How to Install an OS on your Blackberry

July 02, 2013

Have you had difficulties uploading/ installing a new/updated/latest Blackberry operating system on your particular Blackberry? Below are steps that can help you do it. This method is universal, which means that it works on OS5, 6, and the latest OS7. It works on old phones as well as on the latest OS7 powered device.

1
Download an official OS from your wireless carrier from the official Blackberry site: http://us.blackberry.com/support/downloads/download_sites.jsp
2
Select your blackberry model and download the latest OS that is available on the site.
3
Install the new OS that you just downloaded off the blackberry site onto your computer.
4
Download and install BBSAK, the trusty 3rd party backup program for blackberry:http://bbsak.org/
5
Download and Install Desktop Manager (DM) from the official blackberry website:http://us.blackberry.com/apps-software/desktop/
6
Before moving to further process, you should have everything you need to perform the installation by now. Check list:
- Current OS downloaded and installed
- Latest DM downloaded and installed
- BBSAK downloaded and installed on your Windows PC as well
7
Connect your blackberry to your PC with your stock blackberry USB cord, and fire up BBSAK. BBSAK will automatically detect your BB. Once BBSAK detected your BB, hit the “Backup Apps” button to back up your 3rd party applications that have been installed on your BB.
8
Be patient, this process will take up to five minutes max. When it's done, hit “OK” and exit out the program.
9
Launch Blackberry Desktop Manager(DM). Click “Device”, then select “Backup and Restore”, once you are in it, click “advanced” and back up the settings you would to backup. Only backup your calendar, service books, bbm contact list, and contacts because if you are backing up other settings from the old device, when you load them onto the new OS, the extra old settings might not compatible with the new OS. Once the backup progress is done, exit out of DM.
10
Launch BBSAK again; make sure that your DM is not running in the background. Click “wipe device” this time. It will wipe out everything on your BB. Once the wiping process is done, the phone will reboot itself. Then you will see a “507 error”. Please do not freak out, this is normal; it means you are doing the thing right. “507 error” means your phone OS is corrupted or there isn’t one. To be sure that you phone is wiped clean, click “wipe device” again, the program will perform the same wiping process like the first time you did. Again, the phone will reboot and the 507 error will appear as expected.
11
Warning - This step is extremely important, so follow this instruction closely: Navigate yourself to this location on your computer: c:\program files\common files\research in motion\apploader. Once you are in it, find the “vendor” file and delete it. If you are running on Windows 7 64 bits, you will have two vendor files instead of one like xp and vista. So locate yourself to the 2 hidden vendor file by doing following:
- Open up a command prompt:
  - type “command prompt” on your computer’s built-in search engine to bring up the window.
  - type “dir /a /s C:vendor.xml” in it. Once you typed in the command, the hidden vendor file will pop out. Delete that hidden vendor file.
  - *C* is the hard drive that your current Windows is installed on it, so if you have your windows running on a “D” drive, please change “C” to “D”.
12
In the same folder, find “loader.exe” and launch it.
13
Follow the program itself, select whatever extras you want to install along with the new OS. Then hit “Next” for a couple of times, then the loader will begin the actual os installation process.
14
Hit “close” when it's done. Congratulations! You’ve survived your first manual Blackberry operation system upgrade by yourself. Be aware that once you hit “close” the Blackberry will restart itself. The first startup after the new OS is installed on the phone will take 3-4 minutes longer than a normal startup.
15
At this time, do not disconnect your phone after the new upgrade. Launch DM again to check if you have the new OS installed or not. Once you got in DM it will read your phone’s information by itself.
16
Do the same with bbsak, load your 3 party apps back via bbsak. Once the loading is done, your phone will restart again. You are done. Your phone is up and running!

Do the same with bbsak, load your 3 party apps back via bbsak
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