Hello

In regards to backing up your phone contacts manually... Not sure if that can be done. BBM Contacts can be backed by:

Logging into bbm on the device-press blackberry menu key- scroll down to "backup management"- save a backup of your contact list- DONE

Your errors with desktop manager may be with desktop softwre itself. Uninstall it. Then re-install the software. Backing up contacts can be verified by:

Clicking on the device tab in desktop software- restore- at that point you should see "contact database"

Contacts can also be restored to a reset device using the same method above.