Delete the Help app. I haven't loaded it on my device in several years.

I haven't deleted the help app yet, since I'm still fairly new to the device. I've had Unyverse installed for a while, and while it isn't quite finished yet, I find my self using it more than Memo Pad for notes, so Memo Pad may get the axe soon. And I may uninstall Viigo and just use the RSS reader in Unyverse as well. One nice thing about Unyverse is the ease with which you can clear out the cache, which also frees up space.

Great guide JC, BTW by deleting help on my 8320 how much memory will that free up

Just look in the java folder and see how big the help files are. Also, there is some amount of memory freed just because it's not loaded, as well.

Thanks for the guide, really appreciate it. I freed up 10 megs just deleting the pictures and themes, and a few other small things.

GREATLY appreciated!

Are either one of these .cod files,.. for the left side convenience button?? I moved these to do away with my PTT,.. and lost total function of it. I had changed it to lock the keyboard,.. but now it won't work.

No, those are only for PTT. Did you go back to Options >Screen/Keyboard and try reassigning the convenience keys?

Yeah,.. I've done everything I could thing of,... reassigned it to about 5 different things,... and nothing!! The only thing I moved was the above mentioned files and the At&t theme. I assigned to right side to a few different things,.. and it's fine.

Did you pull the battery to reset the device?

Great post.

John,

Great post. Very easy to read. Have a total of 32mb free. I already had a lot of this stuff gone but getting rid of PTT was great. I dont have many apps loaded and really just use it for a phone and email so getting rid of the crap is great.

Might want to tell people that they will have to do this everytime they install a new revision, or when 4.3 comes out this post will have 10 pages.

Either way great job.

Hello everyone,

For some reason, I've lost the link between my desktop manager and the Java folder. In other words, when I remove .cod files like themes or original loaded wallpapers from my Java folder and sync my device and start application loader, it does not detect the removed items and basically does nothing.

I've done this many time. I even removed the vendor.xml file. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Can I please get some feedback?

Thanks
J

make sure you're removing cod's from the proper java folder. The java folder should be in the folder matching the OS on your device.

make sure the vendor.xml is deleted (it installs with every OS/DM installation so you'll have to delete it every time you install something.

Make sure you're going all the way to the end of application loader. Nothing as far as removed .cod's will show up in the window with all the checkboxes. You have to hit next/finish to almost the end before it will tell you what it's removing.

For vendors who have more than one 3 digit code, do you have to replace all of them or just one of them?

What are you trying to do? Your device only has one vendor code. From the home screen hold the alt key and type e a c e to see what the vendor code is for your device.

Nice walk through, I'm impressed!!! Thanks!!
Just one question, can i remove ALL the help .cods or will that cause an issue?

Excellent post from John! However, it made my Sprint Pearl 8130 crash but I did find a quick solution and would like to share it. Really, follow John's directions but when you get to the part about removing the vendorID tag from blackberry.alx, do this instead:

Instead of removing the vendorID tag, add your vendorID to the entry already there. Use a pipe (|) to separate it from the existing entry.

For example: _vendorID="104|102"

This allows Sprint and ATT to use that particular theme. So I just went down the list and added Sprint to the themes I wanted. Now for the 8130, ** DO NOT ** add your vendorID to the T-Mobile themes as this makes it crash. I suspect it's the myFaves.cod that's the culprit. I guess you could edit out the myFaves.cod from the T-Mobile theme entry, but it's easier to just not put your vendorID there. Anyway, now that you've added your vendorID to the themes you want, only those themes will get installed when your run the App Loader. No need to move *.cod theme files into a 'removed modules' folder as John directs. However if there are other *.cod files you'd like to remove, use John's method. That's it! Pretty simple and thanks to JohnClark for discovering this in the first place.

Again, I only know this works for my Sprint Pearl 8130. BTW, I've got the red Pearl and the Vodaphone interfaces (red and green) go perfectly with it. Looks slick and pro-like, much better than Sprint's. Good luck! -daver

Awesome tutorial John!

Did everything and it works great. Have 23mb of free from 16mb before. But does the restart always take forever? It stays on the white screen for quite a long time before it boots up to the AT&T.

Not sure if anyone else has mentioned but if you remove the BBdimension themes, themes won't work at all. It wont' allow you to set a theme. Just a note.

if I may suggest someting:
just remove apps directly from your blackberry

Options -> Advanced Options -> Applications ->
wait a sec for blackberry to index installed apps
press
menu -> Delete

to see modules required/used by app press trackball
This way if you plan to use DM for app removal, you will know that modules can be deleted.

also clear:
Event Log
Custom Dictionary (from unwanted entries or clear all)
Clear Theme cache (up to 500kb),
Theme cache will grow in time (no idea about limit imposed), so this may prevent from too many reboots

tweak media memory (between 2 - 7MB)

That may sound like a good idea, but the core apps on the BB can't be deleted directly from the BB.

Is this "Theme cache " only for OS 4.3/4.5< I cannot not find it on my 4.2.2 OS.

I don't think that such option exists, however if you switch theme to another, and next go back to your theme of choice this (in my case) frees up to 500kb (after two days of uptime).
Theme cache size (probably) will depend on your theme size.

Switching theme back and forth should work for you (I hope).

It's always a good idea to reboot the device after changing themes. I've found that memory is still used from the switch.

Navigate the the following location in windows explorer:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\Shared\Loader Files
In this folder should be a folder corresponding to the version of software you've installed. For instance installing Bharti's 4.2.1.91 software for 8700, creates the folder:



When i navigate here i don't have a shared folder or a loader files i am with ATT and have a Pearl phone does that matter

You need to install the Device software to your PC in addition to Desktop Manager.

You can get it here:

BlackBerry Operating System Downloads - BlackBerryFAQ.com

I mention this in my post above. I don't recommend removing the dimension/zen themes as they are required for some of the other themes.

Thanks a million John. . .I'm a new BB user and this was easy to understand but most important effective! Kudos!

Of course, memory is used, I don't think that it is possible otherwise.

this is an example (half day of usage)
beginning:
20135765 bytes
switch from Dimension L to Verizon (example)
give it 15sec to "settle"
switch back to Dimension L
20749356 bytes

difference:
= 613591 bytes (or 599.2 KB or 0.5852 MB)

this absolutely makes sense with any GUI. To speed up graphical screen loading, icons and everything graphical that can, is cached.
I assume that you are using windows, if so take look at icon cache. This also can be cleaned. In case of windows big cache will burden RAM (and disk, not a problem nowadays as disks are huge in comparison to the disk size). Cleaning cache (deleting) will release memory taken. Same applies to OS X, linux but in different extend of course.

BB OS icon/graphical UI caching contributes (it seems) to memory leakage. Though no tool provided to clean it, one can clean this by switching themes. This indicates that RIM is aware of the problem (windows will not provide such option, currently no need to in past this also was a problem with earlier OS versions, same applies to OS X and linux (KDE, Gnome) or Solaris).

reacher graphic, more caching so more memory released after some time.

Reboot does exactly the same, clears caching (GUI, logs?, browser cached activity and such).

I have upgraded to 4.3.0.81/149 on Pearl. If earlier versions of Pearl OS will not clean theme/icon cache without reboot, then this only means that it is worth to update OS.


I am not sure why would you suggest restarting OS after switching theme.
I am not really fan of rebooting. I am using computers since mid 70' (mainframes then). Unless stability or speed is affected, I don't see any point of frequent OS rebooting.

Five days ago I updated OS to 4.3 using yours very nice howto and info provided by Redflea http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene...81-alltel.html
I don't see any instability signs or slowdowns after five days. Memory just after update was at 22.5k bytes, since then after each cleaning it hovers at 21k bytes.

I am not intending to reboot unless forced to do so.

There is nothing wrong with rebooting the BB. It's recommended by RIM and removing the battery while powered on is their recommended procedure. Please don't use scare tactics to unnecessarily prevent people from rebooting their devices. You sound like you know some things about computers, etc. but new to the BB. Please don't post things as fact when they are only your opinion.

Rebooting the BB frees memory used by the OS over time and is the fix-all for most "strange" issues on a BB. It's not a PC. I've seen threads that are a contest of sorts on "how long one can go without a reboot." It really means nothing. I end up rebooting mine every other day or so because I'm always messing with something on it...loading a new app, loading a new OS, too much BBMessenger use (4.2.2.184 errors after a while with too much BBMessenger use.) While the bugs that cause me to reboot are a PIA sometimes, the reboot itself is harmless.

I don't use "scary techniques", never said that rebooting is bad. I said that I don't see a point.
RIM suggests rebooting as this s least cumbersome troubleshooting of any ongoing issue.

While my experience with different OSes is quite long, I don't have any with blackberry. I do like to understand what I am using though. At the end it is nothing more than convenience.


To make it clear, I do appreciate what you are doing. Your howto helped me set up my blackberry. Hopefully I will learn fast more about Pearl here.

Thanks.

Ok I did everything....three times, but the "Preloaded Ringtones" are still on the device. Did I miss something somewhere or do the ringtones not get removed?

Preloaded ringtones are in the following .cod on the 8320:

net_rim_bb_media_tunebundles_sonicnetworks.cod

Thank you sir...worked like a charm. I have another question now though, what is the purpose of this .cod file and can I delete it: net_rim_bb_medialoader_video_83xx_320x240.cod?

Thxs john downloaded and followed your steps to a T and everything went great my phone is up and running thxs for a great post oh yeah 32 megs free

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That is the sample video. It can simply be unchecked in apploader or deleted directly from the device. No need to remove it from the java folder.

That is the sample video you don't need to move it from java folder. You can remove from the application Loader.

I understand the point of rebooting once in a while to dump memory and start from a clean slate again but why does it take sooo long to restart? Am I the only one experiencing this?

8310 using AT&T.

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It always takes 1-2 mins to reboot normally with no app changes. When you make changes it takes longer-up to 30 mins after an OS upgrade, too

I meant when you're editing the blackberry.alx file, when you do a search for "vendor" and start replacing codes, some have more than 1 code listed. Do you replace all or just one?

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You simply remove all the vendor coding completely.