AboutDebiN Expertise I can answer questions on cellular phones, the physical device, the network, contracts, billing, ordering, porting and what to look for when purchasing cell phones. I am located in the United States. I am an expert on BlackBerrys, Treos, HTC devices and iPhones as well as cellphones and aircards. I have over 15 years of experience in both the wireless and wireline world with the carriers. I have a lot of knowledge regarding the wireless providers - their services, prices and policies, both GSM (AT&T (formerly Cingular) and T-Mobile) and CDMA (Verizon, Sprint/Nextel (iDEN)). I am very familiar with the individual devices and their specifications. I can also answer questions regarding BlackBerrys, iPhones and other PDAs, both Palm-based and Windows-based. I can troubleshoot most any problem someone is having with their cellular device or with the provider.
Experience Over 15 years in the Telecom industry working for the carriers with individuals, small business, medium business and large corporations(Fortune 500)
Education/Credentials Master's in Telecommunications
Question I have a Blackberry Pearl and received an text yesterday from my wireless service (ATT) that i needed to update to the new v4.5 Blackberry Software. I was instructed to proceed to www.blackberry.com/go/upgrade and to select update now. I followed this instruction and when it was finished I had lost all pictures,address book and old emails. I saw nothing that stated this would happen and I am extremely upset! Is there anyway to retrieve this back? I work in the medical profession and I had over 200 contacts in my address book.
Answer You shouldn't have lost any of your information by doing an upgrade. In the instructions, did it tell you to perform a backup first? Typically when you do an upgrade on a BlackBerry, you have to do a backup first. You accomplish this via Desktop Manager software on your PC. If you do the backup, then perform the upgrade, you then do a restore from the backup. When people use a BES, all their information is on their company's server, so an upgrade will not cause any harm, but if you have BIS and don't back up or synchronize your data, you have to perform a backup first before upgrading. I'm afraid that if you didn't do the backup, there is no way to get anything back if the only place you had the contacts were on the device. I strongly recommend that you synchronize your BlackBerry with your computer and Outlook so that you always have a backup. I know this isn't what you wanted to hear, but I hope it helps. Thanks. DebiN
