Total Blackberry Solution: Outlook, the Blackberry, BES and Calendars - How to Prevent Conflicts and Annoyances

Total Blackberry Solution: Outlook, the Blackberry, BES and Calendars - How to Prevent Conflicts and Annoyances

Outlook, the Blackberry, BES and Calendars - How to Prevent Conflicts and Annoyances

If you use Outlook and a BlackBerry on a BlackBerry Exchange Server, or BES, you may experience these sorts of problems:

• Appointments mysteriously disappearing or reappearing

• Conflicts between Outlook and the BlackBerry

• Problems with recurring appointments

Here are some tips and suggestions to help avoid these problems.

(The tips apply to all versions of BES up to 4.x.)

KEY POINT: OUTLOOK IS KING

If you ONLY remember that Outlook is in charge, and use it, not your BlackBerry, to manage e-mails and calendars, you will avoid most calendar problems.

Accepting, deleting, dismissing, rescheduling

• ACCEPT invitations in Outlook, NOT on the BlackBerry. If you accept an invitation on the BlackBerry, it will remain unchanged in the Outlook Inbox. You need to accept it a second time (in Outlook) to remove it from view.

• DON’T delete an invitation from Outlook after you have accepted it on the BlackBerry because the meeting will be deleted from your calendar.

• If you delete an meeting from the Outlook calendar and then accidentally click the Accept button in the e-mail, you will add the meeting back to your calendar.

• If you want to DELETE an meeting or task, do this on Outlook. It will then automatically be deleted from the BlackBerry. If you delete it on the BlackBerry, it will NOT be reliably deleted from Outlook.

• Outlook and BlackBerry REMINDERS ARE INDEPENDENT. If you Dismiss or Snooze a reminder on one, the reminder will still show up on the other.

• DON’T Dismiss on one and Snooze on the other – dismiss on both OR snooze on both.

• You CAN Dismiss on one and Ignore on the other.

• If a meeting is RESCHEDULED and you delete the rescheduled email from your Inbox without responding to it, this will delete BOTH the original calendar entry and the rescheduled one.

Recurring meetings

• When scheduling recurring meetings or tasks, always enter an END DATE. Try to make the end date within one year.

• Always EDIT recurring meetings on OUTLOOK, NOT on the BlackBerry.

• When you edit a reccurring meeting, make sure you edit the SERIES if you want to change ALL of the appointments. If you want to change just one day, make sure you edit the SINGLE appointment.

Messages about meeting invitations

• When you receive a meeting invitation, make sure to read the message in the GREY SHADED AREA. The message may indicate a conflict or another issue that you need to be aware of.

Popups

• When a popup appears, read what it says BEFORE clicking on anything. The key is to properly respond to the request.

How to pair your BlackBerry with another Bluetooth-enabled device

1.   Click the Manage Connections icon on your Home screen

2.   First, verify that the Bluetooth technology is turned On

3.   Then select Set Up Bluetooth

4.   Click Search to find other devices or Listen to allow your BlackBerry smartphone to be discovered by other Bluetooth devices

5.   Click on the device you would like to pair with and enter the Numeric Passkey if required

6.   Click Yes

7.   To connect to a paired device, click the Options icon on the Home screen

8.   Select Bluetooth

9.   Click on a Bluetooth enabled device and select Connect

How do I add an auto signature on email messages?

For BES users:

To add an automatic signature on your email messages complete the following steps: 

1. Open Messages.

2. Press the Menu key.

3. Select Options.

4. Select Email Settings.

5. Set Use Auto Signature to Yes.

6. Enter in a signature.

7. Press the Menu key.

8. Select Save.

For BIS users:

1. On your PC, login to your carrier's BIS page.
2. Click the Edit option next to the email address you want to change.
3. Type in your new signature in the Signature field.
4. Click Save.

Unfollow Topic On the Bold 9650:

1.  Go to Setup in the Home folder
2.  Select Email Settings
3.  It will log in to the Blackberry Internet Service; choose Login to access your email accounts
4.  Click on the first account, and choose Edit from the popup menu
5.  Under General Options, it has the default "sent from my Blackberry" message.  Delete it or change it, as you wish
6.  Click Save
7.  Repeat for each email account on your phone

They couldn't have made it more obscure or difficult to find.  I guess they want to make it as difficult as possible to remove the free advertising tag line.

How to increase the speed of your browser

There are a couple of steps you can take that will increase the speed of your BlackBerry browser.

Turn off Show Images
1. From the Browser, click Options > Browser Configurati ons
2. Uncheck Show Images
3. Uncheck Use Background Images
4. Uncheck Support JavaScript

Display only missed calls in the Message list

If you would like to only display Missed Calls in your Message list follow these steps:
1. Open the Phone application .
2. Click Menu.
3. Select Options.
4. Click on Call Logging.
5. Under Show These Call Log Types change to Missed Calls.
6. Click on Menu.
7. Click Menu and select Save. 

Note: For 8700 series smartphones :
6. Click trackwheel, select Change Options.
7. Click trackwheel, select Save.

Contacts on the BlackBerry smartphone are not sorted properly by the First Name when the Title field is populated.

When the Address Book application options are set to sort by First Name and an entry contains a Title field, the contact list entries are sorted by the first letter of the Title field and not by the first letter of the First Name field.

Note: The Contacts application is known as the Address Book application in BlackBerry Device Software version 4.5 and earlier.

•  

Resolution

This is a previously reported issue that has been escalated internally to our development team. No resolution time frame is currently available.

Workaround 1

Sort by the Last Name field to place the contact list in an expected sorted order.

1. On the BlackBerry smartphone, select Address Book>Options.
2. In the Sort By field, select Change Option and then choose Last Name.
3. Select Save to save your changes.

Workaround 2

Type the First Name of the contact in the Find filter in the Address Book application.

1. On the BlackBerry smartphone, select Address Book.
2. Locate the Find field at the top of the contact list.
3. Type the First Name of the contact in the Find field.
4. All contact list entries that contain the first name entered in the Find field are displayed in the Address Book contact list.

How to remove a Gmail contact list from the BlackBerry smartphone

To remove the Gmail contact list from the BlackBerry smartphone, please complete the following steps:

Note: Gmail is known as Google Mail™ in some countries.

Note: Back up the BlackBerry smartphone. For assistance creating a backup file, see KB12487.

1. From the Home screen of the BlackBerry smartphone, click Options > Advanced Options > Service Books.
2. Highlight the <username>@gmail.com [SYNC] service book. Press the Menu key and choose Delete.
3. Open Contacts on the BlackBerry smartphone.
4. Press the Menu key and click Options.
5. Type RSET in the Contacts options (this can be typed anywhere in the Contacts Options screen).
6. The following prompt appears: 

1. Click Yes.

Additional Information

If the BlackBerry smartphone is active on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, the following prompt appears:

Select No and follow the steps in the Overview section to remove the Gmail contact list.

Set up a BlackBerry email address for your BlackBerry Internet Service account

Your BlackBerry Internet Service email address is a unique email address that allows you to send and receive email messages from your BlackBerry device. When you create the email address, choose a user name for the address. This name becomes the portion of the email address before the @ sign (for example, user_name in <user_name>@<serviceprovider>.blackberry.com).

If you are creating your BlackBerry Internet Service email address from the BlackBerry smartphone, complete the following steps:

1. From the Setup folder, select Email Settings. 

2. If prompted, accept the Terms of Agreement.

        3. Click Add or Add An Email Account. 

4. Click Create New Address or scroll down and click Need an Email Address?.

5. Select a user name, password, and secret question/answer. 

• If the desired address is already in use by another subscriber, you will be prompted to choose a different address. Suggestions for addresses which have not yet been taken are provided. Select an alternative address, and click Next.
• 6. Click OK to complete the setup process. 
• 
  

If you are creating your BlackBerry Internet Service email address from a computer, complete the following steps:

Log in to your BlackBerry Internet Service account.

Click Set Up Email to add an email address.

Select Need an email account.

Select a user name, password, and secret question/answer. 

• If the desired address is already in use by another subscriber, you will be prompted to choose a different address. Suggestions for addresses which have not yet been taken are provided. Select an alternative address and click Next.
• A confirmation will be displayed stating that the email address has been created. Click Finish to complete the setup process.

Blackberry Won't Turn On

I've seen it several times:  a user's Blackberry stays powered off with a black screen.  This likely happened after you disconnected your phone in the middle of an update.  The only indication of life is the blinking red light in the corner.  Nothing seems to wake it up and the Desktop Manager doesn't recognize that anything is connected.  What do you do?

This:

1)  Make sure you have Blackberry's Desktop Manager installed.
2)  Go to Start > Run and copy and paste the following line exactly (meaning with the quotation marks):

"c:\program files\common files\research in motion\apploader\loader.exe" /nojvm

3)  The Application Loader Wizard will appear -- click "Next."
4)  In the "Connection:" drop-down menu, you should see "USB-PIN: UNKNOWN".  Click the "Next" button.
5)  You should then see a list of applications ready to be installed for your Blackberry.  Hit Next and Finish and you are well on your way to getting your Blackberry back to life. Congrats!  Just don't disconnect anything and let the lengthy process finish completely.

NOTE:  If you do not see a list of applications mentioned in step 5 and instead see the message "The Blackberry Desktop Software does not have Blackberry Device Software for the device that you have connected to the computer.  Contact your wireless service provider or system administrator," then you must download Blackberry's Operating System for your carrier and device.  Just select the appropriate carrier and network type, select your Blackberry model from the list and download the latest version.  Install this download and follow the above steps again and you should be on the right path.

Blackberry - "My Number" is "Unknown"

When you go to make a call, you notice that "My Number" doesn't actually list your number, it just says "Unknown".  You can manually add this by doing the following:

Go to Settings > Options > Advanced Options > SIM Card

Click the button just to the left of the trackball to bring up an options menu and select "Edit SIM Phone Number".

Enter your phone number and press the trackball to save the number.

Contacts are duplicated on the BlackBerry smartphone after wireless synchronization

Cause

When synchronized over the wireless network, the contact list and its subfolders in Microsoft Outlook appear in one folder on the BlackBerry smartphone. Therefore, if a contact list is found in more than one subfolder in Microsoft Outlook, it is duplicated on the BlackBerry smartphone.

Resolution

To prevent a duplicate contact list from appearing in the BlackBerry smartphone contact list, complete the following tasks;

Task 1

Move the subfolders
In Microsoft Outlook, move any subfolders from the Contacts folder to the Mailbox folder or the Inbox folder.

1. Right-click the subfolder and select Move<Folder Name>.
2. In the Move Folder window, select the desired folder to move the subfolder to (either Mailbox –<Username> orInbox).

Task 2

Disable Wireless Synchronization

1. On the BlackBerry smartphone Home screen, click Contacts.
2. In the contact list, press the Menu key and click Options.
3. On the Contacts Options screen, next to Wireless Synchronization, click Yes and change it to No.
4. Press the Escape key and select Save.      

Task 3

Clear the contact list from the BlackBerry smartphone

1. Connect the BlackBerry smartphone to the computer and open the BlackBerry Desktop Manager.
2. Click Backup and Restore.
3. Click Advanced. The BlackBerry smartphone application databases appear in the right pane.
4. From the right pane, select the Address book All database.
5. Click the arrow to transfer the database to the left pane. This also saves a backup copy of the database on the computer.
6. When a copy of the database appears in the left pane, select the address book database on the right side, and click Clear.
7. Click Close and select Yes when prompted to save the backup database file to the computer.

Task 4

Enable Wireless Synchronization

1. On the BlackBerry smartphone Home screen, click Contacts.
• In the contact list, press the Menu key and select Options.
• On the Contact Options screen, next to Wireless Synchronization, click No and change it to Yes.
• Press the Escape key and select Save.       

Duplicate Contacts on Blackberry Using Blackberry Enterprise/Professional

If a Blackberry isn't wiped out prior to configuring it for use on Blackberry Enterprise Services, then duplicate contact can appear, causing a frustrating need to delete the unwanted entries one by one.  Sometimes this can also occur if a user attempts to synchronize from the Blackberry Desktop Manager on their computer.  Two "Desktop" contact lists are shown on the device and one of them is configured for wireless synchronization.  You can't clear out an address book database on a BE blackberry because it's marked as read-only -- what do you do?
Solution 1
1. You reset the address book from the device, which completely clears the address book and repopulates it based on the Blackberry Enterprise Server information:

1.  On the Blackberry device, go to Contacts and open Options.
2.  Type:  rset (there isn't a field to type it in, just type it while Options is open.)
3.  Confirm that you want to wipe the contacts.

The address book will then appear blank, but will soon repopulate with the current contact information.

Solution -2

1. In the device options, click Advanced Options.
2. Click Service Book.
3. Highlight the service book - Desktop [ALP] or BlackBerry [ALP]*
4. Click the trackwheel or menu button
5. Click Delete.

Once this is done, just follow you step to "RSET"..

Now login to BB Server and right click on the user and re-send Service Book and it worked like a charm...

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