ask the NSA by nicc7778398 · · Score: 2

    I believe they will have a free backup copy

  12. Nothing of Value, But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How the actual fuck could they lose everything? Why do the not have any backups?

    What the actual fuck?

    1. Re:Nothing of Value, But... by freeze128 · · Score: 2

      Data lost due to corruption. Backups of corrupted data contain corrupted data.

  13. "Cloud" is not plan "A" by perpenso · · Score: 2

    Although all the companies talk a good game about how safe their storage is, in reality archiving your old stuff is really hard

    A past employer contracted out to a reputable off-site backup service company, circa late 1990s. Anything over one year old was moved off-site freeing up local server storage. In addition the off-site was supposed to have tape backup. When requesting something from the off-site there was about a 25% chance you would not get it, about a quarter of the time you were told it was missing or damaged and unrecoverable.

    Personally I am grateful for the previous lesson regarding "cloud" storage. I have local backups for the important stuff. "Cloud" is for convenience, and a plan "C" incase your building burns down. Its not plan "A".

  14. Piracy as backup by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There are plenty of things (like old Doctor Who episodes and the first Superbowl broadcast) that only exist today because unauthorized copies were made. The continued extension of copyright terms and DRM measures make the loss of large numbers of cultural artifacts not just possible but inevitable.

  15. My Bad by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Funny

    I found the bug in my migration script. That damned byzantine "sh" language syntax strikes again:

    SOURCE_FILES = "/mnt/the_only_copy_of_myspace"
     
    BACKUP_TARGET = "/dev/tape0"
     
    if [ "$1"='-dry-run' ]; then
        BACKUP_TARGET="/dev/null"
    fi
     
    tar cf BACKUP_TARGET SOURCE_FILES
     
    if [ "$1"!='-dry-run' ]; then
        rm -rf SOURCE_FILES
    fi

    Looks like I forgot the spaces around "=". Oh well, live and learn.

  16. No way this could be accidental by erp_consultant · · Score: 2

    What is the first step of any server migration? Take a backup. Worst case you can go back to where you started with no data loss. Failing that they don't have a backup from yesterday? Or last week? No large scale operation like this could ever operate without backups.

    No...this data was intentionally wiped. Maybe pressure from the artists or record companies about storing potentially illegal copies of music. Whatever the reason. I know that nobody really uses MySpace anymore but the least they could do is just be honest about it. Just tell the user community that you were forced to take the music files down for copyright infringement, or whatever the reason was. But don't come up with this BS story about a botched server migration. Pathetic.

  17. Need to test both backup and RESTORE by Immerial · · Score: 2

    OR the backup process was completely borken (not even new material) and they never knew until they tried to retrieve the backups. That's why it is always important to constantly test the full backup process... backup AND restore... to make sure everything is working okay. The problem with doing it this way is that it takes time and most people/businesses don't want to deal with it and skip the restore part. But oh look... that last software patch made the backups unreadable... doh! ;)