BlackBerry® Bold™

[razholio]

I would love to be able to set a password on my bold so it's a bit more secure, but would rather not lose all my data if one of my kids tries entering the wrong password 10 times.  Is there a way to do this?

[brandonnesbitt]

No, unfortunately that is what makes Blackberry devices so secure.  The max attempts is set at ten, depending on what age your kids are, they might not be able to go past the 5th try since the next attempt the device ask the user to enter blackberry before the next attempt.  This continues to happen after the 5th try until the last attempt it warns that all device data will be wiped.

Now there is one way to stop the ability to enter any password by putting the phone into standby. I don't know what model phone you have but if it is at least a curve 8300 series or higher then you can put it in standby mode.  To do this you will press the mute button at the top of the phone for a few seconds until you see the screen say "entering standby mode, press mute key again to exit." They wont be able to press any keys unless the figure out how to exit standby mode.

[razholio]

Thanks for the info.  Having the automatic datawipe can be handy, but only if that's what you want.  This should be a switch that I can turn on or off according to my local policy, it shouldn't be glued to 'on'.  What this means is that those who can't risk a wipe, have to do without a password.  That sucks, big time.

[jmrmb80]

It's a good practice to make a backup of your data using the Desktop Manager's Backup and Restore feature. That way even if your device is wiped. you can always restore it from the last backup file.

If your device is connected to a BES at work, your IT department can reset your password so that your device doesn't get wiped.