My Phone beta starting to go live

By Phil Nickinson
last updated

After all the to-do Monday morning from Microsoft, it looks like the My Phone beta — read our full post on the announcement here — is starting to go live. But it looks like it might be a rolling start. I was able to get the install file for my phone, while Malatesta — infinitely smarter and better looking — could not, at least at the time of this writing.

It took just a couple of minutes to sync my 499 text messages. I'm hooked up to an Exchange server, so that's about all I could sync. Anything running through Exchange is deemed already backed up and won't sync with My Phone.

Give it a shot at myphone.microsoft.com and let us know in the comments if you're in.

Phil Nickinson
Phil Nickinson

Phil is the father of two beautiful girls and is the Dad behind Modern Dad. Before that he spent seven years at the helm of Android Central. Before that he spent a decade in a newsroom of a two-time Pulitzer Prize-finalist newspaper. Before that — well, we don't talk much about those days. Subscribe to the Modern Dad newsletter!

18 Comments
  • Still on the "WAITING LIST" no magic email as of yet. WMEXPERTS!! Thanks for the news and updates.
  • If you're using gmail, check your spam. It flagged mine.
  • I got an email and just downloaded the install cab, now doing a sync with my PC to backup my PIM data before I try the MyPhone service.
  • Wise man! Always back up before backing up. lol.
  • I just got in as well. No email, I just signed right in and downloaded it.
  • Just as an addendum, I think this was overhyped. I had the impression that it'd be able to back up the whole phone, including the programs installed, and all it is basically a "poor man's" Exchange Server except only accessible with an additional program installed. I mean, the syncing of audio/video and photos is neat in theory, but considering there's only 200MB of space, and I assume most people's phones still have crappy cameras, it seems a little pointless to me. Text message backup is another additional feature, which I guess could theoretically be useful, but it has never bothered me before to lose all my texts. And I personally have no need for the web interface so that's wasted on me, though I realize some want to see their schedule on a PC for some reason. Basically, not worth having an additional program when Google Sync was in effect for my needs already doing basically the exact same thing via built-in programs. Though its moot anyway, I've already decided what my next phone will be and its not going to be WM.
  • Sorry to hear that. May we show you one of our sister sites? A shiny new iPhone perhaps? Or how about one of those newfangled Nokias? Or are you pushing for a Palm Pre? lol
  • Haha yeah I'm already on the Pre site, I just figured I'd keep it civil by not mentioning that here. Oh, and most disturbingly, there's no way to remove a MyPhone account, so any data you sync there appears to be there for good unless you delete things one by one. Also, the option for memory card sync seems useless because I don't know anyone with a memory card smaller than 200MB.
  • I got the invite tonight also. 2 things that i noticed and posted up on Microsoft's forum: 1. THey could teh product truly perfect by allowing backup of the phone's call logs/history.
    2. Text Message backup does not work if you are using a Treo since they use Palm's text message application (good thing I'm switching to a Touch Pro in the near future).
  • Re Point 2: True. And good point. Though didn't Palm ditch its own SMS/MMS starting with the 800w and go with the standard Microsoft version?
  • I'm in! Got the email this evening, and syncing as I write this...photos, contacts, calendar, text messages....So far working very well.
  • I got my invite also. I noticed two things: 1. My notes are not backup-ed.
    2. I would like to see Company as one of the column heads. Where do I post my comments and problems for MS to see?
  • Still don't see it. WTF
  • Well, at this time I think I will be passing. The contacts, calendar, tasks and texts sync ok but because it requires your activesync partnershipt to be disabled there is no way to sync your favourites and notes. You can only sync actual documents so you cant manually sync your notes as .pwl files or manually set a folder to sync your favourites and as AS is disabled you cant back those up to your pc. Not sure who MS is aiming for with this service, it definitely does not give a comparable backup solution as with using AS with the exception of text backup and doesnt seem to be a service the typical WM user would find adequate. Edit: It looks like I was mistaken about having to disable your AS, I had a dummy exchange account setup to combat the issue of AS constantly running in the background and that caused MyPhone to grey out the PIM categories and let me to believe AS had to be disabled. However you still cant sync your favs and Notes to the MyPhone service which means you are still tied to your PC to backup these items which does mean you do not have a full backup of your phone data on the Myphone service.
  • Why can't they come up with a solution like this that doesn't require you to delete your work exchange server relationship!?!
  • The official reason... because if you're backing up already with your work server, you don't need that backed up again. My guess at the real reason is that this is basically communicating over the EAS protocol and since you can't have two Exchange servers set up, that's why.
  • Yeah.. I know the technical reasons but the logistical reasons don't add up. You've got a lot of users who use their WinMo phone for work as well as side job/personal information that isn't backed up on the work server. If it wasn't for work email (that I have to access through the server) this wouldn't be an issue. If Dashwire only synced with appointments!
  • Need help please. Just installed WM 6.5 on my Dahs 3G. I'm hooked up to exchange and using MyPhone. for some reason now, all of my text messages are appearing on my work exchange server. how do I stop this? Thanks!