Nov
23

Do Not Trust Google With Important Data

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Posted by Duncan in google

google docs logo

The other day I used one of Google’s well documented functions to import some data into a Google Docs spreadsheet.

I was simply importing a .csv file into a spreadsheet and then poooof my spreadsheet was toast, I was no longer able to access my data.

never done

When I try to access the document it tries to load for a few minutes and then times out to a completely blank page. I’ve tried everything, emptying caches, different browsers, different operating systems etc etc… Nothing works.

I’ve tried contacting Google via their contact forms and got no response. I tried the help forums and also got no response. I even tried to @reply the main google account in a futile attempt to get someone from the goog to notice.

This was important data I was using to research investments and now I cannot access the information at all.

I suppose it’s my fault for trusting Google with my information. I guess I was a bit naive thinking that I could use the cloud without incident. I’m not going to make that mistake again.

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  • digitalsubway
    this is rather surprising but not alarming
  • Alarming to me! ;)
  • Sorry I wasn't clear when I wrote this... I still have the .csv but the data I actually need is on another sheet in that google docs spreadsheet.

    Regarding the backup I was using google docs so I wouldn't have to backup! That and I was collaborating remotely with a colleague on the spreadsheet... But yeah point taken. I should've been backing it up.
  • Orrin
    I run into stuff like this a good bit (not with Google Docs files, but with Excel or CSV files) and I almost always end up joining the two into a new document so that if any corruption happens it happens on the new output file. Sucks that you lost data.
  • Worst part is that the data is probably just sitting there on Google's servers but I can't talk to them or access it... Argh!
  • Orrin
    You are now no longer able to access the data in Google Docs? or you are no longer able to access your CSV file? If it is the later, you should be able to open the CSV file in a text editor and take a look at it. If this CSV file is storing important data, you should have a backup of it, right?

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