Posts tagged Blackberry Tips

Trim The Fat:

Let’s get rid of the big stuff first. Go to ‘Options’ > ‘Applications’ OR ‘Options’ > ‘Advanced’ > ‘Applications’ depending on your OS. There’s probably a bunch of useless stuff there that you can delete:

1. Delete Extra Languages: If you don’t use the languages on your BlackBerry, then get rid of them!

2. Delete Games: If there are any games installed that you don’t play, delete!

3. Delete Help: You probably never use it anyway.

4. Delete any other unused apps: Many people keep apps on their BlackBerry that they have forgotten about, or just because they think they might need them one day. If you haven’t used an app in the last couple of months, chances are you aren’t going to use it in the future. You can always re-download apps anyway.

Manage Your Media:

Go into your media folder and hit ‘Menu’ > ‘Explore’ > ‘Device Memory’ > ‘Home’ > ‘User’. Then go through each folder. If you come across anything such as pictures, videos, documents, etc., move everything over to your media card.

Manage Your Messages:

Go through your message list and delete everything that isn’t important. Do this with your SMS/MMS messages as well. This may take a while if its the first time you’re doing this, but it’ll be much easier to manage as long as you do this at least once a month. In addition to your regular messages, delete your call logs, Facebook & browser messages, and whatever else you find that you don’t need. Believe me all of these little things add up.

Clear Browser Cache:

If you can’t remember the last time you’ve done this, its been too long. Open your browser and hit ‘Menu’ > ‘Options’ > ‘Cache Options’.

Manage Memory Settings:

Go to ‘Options’ > ‘Memory’. Make sure ‘Content Compression’ is enabled and ‘Media Card Support’ is on. You can check your free ‘Application Memory’ on this screen as well.

Use Memory Cleaner:

Many people do not realize that BlackBerrys come with a built-in memory cleaner! Go to ‘Options’ > ‘Security Options’ > ‘Advanced Security Options’ > ‘Memory Cleaning’. You can set it to automatically clean when idle. Set the settings to your liking and your BlackBerry will do the work for you. You can also choose to ‘Clean Now’ or place an icon on your home screen to clean on demand. This really isn’t necessary if you set your device to clean when idle.

Close Background Apps:

If you have apps running in the background, they are taking up virtual memory, as well as draining your battery. (See my article on saving battery life) You can view your runningbackground apps by hitting menu & selecting ‘Switch Application’ (on 5.0 OS builds you can simply hold down the menu key). Some apps have to run in the background and cannot be closed. ie: Phone, Messages, BBM, Browser, Visual Voicemail etc. Mostly everything else can be closed. Many people have a bad habit of hitting the end key when done with an app, but doing so will leave it running in the background! In order to close an app, you have to use the exit key, or sometimes press
menu & close, exit, or shutdown. That all depends on the app. You should make it a habit of checking to see which background apps are running from time to time. We are all guilty of forgetting about something here and there.

Delete Themes:

Being the efficiency freak that I am, I don’t use any extra themes. I actually load my OS’s with only the zen theme. I find that my BlackBerry starts up a lot faster that way. I do know people that like to constantly download new themes but don’t really manage them. Most themes take up a large amount of space. If you are one of those people that can’t live without 3rd party themes, you should only keep one theme on your device at a time. Save the links or zip files for the themes you aren’t using in case you decide to re-download them at a later date. Its not worth storing them on your device.

Power Cycle Your BlackBerry:

It amazes me how often I come across someone who cannot remember the last time they restarted their device. You should power cycle your BlackBerry once daily. You can do this manually by holding alt + right shift + del. You can also download Quickpull in App World and set it to automatically restart daily at a time you specify. Most people set Quickpull to power cycle at a time when they are usually sleeping. In addition to power cycling your device once daily, you should pull your battery once every week.

Conclusion:

I didn’t touch upon shrinking OS’s or deleting .cod files because this article was written for the average BlackBerry user. If you took all of the steps listed above, I’m sure your BlackBerry is running more smoothly and efficiently.