Frequently Asked Questions

Installing Tyfish
Phones We Support
Getting Setup
From Your Mobile Browser :
From Your Web Browser :
Service Activation
Can I install Tyfish on my memory card?
How does my mobile browser know what kind of phone I have?
How can I uninstall Tyfish on my phone?
Does Tyfish work if the phone is taken out of the local operator’s network or to another country?
Is my data safe with Tyfish?
Will installing Tyfish affect the performance of my phone?
What kind of data plan do I need?
How much does Tyfish cost?
What form of payments does Tyfish accept?
After registering my phone how do I know which plan I have?
Why does it take so long to back up my phone?
What are my options when I subscribe to Tyfish?
How does Tyfish Secure work?
How does Tyfish Safe work?
How do I lock my lost or stolen phone?
Will my phone still work when it’s locked?
How do I unlock my phone?
What should I include in my customizable lock message?
Can I lock my phone even if the SIM is changed?
Will my phone continue to remain locked after restarting?
Can the thief still use my phone after it is locked?
What happens when I lock with shout?
What data can I backup?
How can I backup my data?
Does the Auto-Backup interval I set matter at all?
Do I incur any data charges when I backup or restore my data?
Can I backup data on my SIM and memory card?
What sort of connection do you use to backup/restore my data?
Does all the information contained in my contact get backed up?
What happens if I have two contacts of the same name? Do they both get backed up?
Is there a limit on how much data I can backup?
Can I restore only selected contacts to my phone?
Can I choose to wipe only selected contacts?
How can I disconnect my device from my Tyfish Account?
What do I do when I get a new phone?
Tyfish Mobile Application Menu
Account Information

Installing Tyfish
Security: Lock/Unlock, Data Wipe and Shout (Tyfish Secure)
Backup/Restore (Tyfish Safe)

Phones We Support
Blackberry: Series 8800, 8300 (Curve), and 8100 (Pearl)
Palm: Centro & Treo
Windows Mobile: Series 5, 6, CE

Getting Setup
You can either start from your mobile phone browser or from your computer browser

From Your Mobile Browser :
1.On your mobile browser, visit Tyfish.com to download the application
2.Install the application on your device (do not install the application on the external storage card)
3.Complete the short mobile registration form on your phone and send*
4.Exit from the application using the Exit button
5.At your earliest convenience, log into Tyfish.com on your computer browser and click Login
6.Complete you’re your account setup and include a promo code if you have one and that’s it!

From Your Web Browser :
1.Visit Tyfish.com and click the Getting Started button – enter the optional promo code if you have one
2.Your phone will be sent a text message containing a link to tyfish.com
3.Go to the tyfish.com link on your mobile browser and download the application
4.Install the application on the device (do not install the application on the external storage card)
5.Complete the short mobile registration form and send*
6.This part may take a couple of minutes while your phone is registered with our server

*This part may take a couple of minutes while your phone is registered with our server
Installation Questions

Service Activation
After installation, Tyfish will prompt you for activation on your phone. If it does not appear immediately after the installation completes, please restart the phone. You will need to return to the Tyfish icon on your mobile desktop.

Can I install Tyfish on my memory card?
Doing so will void the terms of service. Always install the software on the device.

How does my mobile browser know what kind of phone I have?
We’ve programmed our servers to automatically detect whether it receives a request from a Windows, Palm or Blackberry phone. This way you only need to remember www.tyfish.com when you need to download the software onto your phone. Our servers can also tell if you are using a computer browser which will display the Tyfish home page on your P.C. or Mac.

How can I uninstall Tyfish on my phone?
Windows Mobile: Go to Start -> Settings -> System tab and choose Remove Programs. Select ‘Tyfish’ and choose Remove. You will have to put in your Tyfish Password to uninstall Tyfish.
Blackberry: Options -> Advanced Options -> Applications -> Select ‘MobileSecuritySystem’ from the list and choose ‘Delete’ from the device menu key.
Palm: -> Highlight the Tyfish icon on the phone -> press the menu button and select ‘Delete’ from the menu list.

Does Tyfish work if the phone is taken out of the local operator’s network or to another country?
All features of Tyfish will work no matter where in the world the phone is as long as text messaging and internet service is accessible. Depending on your plan, you may be subject to other charges by local service providers for such accessibility to these services.

Is my data safe with Tyfish?
Your privacy is our top concern. We adhere to a strict and comprehensive privacy policy to safeguard it.
Wireless Security: The data communication between your phone and our servers is encrypted using SSL; which is the same technology banks for encrypting information sent to their internet banking websites.
Server-side security: The data on our servers is encrypted using AES-128 bit key and only you have access to your data - even our administrators cannot access your data. Physically, our servers are stored in a secured data centre with fail safe mechanisms for power outages, fires and natural calamities.
We are very serious about your privacy. Contact us at privacy@Tyfish.com if you have further questions on how we handle your data, and the various technology and processes in place to protect your privacy.

Will installing Tyfish affect the performance of my phone?
While Tyfish runs continually in the background, it is in sleep mode until you activate it at the website and perform an action like lock, backup or wipe. It doesn’t affect the performance of your phone at all and does not cause a significant increase in battery consumption.

What kind of data plan do I need?
You need a plan with internet data access, including text messaging. We strongly recommend that your plan provides unlimited data.

How much does Tyfish cost?
If you just want to protect your information from falling into the wrong hands, there is no charge to download and install Tyfish Secure onto your phone. You will only pay if and when you need it (kind of like insurance – except you only pay a deductible but no monthly premiums). If you want to add backup services, please check tyfish.com and click ‘Register’ to see the current list of fees.

What form of payments does Tyfish accept?
We accept PayPal, Amex, Visa and Master Card

After registering my phone how do I know which plan I have?
Open the Tyfish icon on your phone and select ‘Account Information’ on the Tyfish menu. If you have not yet activated any of the services, your account status is Lost & Found. Otherwise, your account status will be reflected as Tyfish Secure of Tyfish Safe & Secure

Why does it take so long to back up my phone?
If you carry a lot of data on your phone such as music and videos, you may want to limit what you back up to only the stuff which has not yet stored on a local hard drive. Otherwise, the upload speed is dependent on the available bandwidth of your wireless carriers internet service. Usually during peak hours during the day you will experience slower connections because of a high traffic demand. We suggest scheduling your first backup session in the evening while your phone is charging. A tip for WiFi enabled phones is to try connecting via WiFi. Your upload speed could be considerably faster.

What are my options when I subscribe to Tyfish?
Besides the free lost & found registry, the two categories of service that you would use are Tyfish Secure (security only) and Tyfish Safe & Secure (backup and security)

How does Tyfish Secure work?
After installing Tyfish on your phone you will be able to activate only the security features if you choose Tyfish Secure. You can either prepay for Tyfish at the Annual or Lifetime rate or you can do what most people do and wait till they lose their phone. At that point, you would choose the Standard option to activate the following services for 30 days:
1.Lock/Unlock – remotely disable the use of your phone’s keypad as if you were physically password protecting it.
2.Shout – remotely make the phone shout repeatedly at the highest volume level – even if it’s in silent mode whenever lost or stolen.
3.Wipe – remotely erase the important stuff that you don’t want anyone to see like you address book, tasks, calendar and media files.

How does Tyfish Safe work?
Tyfish Safe works with Tyfish Secure to provide you with the best remote protection available today. You must subscribe either to the Annual option or Lifetime option. After installing Tyfish o your phone and activating the service online you can begin backing up your media files, calendar, contacts and tasks. You can later restore this information back into your phone either when you retrieve your lost or stolen phone or a replacement.

How do I lock my lost or stolen phone?
You can lock your phone by going to the dashboard on your web account and selecting “Lock Now”. You can update your lock message there as well.

Will my phone still work when it’s locked?
When your phone is locked calls can be received but not made. Only if you have “push-to-talk” service on your phone, you will be able to use this service even when locked.

How do I unlock my phone?
If you have locked your phone, you can unlock it instantly by either entering your PIN in your mobile phone or by clicking “Unlock now” in the locking section of the website.

What should I include in my customizable lock message?
We recommend that you include, at the very least, an alternative phone number at which you are easily contactable. We also suggest that you provide some sort of assurance that a reward will be provided so as to increase the probability of your phone being returned to you.

Can I lock my phone even if the SIM is changed?
Yes, you can. Our patent pending tracking technology tracks the SIMs inserted in your phone. This allows you to send instructions to your phone irrespective of which SIM is inserted in it.

Will my phone continue to remain locked after restarting?
Yes, your phone will continue to remain locked after you restart it. Only you can unlock your phone by either sending a text message from an authorized phone or going online and unlocking it.

Can the thief still use my phone after it is locked?
Besides picking up incoming calls - no. A lost device is often found by innocent bystanders who don’t intend to steal the phone. Using this feature, you can just call the person who picked up the phone and request the phone to be returned.

What happens when I lock with shout?
When you lock with shout, the phone gets locked and starts shouting. Even if your phone is on silent mode, the sound in full volume will cause embarrassment to whoever is holding on to the phone.

What data can I backup?
You can backup your calendar, contacts, tasks, photos, ringtones, music, and video. We don’t back up your email mainly because like your voice service, you have some control over its vulnerability either through your mobile carrier or the email service you use.

How can I backup my data?
You could backup your data in three ways:
Automatic backup: You can set your phone to backup periodically. You can set these options on the Tyfish application on your device. You can choose your backup interval and the data you want to back up. This is an incremental backup so only new data added or modified on the phone since the last backup will be backed up. Automatic backup is seamless and requires zero effort from you.
Manual backup: If you do not want to backup automatically, you can select the data you want to back up at that point under My Device. Manual backup is incremental as well and only the new data added on the phone since the last backup will be backed up.
Device triggered backup: We have recently added a new feature that allows you to backup directly from the Tyfish application on your device.

Does the Auto-Backup interval I set matter at all?
From a cost perspective, it doesn’t. Even if you set your phone to Auto-Backup every 15 minutes or every month, the amount of data backed up will be the same because backup is incremental and backs up only the data added or changed since the last backup.
If my Auto-Backup interval does not matter, why have choices of Auto-Backup intervals in the first place? We believe that you should have the power to control what is happening on your phone. Depending on the sensitivity of the data, you may want to customize your Auto-Backup interval.

Do I incur any data charges when I backup or restore my data?
Tyfish does not charge extra to backup or restore your data. However, depending on your data plan, you may incur additional data (3G/GPRS) charges from your mobile carrier.

Can I backup data on my SIM and memory card?
No, unfortunately you cannot backup the data on your SIM and memory card. If you have important contacts and/or SMS in your SIM, we suggest that you copy them to the phone memory and they will get backed up. We do not backup all data on your memory card.

What sort of connection do you use to backup/restore my data?
We use any available data transfer channel (GSM, Edge, 3G, or WiFi) in your phone. Our backup is always prioritize, using the cheapest available channel. For example, if you have an active WiFi and a 3G connection, backup will occur through WiFi due to considerably lower charges incurred.

Does all the information contained in my contact get backed up?
Yes, all the information (including the address and notes) associated with a particular contact gets backed up. You can view the full details of your contact by clicking on the particular contact in the Contacts view in your Tyfish account online.

What happens if I have two contacts of the same name? Do they both get backed up?
Yes, both get backed up and if they have different details, they are shown as different contact. In fact, even if you edit some information for a previously backed up contact and back it up again, the edits are reflected on the website without losing any information.

Is there a limit on how much data I can backup?
At present, there is no limit on how much data you can backup on the server. Your account comes with an initial allotment of 500Mb of data backup. You can add additional 500Mb increments as needed for a one-time $5 fee per account.

Can I restore only selected contacts to my phone?
Yes, you can! We have added a new feature that allows you to select which contacts to restore to your phone. Just go to the Dashboard in your Tyfish account and select what data you want to backup!

Can I choose to wipe only selected contacts?
As of now, Tyfish only allows you to erase all your contacts at one go.

How can I disconnect my device from my Tyfish Account?<
In your web account, you can de-activate your Tyfish account under Settings -> Disconnect. Your data still remains on the server in case you want to come back and get it.

What do I do when I get a new phone?
If your new phone is already supported by us you can transfer Tyfish easily. If you have the same mobile number as before, go to www.tyfish.com to download and install Tyfish on your new phone. Complete the short mobile registration form on your device using the exact same credentials as before. Afterwards, you may choose to restore any information that you have previously backed up from your old device.

Tyfish Mobile Application Menu
Synchronize to web
Choose which features you would like to back up or restore in Application Settings and select this option to send or receive those files.
Back up – Restore Log
Select this option to see the status of previously synchronized data.
Application Settings
Choose what you want to back up and when. Set a time or day for scheduled back-ups to be performed automatically.
Invite a Friend
Let someone know that they can protect their Palm, Blackberry or Windows Mobile phone too.

Account Information
Check this option to see information about your Tyfish service including, plan type, storage amount, mobile number, Tyfish number, software version and registered email address.

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