[Tagbert]

I just got my 8100 this past weekend. On monday I was setup with a BES account that connects to my company's Exchange server. That also forced me to enter a password. Everything worked fine until tuesday afternoon when it would no longer accept the password. I eventually had to have the admin reset my phone and I entered a new one.

Now a day later, it will no longer recognize the new password!!

I have noticed that in both cases that text entered in the password field is not converted to asterix like it is in cases when the password is accepted. It remains clear text. I've tried pressing alt, shift or combinations, but it remains clear text.

Any idea what is going on? I want my phone back!

[JerryD]

Originally Posted by Tagbert

I just got my 8100 this past weekend. On monday I was setup with a BES account that connects to my company's Exchange server. That also forced me to enter a password. Everything worked fine until tuesday afternoon when it would no longer accept the password. I eventually had to have the admin reset my phone and I entered a new one.

Now a day later, it will no longer recognize the new password!!

I have noticed that in both cases that text entered in the password field is not converted to asterix like it is in cases when the password is accepted. It remains clear text. I've tried pressing alt, shift or combinations, but it remains clear text.

Any idea what is going on? I want my phone back!

First of all, the 8100 hasn't been approved yet! (just kidding unless you work for my company!!!)

Anyway, passwords on 7100 and 8100 series are extra difficult because each key has TWO characters AND a number assigned to it. I don't have one of these in front of me, but I support BlackBerries for my company, and we regularly have users with these models run into password problems.

Unless your company is particularly sadistic and requires a complex passwords (two or more of upper case, lower case, number, symbol), KEEP THE PASSWORD AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE! In fact, I use only two letters - next to each other and close to the [Enter] key so I can enter it quickly and with one hand. Keep these points in mind when creating a password on your device:

1. Use the shortest password allowed (unless you're truly masochistic)
2. Use only the first character of any key. That is, if the first character on a key is U and the second is I, do NOT use the letter I in your password
3. Unless required, don't use upper case characters, symbols, or numbers
4. Do not hold down the key - this will induce an upper case character!

What you probably did was THINK you entered the password with the letter I or the number associated with that key, but it's actually U! The funny thing is a user can go on for WEEKS - even MONTHS entering the password thinking it contains an I and not know it until they can't get the password right when connecting to Desktop Manager.

One other thing - once you've entered the password incorrectly 5 times, the BlackBerry will warn you and ask you to enter the word "blackberry". Once you do, all subsequent attempts to enter your password will NOT be masked, so you can see what you're typing.

Hope this helps.

[Tagbert]

thanks.

My passwords have been just 6 single keypresses. No key pressed twice. No numbers, shifted, symbols or anything.

The password field acts like I have gotten to the "enter blackberry" stage, but right from the first entry.

[Andi]

I believe the password entry on 7100s has always shown what is typed and not the ***s because of the two or more symbols for each key - so I would assume the same would be true for the 8100s

[pvravi]

the 8100 shows me the letter when I first type it, and changes to a * < second afterward.

[Tagbert]

thanks for the suggestions.
I tried the password one more time. after that it asked me to enter "blackberry". once I did, it asked for the password again. I entered it and it took it! Whew!

I'm thinking that I may have accidently bumped the pearl a couple of times in my pocket and triggered the password entry without an values. maybe more than once? Maybe that confused it?

A friend showed me about holding the mute key to put the phone in sleep mode. Hopefully I won't have this problem again. I also hope that the case I ordered from fortte comes soon.