How to Refresh Your BB Without Losing Data
By: Kim2theKiko
Tested only on BB Curve 8330
Once in awhile, more like every 2 weeks, I notice that the hour glass and the blackouts appears more often than what I’m comfortable with. Then I have to do a battery pull which is VERY annoying when you're in the middle of nowhere trying to Google Map your way back home. To me, it’s time to format my phone! Below are the steps I use to do so.
*NO MATTER WHAT I OR ANYONE ELSE SAYS ABOUT MODIFYING YOUR PHONE, ALWAYS BACKUP EVERYTHING!!!*
Materials/Items Needed:
· Fully charged BlackBerry (Curve 8330)
· USB wire
o To connect your BB to your computer
· BlackBerry Desktop Manager
o Google it and then download it
o I’m using version 5.0.1, it’s old but I like it!
· Registration/Activation codes/OTA links and Passwords to emails, online communities, etc
o If you actually bought apps, collect their registration and or activation codes and OTA links.
o If you have 10+ email addresses, like me, then write down all the email addresses and their passwords in a safe place.
Trust me, you will wish you would’ve done that right away before continuing with this guide…
· Computer with Vista
o Yes, I’m still using Vista
· Patience
o You won’t be getting any calls, texts or notifications during this time, and if you do, WAIT until you're done all the steps.
I don’t know about you, but I got a lot of Documents, Music, Videos, Contacts and Calendar stuff that I just cannot lose. Click here to tell me what other apps or items that you can’t live without on your BB. So let’s learn how to backup our sh*t : D
HOW TO BACKUP:
1. Plug in your BB into your computer via the USB wire
2. Go to the Start menu > All Programs >
a. Scroll down until you see the Blackberry folder
3. Click on the BB folder > Load Desktop Manager
4. You should see icons that start with Media, Application Loader, Backup and Restore.
a. Click on the Backup and Restore icon.
I always backup everything first right away, and then I do an Advanced backup where I only choose what I really need to backup. Just in case you forgot to backup something during the Advanced backup, you can always go to the full backup and find it there.
FULL BACKUP
1. After clicking on the Backup and Restore icon you should see 3 sections, Backup, Restore and Advanced. Press the Backup button.
2. A Select file for Full Backup box should appear. Save the full backup in a folder that you will remember where it is in the next 10 seconds! And save.
What for the Transfer in progress box to do it’s thing. I like to wait by singing a song by Miley Cyrus, but you can do something else for the 30 second timeframe.
3. Click on the OK button after the The Backup file was successfully created dialog box appears.
Now, that wasn’t so hard! Now let’s make an Advanced backup:
ADVANCED BACKUP
1. You should see the three sections once more, Backup, Restore and Advanced. Press the Advanced button. Let the Transfer in progress box do its thing. Again, you can sing a song during the 5 second time frame.
2. There are 2 big boxes:
b. The one on the left is called File:
Before we play in this area, take a look at the list inside the Device databases and figure out which databases you cannot possibly live without. Click here and tell me which databases you can’t possibly live without and why.
The databases I cannot possibly live without are:
· Address Book – All
· Browser Bookmarks
· Calendar - All
· Memos
· Options
· PasswordKeeper
· Service Book
· Tasks
So, I made my list, but I prefer to actually save each of my databases one by one in it’s own file. For example:
3. I’ll select Address Book – All > Press the double arrows pointing towards the File:
4. Then I’ll select File (which is above the File:
a. I’ll repeat steps 10 to 11 for each of my databases that I showed up above step 10. You don’t have to do it like that, you can save all of them in one file.
Oh yeah, if you have an SD Card, you should probably save it’s content onto your computer as well! That’s simple, you just have to go to your Windows Explorer, find your BB’s SD/ Micro Card card, then select all the folders and copy them onto a place on your computer.
Now that we fully backed up our BlackBerry and it’s companion, the SD Card/Micro Card it’s FORMATTING TIME : D
HOW TO FORMAT THE BLACKBERRY
1. Unplug your BB from the computer
2. Go to Options (wrench-looking icon) > Scroll down to Security Options > General Settings
3. Inside General Settings, press your BlackBerry icon to bring up a menu
NOW BEFORE YOU GO ANY FURTHER, IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBTS THAT YOU DIDN’T BACKUP EVERYTHING PROPERLY, JUST GO BACK TO SECTION EITHER THE FULL BACKUP OR THE ADVANCED BACKUP AND REPEAT THE STEPS. ALREADY CONFIDENT? ALRIGHT, LET’S GO:
4. Select Wipe Handheld
5. Let it do it’s thing. If you get an error, just try again.
a. This should take at least 5 minutes. Do some exercises or take a shower at this time. Or get ready to cook something.
Alright! You did it! So now your BlackBerry is just like brand new. Well, the software part should look and feel brand new. If you dropped it a couple of times, then the physical part may still look old : D
I actually try to do this once a month. Also, I find it easier than deleting all past email messages or Facebook notifications etc.
Remember section Materials/Items Needed: (c’mon, it’s the first section!) where I mentioned to collect Registration/Activation codes/OTA and Passwords? Well, I really, really, REALLY hope you did that. Because now, you’ll need to re-download some purchased apps and enter in their activation codes etc to remove the trial version and activate the full version. I have a Word document that’s locked with a long-ass password that has a list of over 50 apps with their registration numbers and OTA links. It sounds like a daunting task, but just add new apps with their activation codes in the locked Word document at a time and save it like 3 times on different medias (computer, CD, send to email address, etc). My Apps list looks a little like this:
1. Aerize Card Loader 2008 - SD card install utility
o Activation Code: xxx (PIN: xxx)
o Download: http://aerize.com/m/
o Product Technical Support: service@aerize.com
o Credit Card: xxx
2. Documents To Go Premium Edition for BlackBerry, English Version: 1.007
o http://download.dataviz.com/documentstogo/blackberry/documentstogo1007/documentstogo.jad
o Order number : xxx
o Registration Number: xxx
o Activation Key: xxx
3. PDFtoGo
o http://www.dataviz.com/getpdftogo
4. Audible.com
o http://download.audible.com/webinstall/nellymoser/RIM_Curve8330/Audible.jad
o http://download.audible.com/blackberry/index.html
And then after you format your phone, you can simply click on the Word document and click on the apps’ website and re-download on your way to work on the bus like I do : )
Happy Halloween!
Be Safe!