newBBie.com

I really wish they would build in a recurring audible alert for missed calls. I use the “blackberry alerts” application, which does the job, but seems like a good feature to get built in.

DRK,
That’s why BlackBerry Alerts is so popular. It makes up for a shortcoming in the notification features.
Kelly

Kelly,

Where do I find Blackberry Alerts? I would like to be notified when I have a new message, email, missed call, etc. other than the flashing lights. I’m confused be them all.

I just niticed that my phone is flashing a blue light all the time, but my bluetooth is not currently active. I checked and my LED coverage indicator is already off.

Thanks

I take taht back, my bluetooth IS currently active. But I do hate that flashing blue light, especially at night.

Shamika,
Your other questions I answered on the page where you left the question.

My articles on Ring/Vibrate/LED explain how you can use ringtones or vibrations to alert you to messages. You might want to re-read those articles to figure it out.

But if you really want the flexibility of BlackBerry Alerts, find it here: http://www.bbymelsoftware.com/bbalerts/.

However, I’d learn everything you can do with built-in features of your BlackBerry before you resort to using BlackBerry Alerts. You may find you don’t really need it.

Concerning Bluetooth, you really need to do this: On the Home Screen, open the Bluetooth icon. Press the Menu key and select Disable Bluetooth. Not only will that stop the blue flashing light, but it will save battery charge. If you always have Bluetooth enabled, that may be why your battery is discharging so quickly. Only enable Bluetooth while you’re using a Bluetooth headpiece or similar device. Then disable it when you’re done.

Let me know how things work out.
Kelly

I would like to have, in vibrate profile, to have an option to not vibrate each time a message is received. In normal profile, there is a mute, but not in vibrate. any way around this? I just got my 8130 last week.

Mark,
I’m assuming you want phone calls to vibrate but not messages. In the Vibrate profile, go through each of the message types (various email accounts, SMS text, MMS, etc.) and set the Out-of- and In-Holster settings to be “None” instead of Vibrate or anything else. Just make sure for Phone you leave it on Vibrate.

Or, what I’d probably do, is create a custom profile named “Phone Only Vibrate” and set it up the way I just described.

I hope I understood what you’re wanting to do.
Kelly

Thanks, sounds like exactly what I want to do.

I have been unable to get any audio or vibration alerts for email and calendar notifications. I’ve tried editing the profiles, but it never seems to work for me. It doesn’t matter which profile I try to use. I’ve tried normal and high and not a peep.

I really want an audible alert when I have an appointment in my calendar.

Is there anyway to do it?

Peter,
Can you get sounds to come out at all, by playing ringtones using your Media Player? First, make that’s OK, or messing with Profiles is a waste of time.

I’d start with the Loud profile. Go into the edit mode for that profile. Your screen will show 10-12 reasons for notification: Calendar, email, phone, etc. Make sure you go through each of those (at least calendar, email, phone, and SMS), and make sure you have Tone or Vibrate+Tone set for both in- and out-of-holster. Make sure Volume is high. Make sure the ringtone chosen is one that you have tested in the Media Player so you know it should be heard. At the very bottom of the Phone screen, make sure you don’t have Do Not Disturb set to On.

If you know about the “Use Active Profile Except For: Important Calls” setting, make sure that’s not selected unless you really understand what that’s about.

Select the Loud profile for the next step.

Have someone call your BlackBerry and see if it rings. Email yourself or have someone email you and see if it rings (or makes a tone). Repeat for text, etc.

Whatever the outcome, please let me know what happened. Your phone is half useless if you can’t hear when someone is calling or messaging you!
Kelly

Hi there! I stumbled across your website since I just got my Verizon Pearl 8130 yesterday and I’m finding a wealth of info Thanks so much for the website.

I have a quick question. I like to keep my phone on at night, but just turn off the ringer, so if someone calls, I can still tell/see who called even if they don’t leave a voicemail. Previously, I have a Motorola Razr v3c.

So, last night, I wanted to charge the initial battery to full for the first time and found that the wall charger will only charge if the phone is turned off and then I see the flashing green LED and eventually solid green LED when the phone is fully charged.

Is there a way to leave the 8130 powered on (or at least hibernate or something, allowing calls to come in muted) and still wall charge?

Thanks!

NickS,
My wall charger charges all the time whether the phone is on or off. Either your wall charger is different or you’re mistaken. I think you might be misinterpreting the green LED. When the green LED is flashing, it means that you’re in an area of good cell phone coverage. I agree it can be a bit confusing.

If I understand what you’re wanting to do, use the Quiet profile at night but remember to change it to Normal or Loud or other when you get up.

Personally, I use the Auto On/Off to have my phone turn off during most of the hours I’m sleeping then turn back on just before I wake up. That way, I get my beauty sleep and still see any missed calls, voicemails, or messages that might have happened during the night.

Let me know if you can’t find something that works for you.
Kelly

Hi! Great tut, very helpful. Question: the custom ring tone I have set works well enough, but it isn’t very loud. I vaguely remember stumbling across an option to change it, but I cannot for the life of me remember. Any help?

Oh wait, I found it. Another question though: can I change the color of the clock font from black to white?

Blake,
Thanks for sharing your opinion.

Do you mean you want to change the color of the date/time on the Home Screen? If so, I think that’s more about the Theme you pick. I don’t know any other way to change that. If I can guess the problem you’re dealing with, you may have a wallpaper that is about the same color as the text, so the text can’t be seen clearly. I’ve had that problem and just had to change the wallpaper.
Kelly

Yea, I was afraid of that, but then I found that wonderful bphone theme. It’s perfect! Thanks for all of your help!

hey,
I just got my blackberry pearl 8139 and I am just learning how to use it. I have the profile set on LOUD and my ringtone is audible when i listen to it, but when someone calls me I can barely hear it. The volume is all the way up and like i said the profile is on loud. I don’t know what else to doooooo!!!! HELLLP!

oops did not mean to put 8139 SORRY! 8130

nevermind, I found it thanks!

Brittany,
That was quick work on your part. BTW–I’m experimenting with a way to get a louder ring but I’m not sure if it will work out. Should know in a few days at most. So, try to return and check on my progress.
Kelly

Kelly:

Fabulous service you are providing to those of us out here in “crack”berry wilderness. I have a really simple (I think) but nagging problem.

I took the phone out of the holster this afternoon and found the notification that the phone was in standby mode and that to exit standby mode and use the phone, I needed to press the “mute” key.

Kelly…which key (or key combination) is the mute key????

After pressing everything I could find, I finally had to reset the phone.

Don’t laugh!!

Robert

Barbados PR Pro,
The mute or standby key is in the strangest place: on the top edge of the phone. I suppose that was about the last place left where a key would fit.

I’m not laughing. I’m glad you asked.
Kelly

P.S.–I see you know the trick: when in doubt, reboot!

Kelly,

Not sure if this is the right place for this question but I wonder if you or any of your readers can answer my question. I downloaded some ringtones today from a web site. They came via sms and downloaded fine. However they downloaded as a file with the name of the file as a series of long numbers. That is how they look in my ringtones in my media file. Does anyone know of a way to change the file from a set of numbers to a name (ie the name of the song) because they downloaded straight to my phone…not on my computer. Thanks if anyone knows of a way to do this!

Bobbie,
Do Media > (press Menu key) > Explore. Search through the folders you see to find where the ringtone got downloaded to. Once you find it, you should be able to highlight it, press Menu key, and rename it. Let me know how that works.
Kelly

Does anyone know how long the LED notification “lasts”? Say you get an email or sms and it starts blinking red. If I don’t wake the phone up to see the email or sms, the LED stops after a period of time . Is there any way to get it to blink “forever” if the device is left unattended?

Shawn,
I don’t know the answer to that question. I’ve never noticed my LED stop flashing before I checked my messages. It might but I didn’t notice.

I don’t know of any way to change how that works.
Kelly

Just got my 8130. The problem I’m having is with custom ringtones, I downloaded a couple to the phone and was able to figure out how to use them, but when someone calls with a custom tone set, the screen goes black while its ringing so that I can’t tell who is calling, it’s really a pain and doesn’t happen with the ringtones in the phone already. Using .wav files for the custom ringtones.

Please help!! Thanks

Ross,
Try converting your .wav to .mp3. You can do it online free (but with annoying audio ads) at http://media-convert.com/. I just converted a 460k .wav ringtone to an 84k .mp3 file on that site. Works fine.

If it’s not the ringtone, I’d suspect your battery. A screen going dark when you’re pulling extra current to play a ringtone might indicate a weak battery. Especially if you’ve seen other hints of a weak battery, I’d go online and order a replacement. They are not that expensive if you shop around.

Please let me know how it works out.
Kelly

worked perfectly, thanks for the help, apparently the blackberry doesn’t like the .wmv files, the .mp3 worked fine. (and I convert the songs, or any portion of the songs, in itunes, works really nicely)

Ross,
Thanks for letting me know that worked. I don’t understand it, but it’s good know in case someone else asks.
Kelly

Is thier any way to have what I have put down on the calendar show up on the home screen so i dont have to go into the calendar to look to see what i have for the day?

sam,
There are many themes with a subtitle of “Today” that give you on the Home Screen a summary of today’s stuff. See if you don’t already have one of those themes installed. If not, go shopping for one.
Kelly

On my BB Pearl 8130 I no longer have any audio sounds with an incoming call. Only get two vibes. Also my audio dialing does not work. Everyothing worked fine prior to me enabling by bluetooth device.

Any recommendations?

Mike

mike,
I guess you tried disabling your BT device.

Maybe your earpiece volume is turned too far down. But you seem to mean the external speaker volume is off, not the earpiece.

Try a battery pull (remove, wait, replace, wait).

Let me know what happens.
Kelly

Hello. My question: I just got my blackberry 8130 and I set up custom ringtones, but everytime someone calls it plays a notification sound, and then the ringtone. How do I turn the notification sound off?

Amber,
I’ve never heard of that problem. Here are some suggestions:

1. Just in case the phone got goofy and needs a reset, pull the battery, wait, replace it, wait. See if the problem goes away.
2. If not, choose a different ringtone and see if that makes a difference. I have a farfetched idea that maybe there is some file corruption that has somehow caused the notification tone and ringtone to be joined. Probably not, but it’s a thought.
3. If problem still there, pick a contact who can help you troubleshoot this. Delete his/her custom ringtone. Restore the ringtone. See if the problem still exists.

Please let me know if anything helped or not. I’d love to get to the bottom of this wierd problem.
Kelly