newBBie.com

One of the most helpful articles I’ve seen on BlackBerry tips!

One question I have: How do Exceptions work interact with Custom (caller ID) Ringtones?

Suppose I have John Smith set to a Custom Ringtone of Tune_Special. If I create an Exception group and then add a custom ringer (or set the Exception group to use some other profile), will the caller ID custom ringer be used or will the Exception group override the custom ringtone?

Love the site! The animated GIFs are particularly helpful!

Thanks,
Andrew

Andrew,
Your question just forced me to discover something: Custom Ringtones are implemented as Exceptions! I had never set a custom ringtone until this experiment, and when I went into Exceptions–lo and behold–but the person who I had set a custom ringtone for showed up as a new exception. I’m going to revise the above article to reflect this finding.

Now, a related experiment that I just did was this: What if a person is in an exception group/list and also shows up as a single exception? Which ringtone is used? ANSWER: Whichever is first in the list of enabled exceptions.

Thanks for asking that question! And thanks for sharing your thoughts on the article and the animated GIFs. I appreciate helpful feedback.
Kelly

When I miss a call (or any other notification) the only way to know it is if I happen to physically look at the phone and notice the blinking red LED. Is there a way to get it to beep or vibrate every minute or so to let me know I’ve missed something?

CHRIS,
You need a custom app to do that. I hear a lot about BlackBerry Alerts as a good solution for that problem, but I have not tried it myself.

What you’re asking for is a very popular idea. Maybe one day RIM will add that feature to the BB OS.
Kelly

kevin.Umbehr@bakeroiltools.com asks: I can not get my phone to viberate when an e-mail message is coming in. What am I doing wrong? It works fine for phone calls, but not e-mails…. Thanks!!
Kevin Umbehr

kevin,
You have to set vibration for email in addition to phone.

Choose the Profile you want to have vibration for email. Do Profiles > Advanced… > (highlight the desired profile) > (press Menu key) > Edit.

Scroll to the (first, if several) email account that you want to vibrate in that profile. Click it. Change the Out of Holster to Vibrate or Vibrate+Tone (whichever you prefer). Set the Number of Vibrations (1, 2, or 3). Do the same for In Holster.

If you want that behavior for more than one email account, go back and repeat the previous paragraph for each successive email account.

Save the changes to that profile. You may even want to edit another profile to behave the same way. Or you might have wanted to create a totally new profile just for that particular vibrating behavior.

Let me know if that works for you. It should.
Kelly

Kelly,

Thanks for the follow-up. That is definitely NOT the behavior I expected. It’ll take some thinking to figure out exactly how I want to configure my profiles and custom ring tones.

The implication is that if I have a custom ring tone for Girlfriend (which as you discovered creates an Exception), switching the Active Profile to Quiet or Vibrate will NOT have the intended effect with respect to the Girlfriend contact–calls from her will still ring as opposed to vibrating or being silenced. … Or am I wrong about that point?

I’ll have to do some experimenting (but it’s hard since I only have one phone).

Thanks again,
Andrew

Kelly…great site! I don’t know what I would have done without it…

When I’m deleting email messages on my BB, is there some way to select more than one at a time?

Margy,
If you highlight a DATE instead of a MESSAGE, you can press the Menu key and select Delete Prior. That will delete ALL messages prior to that date.

Another thing you can do is hold down the SHIFT key and start rolling the trackball. You will select all messages from the starting point to the end point. Then you can press the Menu key and select Delete Messages.

Recently readers have mentioned they accidentally deleted an important message and wondered if they can recover them. You can’t. So, be sure to save (that’s another Menu option) important messages before you do any deleting.

Thanks for your compliments on the site. It makes it so worthwhile when I learn it has helped someone.
Kelly

@Andrew,
Your questions continue to force me to learn new things. Here’s the latest:

* If you have an Exception to allow through important calls (e.g., Girlfriend), and your Active Profile is Quiet, the call WILL come through (ring/vibrate/whatever you set)!

* If you have an Exception to allow through important calls (e.g., Girlfriend), and your Active Profile is Off, the caller ID will come up on the display with a choice of Answer or Ignore, but the phone will remain SILENT.

Personally, I really like how that works. What about you?
Kelly

Hi Kelly,

Have you figured out a way to make new messages flash the green led instead of the red. Mine flashes green when the battery is low. Seems to both me and my husband that it should be opposite. Red for dead battery, green for go message. Great Site! Very informative!

Katee

Kelly,

Thanks again for the helpful update. I agree; I like how the Quiet and Off profiles work together with Exceptions. I think heretofore I had been using Quiet essentially as Off.

Andrew

@Katee,
There is a 3rd party program I keep hearing about called BlackBerry Alerts. It’s possible that it’s smart enough to use different colors for the LED.

In the early days of LEDs, red was the only color (at least for affordable LEDs). So, electronic designers probably are following a tradition that needs to be reconsidered, now that multicolor LEDs are common and cheap.

Thanks for your comment.
Kelly

I use Twitter a lot. I can’t seem to find a way to assign SMS messages from Twitter (40404) their own custom ring tone. I would like to be able to know whether I’m receiving a regular SMS message or a Twitter SMS. I tried adding Twitter to my contact list and assigning a custom ring tone, but my default notifier plays no matter what. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

-D

Darrin,
Here’s what I would try: Create a Custom Profile just for Twitter. In that profile, set the tone you want for Twitter SMS Text. Then go back and set an Exception to use the Active Profile except for the Twitter contact. In that exceptional case, use the Twitter profile. I hope that works–please let me know.
Kelly

great blog.

thanks for taking the time.

didn’t know where to ask this question, but is there a way of increasing the RINGER’s volume higher than its factory setting?

also, is there a way to make sure there is a constant reminder (for text, voicemail etc.) whether the phone is on, or when it’s being powered up again?

eve,
Everyone complains that the Pearl’s ringer is not loud enough even at maximum volume. Personally, I think it’s because the Pearl speaker sounds bad when you go any higher, so RIM decided to limit how loud it can go. I’ve experimented with ringtones I made myself recorded to be extra-loud. It didn’t help any. The best you can do is select or download a ringtone with a higher pitch or something that sounds louder to your ear.

About the constant reminder, the closest feature to that is the flashing green LED showing you have a good signal. Many people do NOT like that because it slightly drains the battery, so they disable that feature.
Kelly

kelly,

thanks so much for the lowdown and specs on the bb pearl’s lack of a pa system
oh, well, i’ll apply your great advice, and will continue to do what i always do: look at the phone whenever i’m not within earshot of it!

cheers!

eve

Kelly,

I saw the answers that your provided for Andrew’s questions, and I think my question may be along the same line or not.

When I go to Advanced under Profiles and scroll down to the “Use Active Profile Except for” section, I have Important Calls and then a list of names, and they are all checked. I am assuming these are the contacts with custom ringtones.

Here are my questions:
What exactly are “important calls?”
What would happen if I unchecked any of the names I mentioned above? Would I simply not hear the custom ringtone when they call?

Thanks!

April,
You are correct that you are seeing contacts with custom ringtones listed as “exceptions.” If you uncheck them, you simply deactivate the exception so that calls from them will not be treated differently. They will NOT be ignored, just treated like any other caller.

The “Important Calls” is a built-in exception that you can edit to be any list of people you want. You highlight “Important Calls,” press Menu key, select Edit, and add/delete your contacts you want to consider “important” as a group. I use it for family members. You could use it for business clients, etc. Of course, you can create a totally separate group and name it anything you like.
Kelly

My Girlfriends has a blackberry pearl, Now auto txt is messing up it on but not working. Is there away she can fix this. Or is the phone screwed and needs RMA it.

Jason,
No, don’t return the phone. Do Options > Custom Dictionary. You can edit out all the mistakes, or you can clear the entire dictionary (as a last resort).
Kelly

Hi Kelly, you’re site here is very informative…

I just bought a BB Pearl today, I’ve so far managed to get the ringers assigned… Placed all of my contacts from my old cell into the BB and think I have an understanding of the features w/i the BB…

My problem is music… I’ve installed, uninstalled, reinstalled, you name it to get the media manager and desktop software onto my PC so that I can connect my BB and transfer music to it so that I can have custom ringers and background pictures…

I do not have an SD card yet, and to be honest I’m starting to think I should just wait till I get one, I understand that the memory w/i the Pearl is limited, but I’d at least like to be able to transfer 1 song and 1 picture for now… Please help…

Jen,
Your instincts are correct: you should get a microSD card as soon as possible. There just really isn’t enough memory on the phone itself to put many songs or videos on it. At least get an inexpensive microSD card, such as a 1GB for around $10-15.

What exactly isn’t working with your Desktop Manager software? Is it not recognizing your phone? Or does only the Media Manager not work? Many people complain about the Media Manager.

Although the Roxio Media Manager has worked OK for me, I usually just set the phone (with media card) to enable “mass storage mode” so I can just copy songs and videos straight to the media card. Let me know if you have questions about that.
Kelly

You’re exactly right, it’s the Media Manager… I’ve found all of these neat applications but some of them want me to install on my PC and then move it to the BB via the Desktop Manager which refuses to work… Says Media Manager has stopped working and needs to close, or something like that… Currently I’m working on getting a trackball colour thing… The OTA I can’t seem to figure out so now I really need my manager to work…

Jen,
Be aware that the trackball color app only works on the Pearl 8100. All other pearls can only do white light.

I understand now that your Media Manager is not working right. But you seem also to imply you can’t install apps. Have you read this article? http://blackberry8130.wordpress.com/2007/12/31/blackberry-desktop-manager-wouldnt-install-applications/. It’s the single most popular article I’ve written, as almost everybody has the problem it describes. Let me know if you think that applies to your situation.
Kelly

Hi thanks… Going to read that article after the one I’m currently on…

I can install apps if I can get them to my bb… I’ve found that if in a forum there’s an OTA I copy that page into an email, email my bb and find the OTA link within the website directly from the bb which is working now… The transfering pics and music from the PC to the bb is not working since the program won’t work … I’m not sure if it’s due to Vista or not…

How do you remove applications?? And themes??

Also I’m reading the getting started thread and found out about the D’s beside text msgs… I scrolled through all of mine and all I see is a check mark, no D?

I found out that I couldn’t use the colour track ball app through forums as well… Maybe they will bring one for the 8130… I like to pretty up my phones… I tried a theme but ended up not liking it so I’m just going to change the wallpaper and leave the theme alone… Thanks!

Hi there, I have another question about signatures on SMS msgs… I’ve read your reply about this, typing the msg and then typing sig This sends the word sig and not what I’ve changed my owner thing to… Did I misunderstand the explanation????

Jen,
About “sig”: Your Pearl should have in its AutoText list (do Options > AutoText) an entry for “sig” and have it defined as “%O”. If that’s not in your AutoText list, it won’t work. If it is, when you type “sig” (without the quotes), then press SPACE or ENTER, it will replace it with your “Owner” text.

You can delete apps by doing Options > Advanced Options > Applications > (highlight an app) > (press Menu key) > Delete. Be careful not do delete anything unless you’re certain, since you’re having trouble installing apps.

Downloaded themes can be deleted just like they are an app, as described above. But the name of the theme in the app list may be hard to identify. You may have to to do View Properties to be more certain.

Themes can take up a lot of memory, so delete any you know you’ll never use.

The 8130 can never have a colored trackball because it has only a white LED behind the trackball. The 8100 have several different-colored LEDs.
Kelly

Right so I have the signature working so long as I remember to type in the “code” for it… I created one kind of like the one girl mentioned tricking the auto text into smileys… ** is now my signature…

Removed that theme that I ended up not liking so that’s good…

I love this site, it’s been so informative… I’m pretty much managed to answer all of my questions within it….

Will post more questions in the future I’m sure!! Thanks again!

Hello:

Allthough I have a custom active profile, and all it’s notifications are set to vibe+tone, suddenly the device is doing neither one. I can receive calls, e-mails, and all notifications, however no sound or vibrate alerts are achieved. It shouldn’t be a problem with the speaker or the vibrate function, since I tested them other ways and they work. I wonder what is going on. It is frustrating to keep the device at eyesight. Any help????

Thanks in advance…

Marcell,
It’s always easy to try a battery pull (remove, wait, replace, wait for reboot). If the phone just had a temporary failure, it might recover. It’s hard to explain any other way.

If the above doesn’t work, I’d try deleting the custom profile and rebuilding it.

I got fooled for a while one day when I had set a custom profile that played a tune on my media card. I removed the media card and forgot to replace it. When my phone rang, it played the wrong tune. Naturally, the phone reverted to a default ring tone since it couldn’t find the tune on the missing media card. I don’t see how that could be your problem, though.

Let me know what happens if you try the suggestions above.
Kelly

can you set a custom ringtone for a sms text message?

Justin,
You can edit a profile to set a custom tone for SMS for all callers, but you cannot set a custom SMS tone for any one particular caller. It would be nice, but it’s not possible on a BlackBerry currently (unless you buy some 3rd-party program that might do it).
Kelly

How do I set the Blackberry Pearl to ignore calls while I am navigating? (vz navigator)

Joseph,
I don’t subscribe to VZ Navigator, so if it offers an option, I don’t know about it. For the Pearl itself, the best suggestion I can think of is to set the Profile to Off. Your phone wouldn’t notify you of anything. But when you stop using VZ Navigator, you’d have to remember to change the profile back.
Kelly

Thank You!!!

I have accidentlly erased blackberry messenger from my menu but it is still on the phone how do i get it back? Whenever I try to download it again it tells me I do not meet system requirements?

Zach,
Where exactly did you erase it from? You didn’t just hide it on the Home Screen, did you? If so, you can similarly “unhide” it.

If you deleted it at Options > Advanced Options > Applications, then it’s gone. To restore it, you have to download and install your “Device Software” from your wireless carrier’s download site. Then you can use Desktop Manager to restore it. It’s somewhat complicated, so I can give full instructions in this tiny comment box. In essence what you’re doing is downloading all the software that would normally come on your phone, and making it accessible to Desktop Manager. This same mechanism is used if you wipe your phone totally clean and reinstall everything. But in your case you’re just reinstalling one application.

Let me know how you proceed, and if you have any problems.
Kelly

Hi,

I bought 8130 Pearl few months ago. I am not that much happy with it. First thing the ringer volume is very low and other thing i can hear only three rings and then it goes to the voice mail. Is there any way i can get more rings on my phone?