Hi all...
I have a BB 9000 Bold. Corporate is moving from Lotus Notes to MS Exchange. They tell me I have to backup/wipe/restore my phone in order to connect to a new BB server.

a) Is there a less destructive way?
b) If I do have to backup/wipe/restore, how much will I lose (photos, music, apps, app authorizations/registrations, other non-BB server email, saved email etc.)?

Thanks,
Lee

nope.
everything. everything is wiped. But that's why you backup first.
3rd party apps are not backed up in a regular backup, but this method can be used:
How do I backup my Third Party Applications on my BB? - BlackBerryFAQ

Sounds like I'll still lose a lot, and maybe have to re-register (aka: pay for again) some apps.... And definitely need a goodly block of time to do it...

Thanks... That tells me way more than corporate...

It's not as complicated as you're anticipating.
You won't lose any apps because they aren't deleted when you do a wipe.
Backup your device, wipe, restore your data, reactivate on new BES.
It's pretty simple actually.

At most, you might need to re-enter some registration codes for third party apps.
It's also possible that third-party app data might not be backed up. A lot of third-party apps store data on your SD card now... which also doesn't get erased during a wipe.
I don't think you'll need to repurchase any apps.

As noted, you shouldn't have to pay again for the apps. They are most likely tied your device PIN.

Thanks for the advice / suggestions...

Good news / bad news...

The good news is the backup / wipe / restore / reactivate went mostly well. And I also upgraded the BB OS from 4 to 5... One app had to be reinstalled (no new purchase), and a number of settings had to be re done...

The bad news is that I had the Sametime (for IBM Lotus Sametiime IM) client and it disappeared. So I searched and went back and downloaded and reinstalled. It looks markedly different and now shows up as "Enterprise IM". (Maybe the difference in versions between OS 4 and OS 5?)

But when I try to log in, I get "Data services unavailable". (Yes, I do have a data plan, and things like the browser and Google Maps and others work fine, so data works in general.)

Any suggestions on that?
Thanks,
Lee

Lotus Sametime is for Lotus Notes environments.
I highly doubt your company is using the same IM platform now that they've migrated to Exchange.

Has your company implemented a new IM platform as well? Most likely OCS?
If this is the case, then you'll need the appropriate Enterprise Messenger client on your handheld and this is something that will most likely be pushed to your handheld via BES.
You should not be downloading that manually on your own.

Speak to your IT department. Not only do they need an internal IM server set up properly, but they also need BlackBerry Collaboration Services set up and configured to integrate with your IM server.
As an end user, this is stuff that you probably have no control over.

No, the company is still using the same Sametime server and Windows (etc.) clients, and has no plans to change to another IM... Hence I was restoring the Sametime client that I'd used before.

I guess I'll have to contact them (dreading it...)

Answer: Their new BB server level doesn't support Sametime.. Sigh...

They probably migrated to BES Express 5.
It's free, which is attractive... but doesn't support several features that full BES does. Collaboration Services is one of those features.