Hey guys:
After hours of research on the pros, cons, and pitfalls of upgrading to
4.5.0.77 on my
Verizon 8330, I'm happy to say that I accomplished it this afternoon. Boy, am I happy with my decision. The HTML e-mail viewing capabilities and the inclusion of "Documents to Go" is GREAT!
To help anyone else out who has been thinking of upgrading, I have typed up step-by-step instructions on
exactly what I did. I ran into a few hitches along the way, but I've included solutions to each hitch just in case any of you run into the same problems.
*Note: give this whole thing a read before doing anything, just so you're OK with how things will turn out after completion.
Based on the forums I've read,
Vista has caused problems for those who've tried performing this upgrade. If you're running Vista on your PC, you might wanna do this on another computer. Or, if you're brave, give it a shot anyway. I had no problems at all doing this with
XP, so here's step-by-step what I did:
1. Be sure you're running the most recent version of
Desktop Manager (4.7). If you're not, download it here:
https://www.blackberry.com/Downloads...93E4F3BB068C22
2. Before connecting your BlackBerry to your PC, clean up any unwanted apps, files, photos, etc. Also, clean out the browser cache, and it wouldn't hurt to run "Memory Cleaner" either. As an extra step, I also cleared my event log (press and hold alt and then press L, G, L, G). option button, clear log.
3. Now that Desktop Manager v4.7 is installed and your BlackBerry is cleaned up, connect your BlackBerry to your PC. Before you do
anything, run the "Backup" feature to save your current BlackBerry settings to your PC.
*Note: my backup failed and an error message popped up about halfway through. If it does that for you, try this: in the "Backup and Restore" menu on Desktop Manager, click "Advanced" (a brief loading screen will run). On the right, you'll see a screen listing "Database" and "Records." If you see records under the database titled "Profiles", click it and press clear to remove them. Also, if there are still records under "Browser Data Cache," do the same to those. After clearing those records, try the "Backup" function again. It worked for me after doing this, so hopefully it'll do the same for you.
4. After the Backup function has completed, the next step is downloading the new 4.5 OS. With the BlackBerry still connected to your PC and the Desktop Manager v4.7 still open, visit the following link on Internet Explorer (
it won't work on FireFox):
BlackBerry - Update your Device Software
Click the update icon and follow the instructions. A nice, BlackBerry-looking pop-up will appear which will govern the downloading process. I was happy to see this and felt much more comfortable going from here on out. I believe there are a few steps to follow, so just follow the on-screen instructions and the 4.5 upgrade will begin.
5. This process takes a little while (about an
hour for me). Depending on how much more or less stuff you have on your BlackBerry, that time could vary. It might seem tedious and unnecessary, but I stood by my computer the whole time and moved the mouse around every now and then. I read in some forums that some people's screen savers came up during this upgrade process and screwed things up, so I did
NOT want that to happen to me. It probably just depends on the power settings you have on your computer (my computer doesn't go to sleep after being idle for a while, so i probably would have been OK). Nevertheless, better safe than sorry.
6. If all goes to plan, there should be an "Update Successful" message. You may then close the pop-up window.
7. At this point, disconnect your BlackBerry from your PC. All of your apps should still be there, but the arrangement on your home screen and various settings (shortcut keys, notifications, etc.) may need to be changed from their default settings that come with the 4.5. At this point, feel free to restore your personal settings back and get your BlackBerry looking the way you like it.
8. The coolest feature in the 4.5 OS update is HTML e-mail. Before, e-mails with pictures or links that were sent to my phone were
HORRIBLY formatted, just a mess. It's much better now, and looks a lot more like an e-mail would on any computer. It took a couple steps to get the HTML e-mail to work, so here goes:
9. Go to your e-mail app and click the option button/e-mail settings and be sure that "Enable HTML E-mail" is marked "Yes." Also, be sure "Download Images Automatically" is marked "Yes." After saving those settings, go back to the home screen.
10. Now, re-send service packets to your phone by logging in here:
BlackBerry - BlackBerry Smartphone and Email Setup
11. This was all I needed to do to get the HTML email to work. I sent myself a couple of test e-mails with graphics/links, and I was pretty pleased with it. The only semi-annoying thing is that when you go to open an email that contains links/graphics, you'll probably need to press the option button and click "Get Images." This is a security feature that RIM put in to allow the BlackBerry user some control over who they view images from in the emails they receive. It is my understanding that once you choose "Get Images" on one particular party's e-mail to you, future images inside e-mails from that same sender will automatically load upon opening.
12. Another change you'll notice is that in your SMS threads, a little black dot is next to each line containing the date/time of the message. Some people are annoyed by this, but I don't mind it. For me, it's a nice way of visually separating each message within the thread. As far as I know, there is no way to get rid of it, but that didn't bother me.
13. Also, the 4.5 OS upgrade does not contain any pre-loaded pictures like my old 4.3 version did. Some of those pictures were pretty cool, but not at all necessary. I think RIM decided they took up unnecessary space, so they scrapped them.
14. Another noticeable change is the setup of the camera options after you click and take a picture. Everything is arranged very nicely, and it looks much cooler.
15. The other big feature with 4.5 is the "Documents to Go." This program allows you to view/edit Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files from your BlackBerry. After updating to 4.5 OS, I only saw "Word to Go" and "Slideshow to Go" under my Documents to Go file. I thought for sure some sort of Excel feature would be included with this, but it appeared to be missing. When opening Word to Go, I was prompted to visit a website to register the product and also download an important update. For some users, this update might go through successfully and Documents to Go then becomes fully functional with Word, PPT, and Excel capabilities; for me, however, it did not work that way. Midway through installation of this update, I received the following error message:
907 Invalid COD. After doing some investigation, I found the following solution:
16. See the instructions here for correcting the Documents to Go issue described above:
DocID: 14238 - I get a "907 Invalid COD" error when trying to download and install Documents To Go on my BlackBerry.
This above link lists 3 different things you can try to fix this problem. I tried all 3, and finally had luck with the last one. Deleting the version of Doc's to Go that came with the 4.5 upgrade, rebooting my BlackBerry, and re-installing it via the web did the trick. To save yourself time, I suggest you just skip to #3 if you receive the same error as I did. Chances are you've got the same issue, and you'll have peace of mind downloading a fresh, clean copy after deleting the old. It's a very neat program and worth your time.
BlackBerryForums Moderators: I realize that many of these steps may seem redundant since they've been touched on in various other areas within the forums, but as I was doing research and trying to figure out the necessary steps, it took me a long time to piece together all the necessary information. I hope this post can be a one-stop place for VZW 8330 users to seamlessly upgrade their devices just like I did.
Hopefully this post serves as motivation for those VZW 8330 users who have been dragging their feet to upgrade to 4.5 like I had been. It's really easy, and well worth it. If you run into any problems that I haven't listed above, feel free to post them below, and hopefully others can aid in resolving them. Good luck!
Verizon 8330 users: Step-by-step directions on upgrading to 4.5.0.77 OS
