BlackBerry® Curve™

[freeworld]

I'm intrigued to try and upgrade my 9300 to OS6, but also very skeptical.  I don't have any corporate support, and can't afford to be down for a day (or days).  I have a few questions:

1) What is the success rate of upgrading to this OS?  Does it work every time, or are lots of people having trouble?

2) When you make this upgrade, what gets wiped out and what stays? 

                     Do you lose all configuration settings?

                     Do you lose any files?

                     Do you lose your email and calendar setups?

                     Do you just start with a blank device and have to re-customize and re-load everything?

3) How long does the upgrade take?

4) Are there any significant business benefits other than faster/better browsing?

Thanks for the help.

[sdgardne]

Hello,

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freeworld wrote:

1) What is the success rate of upgrading to this OS?  Does it work every time, or are lots of people having trouble? 

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I don't know of anyone here, on this user-to-user community, who has kept any stats. All is anecdotal, and your review of the relevant threads might provide you the insight you desire. Do keep in mind, of course, that forums like this tend to receive input from only those who have problems...rarely do we hear from folks for whom all worked just fine.

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freeworld wrote:

2) When you make this upgrade, what gets wiped out and what stays? 

                     Do you lose all configuration settings?

                     Do you lose any files?

                     Do you lose your email and calendar setups?

                     Do you just start with a blank device and have to re-customize and re-load everything?

---

Performed properly (e.g., NOT OTA, but via the desktop software), you can first take a full manual backup of everything...see the link in my auto-sig on this post for instructions. The process itself will further take another backup, which it will restore from, and you should not lose anything at all. But, if it fails, you still have that manual backup you took from which to restore, so you can be relatively assured that you are safe (within the limits of all technology, of course...there is no perfection).

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freeworld wrote:

3) How long does the upgrade take? 

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It should take no more than an hour I'd guess, but a lot depends on how large all of your databases are...they will take longer to backup/restore if they are larger. But all terms are relative...it will take as long as it takes.

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freeworld wrote:

4) Are there any significant business benefits other than faster/better browsing? 

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Other users on that specific device and OS level will have to comment.

Do be aware that there is no such thing as "OS6"...rather, there are many release levels within the OS6 major levels. All OS identifications are 4 octets in length, each individual package contains various fixes, enhancements, bugs, etc. But formal information about that is the responsibility of the mobile service providers to release, and they are notoriously lax at doing so.

• KB23393 How to check the model number and version of installed BlackBerry device software on a BlackBerry smartphone
• http://us.blackberry.com/support/apps-and-software/desktop-and-device-download-sites.html

Hope that helps!

[freeworld]

Thanks for the information.  It looks doable but a little time consuming.  I've been in this business too long to think any upgrade is bullet proof :-) , but it seems like you are saying there's been a lot of success (which is encouraging).  I do regular backups every week, but will do the manual one before beginning anything.  When I can carve out the time (ha!) I may take this on.

Thanks.

[sdgardne]

You are welcome, but to clarify...

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freeworld wrote:

but it seems like you are saying there's been a lot of success (which is encouraging).

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No -- I am not saying that at all; what I am saying is that I have no data from which to say one way or the other.

I highly encourage you to look through threads here on this site to evaluate the results others have had...I have not done that for you; I have merely provided you my personal opinions, which are completely my own. You may find that some experience problems that make the upgrade not worth the effort. You may find others that are perfectly happy.

I cannot predict what you will find, but an old reminder pops to my mind -- remember when Microsoft said that Windows would "run" on a 386 computer? Not an enjoyable experience, but it did "run".

Good luck!

[freeworld]

" -- remember when Microsoft said that Windows would "run" on a 386 computer? Not an enjoyable experience, but it did "run"."

LOL!

Thanks.