Toodledo Outage Provides A Wakeup Call – Back Up Data!!!

Posted on 11 June 2009 by


Doug and I started using Toodledo at about the same time, and have both become devoted users of the service. Earlier tonight however, he noticed something strange. Either he had completed all his tasks, or Toodledo was down. A quick visit to the site revealed this sad web page…

Apparently a major storm came through the town where the data center is located. A switch to backup power went bad, and in the process all the data became corrupt. They are currently restoring from a backup, but the sheer volume of data means it will take a while.

I love Toodledo, think it is a superb service and hope they are back on track soon. I feel for what the folks there are dealing with. But situations like this also raise concerns. You see, Toodledo is the engine that powers not only their own app but many Todo users and Pocket Informant’s task management on their iPhone app. Many of us swear by it.

Episodes such as this are reminders that we can’t just rely on the service to protect our data… We still need to export/back up ourselves. It is also why, when given the choice, I always prefer “hybrid web apps” like Evernote that also have a desktop client that stores all your data locally.

We wish Toodledo luck and hope to find them back on line in the morning.

Update: As of 5am EST the sit is still displaying:

So, here’s the story. A big storm went through the city where our datacenter is located. The datacenter decided to proactively switch to generators. During the switch, something got screwed up, and the power went off for a few minutes. As (bad) luck would have it, this caused our database to get corrupted. We are currently working to bring it back online and restored from the live backup. The crack team at Rackspace is on the job. Thanks Rackspace! Unfortunately, the database is so large, that it will take some time to transfer and verify all the data. Hopefuly not more than a few hours. We know that this is very bad, and we apologize for any inconvience that this will cause. Please check the forums when we are back online for a full report.

Update: Its obviously taking longer than we expected and we are really sorry for that.

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This post was written by:

- who has written 2794 posts on Gear Diary.

Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. +Dan Cohen

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  • http://www.s-consult.com/index.php Wayne Schulz

    Lengthy site outages are never a good thing – especially when you’re dealing with a hosted application.

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  • alese

    I too am a user of Toodledo, luckily I only use it for my shopping lists so I don’t really care for the data although it’s annoying situation.

    And such things one of the main reasons (the others are faster and more convenient user interface) why I would love to find some kind of solution that would give me ability to use my lists/to do’s locally and offline and have a sync with the web (something like Exchange, but just for tasks, simple and with WM client).

  • robpaterson

    Luckily, by data is backed up on my iPhone, but still, I think ToodleDo and every other company who offers online services like this should use a four pronged approach:

    1. Online access
    2, Offline access via automated back-ups to the user’s computer, coupled with a mirror program (similar to what’s offered for mobile devices, i.e. the iPhone)
    3. Sync with offline computer, and mobile device(s)
    4. Their own data backed up on at least two other sites, with constant checks to make sure their back-up system is working correctly.

    This overall “cloud” computing approach would alleviate any issues, such as servers going down. But, as they say, and others are saying here, always back up! :-) I would be happy to pay ToodleDo $10 a year in exchange for knowing that my data is safely backed up on multiple sites.

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  • markntravis

    “No break” comes to my mind.

  • kkchristy

    I paid money for a premium membership on Toodledo and have often found myself wishing that they had a desktop client with offline functionality. Case in point.

  • http://www.gamingwithchildren.com Michael Anderson

    This yet another learning lesson for these online-only sites … and those who depend on them!