Get More Memory to install Blackberry Apps

Although I currently use a Verizon Droid as my phone, for 366 days I carried a Blackberry 9530, the Storm. During that year, I reloaded my OS 19 times, by count. And most of those times, the OS was shrunk. What does that mean, shrunk? It means that I physically removed the Java code files that were there for programs that I did not need or intend to use, thereby reducing the amount of memory consumed by the OS and freeing up additional memory for me to use to load 3rd party applications. On the Storm, which is especially short on memory, this meant that I usually had approx. 36 MB of free memory after all my favorite apps were loaded, instead of 9 MB. It makes a huge difference. Wait, you say, isn’t that dangerous? Well, it could be, if you indiscriminately started deleting code. However, outside of the wonderful community of guys who figured all this out, one person stands out. His handle is Lyricidal, as he is known in various Blackberry Forums.

Created by lyricidal @ theiexplorers.com / bbhybrids.net

Lyricidal created an outstanding helper program called Shrink-A-OS. This program shows you all the programs that you can safely remove for each OS available for most of the later Blackberry phones. If you later decide you want to add it back in, it is another OS install, but no harm done. And, of course, you will have backed up all your data and apps before all this process, and everything should restore back just the way it was before, except you have a new OS version and you may have to fuss with finding later versions of your apps for the new OS. But, you are not stuck waiting on your Wireless provider to give you an updated OS. BTW, if you are really interested in all this, you will want to check out websites like BBHybrids.net and BlackBerryOS.com, where you can get the latest news on new, unreleased and hybrid OS versions. Hybrids are hand-crafted selections of multiple versions of an OS for one particular device, that have been tuned for maximum ability and performance. When you find a good one, it is like gold! 15 of my 19 OS loads on the Storm were hybrid versions and that is what I ran, right up until the last day. Perhaps you are thinking that something like this is way over your head. It’s really not that difficult. I will give you a quick run-down of what is involved and then you can do your own research and see that it is not so hard.

Loading the software

In this particular case, I am going to show you the process I used to load a new OS version, not from Verizon Wireless, but made for another CDMA wireless vendor, for my wife’s Blackberry 9630 Tour. Other than the need to remove one single file, this is very straight forward. My wife was running the OS version 4.7.1.61, which is the last official release from Verizon Wireless. I moved her to version 5.0.0.419, which was release for some other vendor. In this case, an official RIM release, just not for Verizon. The file 9630AMEA_PBr5.0.0_rel674_PL4.2.0.179_A5.0.0.419_MTS_Mobility.exe was 103 MB in size, which is about right for a fully-loaded Blackberry OS. I also download the latest version of Shrink-A-OS, version 4.1, which was 75 KB in zip format. To load the OS, just double click the .EXE file and it loads to C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Research In Motion\Shared\Loader Files\9630AMEA_v5.0.0.419_P4.2.0.179. Note that my directory path shows \Program Files (x86)\… because I am running a 64-bit version of Windows 7. If you are running a 32-bit version of XP, Vista, or Windows 7, the (x86) part will be absent. Other than that, it works just the same. Unzip the 3 files in Shrink-A-OS.zip and copy them to the same directory where you just installed the OS version, the path noted above. You are going to execute the program from there. In the graphic above, the CDMA folder is where the Radio code is located, and the Java folder is where the 500+ files are located for all the Blackberry phone code, as well as the standard applications. Don’t mess with this directly! You can seriously brick your phone if you do. Also, to avoid frustration, please make a note to yourself: If you are using any version of Windows Vista or Windows 7, you MUST run any program here in Administrator mode, by right clicking the files and choosing this option. Also, before you do any of this, please make sure that you use the Blackberry Desktop Manager and backup your entire system, including Applications. Just in case.

Delete the Vendor.xml file

Because this OS version does not come from Verizon Wireless, my wife’s provider, we need to make sure and delete the Vendor.xml file, highlighted in red. The Loader.exe file (in blue) is the actual engine that loads the OS, whether you choose to invoke it directly, or you do an install via the Blackberry Desktop Manger.

Shrink the OS

When you run the Shrink-A-OS program, it will show you all the programs that you can safely remove from this version of the OS. Look at each of the areas. Do you really need all those different Language versions? Do you use all those Social Apps on your phone? How DocsToGo? Do you actually edit Docs and Spreadsheets on your Blackberry? Your choice. And this is not final. If you later decide you made a grave mistake in removing Word Mole, you can always do this again and leave it in.

Choose what you want to remove by clicking the Shrink My OS button. Notice how much memory you have preserved by NOT loading those programs you don’t need or use. You can continue to add/remove programs until you feel comfortable with what you have. All of the programs shrunk or removed are stored in a folder under the \Java directory, called RemovedFiles, so there are still there if you uncheck everything and Shrink My OS again. When you are finally ready, just press the Launch Loader button, and it will kick off the whole process. It will ask you all the standard questions about backing up (yes! even though you just backed up previously. You can never have too much safety.) This will take a while, as you probably already know. Sometimes it will hang in the middle (not very common, but it happens). If that is the case, just start over. I have never had it fail twice. In the end, you will have a new OS to use, with a lot of junk removed and more memory than you had before. Make sure that you spend some time in the websites listed above and ready about the process in detail before you commit. However, this is not difficult nor particularly dangerous and it can prove to be a major boon to the health and performance of your Blackberry. Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: THIS LEAKED BLACKBERRY OS IS NOT SUPPORTED BY YOUR CARRIER OR RESEARCH IN MOTION. INSTALL AT YOUR OWN RISK, AND, FOR GOODNESS SAKE, BACK UP YOUR DEVICE.

Tagged as: How to, Memory, Shrink OS, Tips and Tricks