Rating: GoMo’s Top Tips for migrating from an old Berry to the latest models
With RIM all set to launch the very latest version of its mobile OS – BlackBerry 10, tomorrow [January 30th 2013], it has drawn our attention to the process of migrating from one BlackBerry model to another. The need for backups is therefore a must. GoMobile News thought it might be useful to provide some Top Tips for doing so from our recent experience of migrating from an 8250 to a 9320. We don’t know how much easier it might be to migrate to a BB10 device yet but there’s no harm in being safe rather than sorry.
Tip One: Don’t panic if all your apps appear to have disappeared. As readers will probably be aware, RIM has renamed its app store to BlackBerry App World to take BB10 into account.
Now we’d already made sure we had a note of our BlackBerry ID (which is usually an email adress) plus password/PIN number. You’ll need this to log onto BlackBerry App World with your new device.
We couldn’t help but notice that the majority of our existing apps appeared to have disappeared. This could be a big problem if you paid for them.
However, if you log onto the My World option and look at the top centre of the screen, you probably ntoice that it is set to displaying ‘installed’.
Select that option and change it to ‘uninstalled’ and if by magic all of your lost apps will reappear.
Simply one of them and choose the Reinstall button. Hey, ho – your lost apps are back.
Tip Two. Back up your BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) contacts separately. We’re not sure why but initially our BBM buddies didn’t transfer.
If you go to the Options menu in BBM, you should be able to see another set of menus which are headed – Back-up Management.
Pick ‘Backup’ and if you want to take our advice, save the list to your removable memory card.
Save it to a sensibly named folder as well if you want to find the again easily.
Tip Three: Now go to the BlackBerry desktop software and ensure that you have taken a full back up of your handset’s data. This should take care of your regular phone/addressbook entries.
Now when you plug in your sparkling new BB10 handset, the desktop software will recognise it as a new device with a new device name.
It’s at this point that you can pick the Restore option. You should then be presented with a number of previous profiles and from the name and date of the profile, you’ll know how to transfer existing data to your new smartphone.
This should take care of email settings, too. However, in our case we had to send the Service Books a second time to get emails running smoothly.
If, like us, you get a Service Book error message on your BlackBerry, follow these simple steps.
Open ‘Messsages’. Then Options. Scroll until you see Email Account Management. At this point it is necessary to have ‘full menu’ options selected, too.
Not open Account Management and highlight the mailbox you’re having problems with.
Again go to Full Menu and hey presto there is an option marked Service books. Select this and the BlackBerry will resend the requisite Books. Now reboot.
Tip Four: Device Switch. Most readers will be wondering why this isn’t Tip One. The reason is simple. Not all BlackBerries – especially older ones, actually support this neat facility.
To check if you’ve got it, go to Setup. There you should see a wizard that is clearly labelled Device Switch. It’s obvious what it is meant to do.
There are two options and here’s the rub. Select ‘Device Switch – Using a Media card’. It’s this facility which warns that, “The other BlackBerry smartphone must also have this Device Switch wizard. Ours didn’t. Hopefully BB10 has got it, though.
Best of luck switching.
