How many themes is too many?
 

Hi all.
This would be for the benifit of others as well as myself.
Being relatively new to the forums and all these great themes ......
How many themes is too many?
I have the 8100 with a 2gb micro SD card. All my music, pictures etc are on the card so there is not much saved to the device.
I noticed that with themes you do not have the option of saving it to a memory card ...... only to the device.

This is for the experienced users: In your experience, how many themes have you been able to have on your BB at the same time. And is there actually a way to save themes to the micro SD cards?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

I have no additional themes. I think the risk you run is that they take a lot of space. If you run into space problems you risk losing critical data...phone logs, email, etc.

You should check your space Menu>options>status (if it's less than 16mb you really should consider deleting some or freeing space other ways. Here is a link that will help if you choose to free up memory.

How do I free up memory on my device? - BlackBerryFAQ

I too only have the themes that come with the BlackBerry. I want as much device memory as I can have dedicated to messages, call logs, etc.

Thanks for your response. I'm going to check out the thread you refered me to. At the risk of sounding like a rook .... I'm on my BB > options > status
file free is 8,168,044 bytes
file total is 65,142,784 bytes

How am I doing space-wise?

you're running pretty low. id suggest going into options>advanced>applications and delete a bunch of the themes you'd never use

Two or more is too many. You can only use one at a time. I load the theme I am using get get rid of the ones I don't use.

Also make sure to pull the battery (while the device is on) to free up some memory and after you delete applications or themes.

I agree with everyone above. I used to have all the themes installed but since the memory issues started about a year ago, I no longer keep all those themes. I simply edit the .alx to add all vendor locked themes but then just remove the ones I'm not using from the java folder. Then if I want to change I simply copy and past that .cod back into the java folder and run app loader.

I dont usually add 3rd party themes as they have been known to cause strange problems on the device. Many don't but, again, with the new BB's you need all the memory you can get.

I only have six and deleted the once I don't really use

When you install a new theme and the install works just fine but when you go to activate the theme it's not there? That is when you know you have too many themes. If you remove one and then all the sudden the new theme will not work is confirmation you have or had too many themes on your phone.

Each persons limit will be different because our memory use is different, I may be able to get more themes on my phone that someone else who had more apps on their phone.

John, I did the same thing like you, edit alx for all theme, and put the word "OLD" in front of the COD theme that I don't want it to install.

OLDnet_rim_bb_media_320x240_b.cod
OLDnet_rim_bb_medialoader_video_320x240_b.cod
OLDnet_rim_theme_102a_icon_320x240_b.cod
OLDnet_rim_theme_114_320x240_b.cod
OLDnet_rim_theme_115_320x240_b.cod
OLDnet_rim_theme_119_icon_320x240_b.cod
OLDnet_rim_theme_120_today_320x240_b.cod
OLDnet_rim_theme_125_today_320x240_b.cod
OLDnet_rim_theme_125_zen_320x240_b.cod
OLDnet_rim_theme_129_320x240_b.cod
OLDnet_rim_theme_bbdimension_icon_320x240_b.cod
OLDnet_rim_theme_bbdimension_today_320x240_b.cod

I did this myself a couple days ago... I deleted all themes except the custom theme I was using. But oops, I found that I need at least ONE in order for my custom theme to work, so I kept the BB Dimension Zen one.

With only two themes on my 8800, I now have 31.6 meg free after a battery pull (previously 25.0 meg free, so I gained 6.6 meg just by removing themes).

how do you delete the themes? is it going to be done from the phone or the desktop manager? i looked at the applications deleted what i dont use increase my memory by 3 mb. so now want to get rid of other themes.

John mention something about .alx but sorry no clue how to do it.

You do it on you computer

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\Shared\Loader Files\8800-v4.2.1.108_P2.3.0.85\Java

And rename whatever themes that you don't want, make sure you don't rename this one

net_rim_theme_bbdimension_zen_320x240_b.cod

ok, since i have had memory concerns i've decided to try out removing vendor themes to free up space (as noted by John Clark and CBR900RR)...

after looking at this page BlackBerry.alx - Edited Files for Packaged Theme Installation (4.1 & 4.2 ONLY) i have a couple questions...i am with AT&T and i wanted to modify my alx file...do i just need to download the alx file under AT&T for the Curve and add OLD before every theme i want to remove (per CBR900RR's suggestion), or do i need to download the .exe file as well? or, do i need to install the .exe file and modify the alx in there to suit my needs?

thanks for your help...

All you need to do is rename the themes that you don't want, but you need to keep this one untouch

net_rim_theme_bbdimension_zen_320x240_b.cod

They are located in
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\Shared\Loader Files\8800-v4.2.1.108_P2.3.0.85\Java

I actually don't recommend deleting any of the oem ones that don't have a vendor code on them. I think the straight Dimension theme is necessary, as well.

I have deleted Dimension Icon and Today and left only Zen and I have zero issues.

i don't have a directory called "Shared" in my C:\..\Research In Motion\ directory...i do not have an .alx file...so, if i don't download this file, how do i actually get it?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8800/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Did you install desktop manager and the operating system on your computer?