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MySpace lost 13 years worth of user data after botched server migration

Most photos, songs, and videos uploaded to the site between 2003 and 2015 are lost for good, site said.

Written by Catalin Cimpanu, Contributor on March 18, 2019

MySpace message on site confirming the site has lost user data — Image: ZDNet

Decaying social network MySpace announced today in a message posted on its website that it lost almost 13 years worth of user files after a botched server migration operation.

The data --including photos, songs, and videos uploaded to the site between 2003 and 2015-- has been lost for good, a MySpace executive confirmed in an email sent to a user.

"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," said a message posted on the company's website today.

"We apologize for the inconvenience. If you would like more information, please contact our Data Protection Officer at DPO@myspace.com."

The server migration snafu didn't happen recently, but the company was finally forced to admit it publicly.

Errors in accessing old user files were first noticed last year, in February, when users complained on Reddit about not being able to access their older data.

MySpace's legal department admitted to the mistake in an email sent to one of the impacted users in July last year. "There is no way to recover the lost data," the MySpace exec said. The message that is now plastered on the MySpace homepage was also added to the site's media player.

MySpace exec email — Image: austinjckson on Reddit

MySpace's blunder went initially unnoticed but re-entered the public's eye over the weekend when the original one-year-old Reddit threads were resurfaced by new users who encountered similar errors accessing their old images and music.

The news quickly went viral on Reddit and Twitter.

During a spammy email campaign that attempted to draw users back to its site in June 2014 --and before the server migration blunder-- the MySpace had boasted of hosting over 15 billion user photos and 53 million songs, uploaded by over 14.2 million users.