[Omnitech]

From time to time as a BlackBerry 10 user you may find it necessary to restart or reset your device in the event of a "sticky" app uninstall, a balky Android runtime or some other sort of system issue.

What BlackBerry doesn't tell you though - is there are restarts, and there are restarts. Below I will explain what that means, based on my own experimentation, BlackBerry technical documents and the input and experience of various others.

Some history: Before the advent of BlackBerry 10, the "legacy" BBOS BlackBerry devices used a very different operating environment that incorporated the Java operating environment from Sun Microsystems. (Now Oracle) Many of the popular BBOS devices actually did not have a "true" power-off mode - when you pressed the "power" button and were shown a message indicating the device was "powering down" - that was actually a bit of a lie. Actually what the device was doing was going into what you might call a "deep sleep".

Because the Java-centric OS on BBOS devices took so long to "start from scratch", this helped speed up the time taken to "wake up" again. But the downside was - it would still use some power when "off" and if you really needed to reset it (ie to solve a software glitch, freeze or problem), you had to remove the battery entirely. In fact, RIM/BlackBerry stated this right in the instruction manual. Here's an excerpt from the 9650 Bold instruction manual:



Well times change and in modern times BlackBerry 10 devices actually have a real power switch. Which is a good thing, since most of the newest BlackBerry 10 devices have non-removable batteries anyway. But it's a smart power switch: rather than turn off power immediately, it provides multiple ways to gracefully shutdown or restart without "pulling the rug out from under the device". And that's good, because just like your home computer, sudden loss of power can sometimes cause data corruption and other problems. (BlackBerry 10 is designed to be resistant to problems caused by an occasional loss of power, but not invincible. And I firmly believe in not tempting fate, especially when safer methods are so easy to do.

The only time you should ever remove a battery in a BlackBerry 10 device is either A) if you have already gracefully powered-off with the power-button and need to swap the battery etc, or B) if the physical power switch is broken and does not initiate a power-off sequence for some reason.

There are basically 2 forms of reset: a "hard" or "cold" reset, and a "soft" or "warm" reset. Most of the time, a "soft" reset is all that's necessary, but sometimes you need to take it a bit further. I recommend trying a soft reset first, and if that doesn't work, try a hard reset. But the choice is yours - they're both easy to do and BlackBerry 10 devices start up a lot faster than the legacy devices so either way you won't have to wait long to get back to work.

Here's how to do a soft reset:

1. Hold down the power switch for about 3 seconds, until you see a black screen with button choices.
2. Press the "Restart" button at the bottom-right of the display.

There's more than one way to do a hard reset, here are the options:

Option 1: Power off the device, then power up again

1. Hold down the power switch for about 3 seconds, until you see a black screen with button choices.
2. The screen will start a 3-second additional timer and advise you it is turning off in 3, 2, 1.. seconds.
3. Keep holding the power button until the timer expires, and the device will power off. The OS needs to do a little "housekeeping" before it powers off, that takes around 30 seconds or so.
4. When the screen has gone completely black for ~30 seconds or so, you can hold the power button for 1-2 seconds to turn it back on. The red LED will blink momentarily. (If you had a charger plugged in when the device was powered-off, it will show either a charging icon momentarily and a "slow pulsing yellow" LED to indicate charging, or a green LED to indicate "full charge")

Option 2: The "Kool Kidz" method (Does not work on Z10 STL100-1. )

This is reputedly the favored method of BlackBerry's development staff. It has the advantage of being quicker than the "power off/on" method, with the slight disadvantage (or advantage?) of taking a screenshot of your device screen every time you execute it.

1. Hold down both volume buttons at the same time, for about 10 seconds, until the screen goes black.
2. Some people prefer to continue holding the buttons until the square blue BlackBerry starting logo appears. (Another 30 sec or so)
3. The device will restart by itself.

So what exactly is the precise difference between these 2 methods? Well unfortunately BlackBerry has never documented this for end-users, but we can make some educated guesses.

One definite difference is that the Android runtime which runs your Android apps (both directly installed and ported Android apps obtained from BlackBerry World) is completely re-initialized during a hard reset, but NOT during a soft reset. If you are having "wonky Android app problems", definitely consider using the hard restart option.

I also believe that there are some other low-level processes that get re-started during a "hard" reset that do not do so during a "soft" reset, but this is only speculation. Perhaps one day BlackBerry will actually document this.

Tip: Whenever you do a hard-reset and the Android runtime has to start up from scratch, remember that the first Android app you run will first have to wait for the Android runtime to initialize before it can launch. Be patient - this can take around 90 seconds or so. You will see a black screen and also a blue progress indicator at the bottom of the screen after a short wait.

In summary: The most important thing in my mind is to avoid any form of unexpected power-loss in the form of a battery pull. Because while the device usually survives that OK, you never know when you've caused some hidden data corruption until something "strange" rears its head a few days or weeks later. Better safe than sorry.

I hope this has been helpful, and remember:

[Thud Hardsmack]

Don't forget to mention the STL100-1 can't do the volume rocker "Kool Kidz" method.

[Uzi]

IMO Hard reset is still need to pull the battery that's call hard reset other than that still soft reset, and yes on stl 1 you can't use volume button to restart

Posted via CB10

[Uzi]

Hard reset (reboot) vs. soft reset according to BlackBerry Knowledge Base:

http://btsc.webapps.blackberry.com/b...ListHelperImpl

This document clarifies that rebooting/restarting/resetting a BlackBerry phone using the Power/Lock button or the volume rockers (not applicable to Z10STL100-1) is still a "soft reset".

The only way to hard reset (according to the kb) is to physically remove/install the battery.

Posted via CB10

[Omnitech]

Don't forget to mention the STL100-1 can't do the volume rocker "Kool Kidz" method.

Excellent point - I forgot about that.

I'll update the post, thanks.

[Omnitech]

The only way to hard reset (according to the kb) is to physically remove/install the battery.

And I think that KB article is wrong, as I have pointed-out before.

Think about it for a second: how do you think it is possible that completely powering down the device and then starting "cold" is NOT the same as just inserting the battery into a phone with no battery?

It is easy to see the difference between cold/warm reset as described in my post - all you have to do is launch an Android app after restart and see how quickly it starts.

Whereas I have never seen the slightest indication of any functional difference between power-removal and hard reset. Have you?

The LED pattern on start is identical, the behaviour is identical.

Furthermore, if it was so critically important for there to be a "hard reset" option requiring a battery pull - then why are all the recent BlackBerry 10 devices incapable of doing it?

[byantika]

Hard reset (reboot) vs. soft reset according to BlackBerry Knowledge Base:

http://btsc.webapps.blackberry.com/b...ListHelperImpl

This document clarifies that rebooting/restarting/resetting a BlackBerry phone using the Power/Lock button or the volume rockers (not applicable to Z10STL100-1) is still a "soft reset".

The only way to hard reset (according to the kb) is to physically remove/install the battery.

Furthermore, if it was so critically important for there to be a "hard reset" option requiring a battery pull - then why are all the recent BlackBerry 10 devices incapable of doing it?

So in order to do hard reset :
* devices that have removable battery, needs to be remove

* the others don't.

No? Coz you know.. it's newer so maybe its have the "technology"

[Omnitech]

Posted via CB10

My responses to Ron in Motion and others on that thread (you'd have to look at the original post to see the material I was quoting/following-up to)

Power it off and then power it up again. Same result, takes a bit longer. The STL100-1 is unique amongst ALL BB10 devices because it is the only one that uses a TI CPU.



You can do a power cycle as described above for the Z30 as well. Same as hard reset.




Not really. See below.




The problem is that BlackBerry's documents don't even agree with each other. As I keep repeatedly pointing-out, BlackBerry documentation stinks.

For example, here's a BlackBerry document that conflicts with that KB article:

How to restart a BlackBerry Z10 smartphone | Inside BlackBerry Help Blog

In that article, they try to draw a distinction between what they call a "reset" versus a "restart".

Their documentation is a mess.

[ronfc]

I have to agree with Omnitech. The BlackBerry KB article does have its shortcomings, for example, how can someone physically remove the Q5 and the Z30 battery? Of course it can be removed by special tools but I doubt someone will repeatedly do this to "hard reset" his phone. I also noticed a behavior on my STL100-1. When I use the "Restart" option, my phone reverts to a particular time other than the current time until it connects to the network and updates the time, but when my phone got empty and charged it, or I pressed the power button until the phone turns OFF and I physically turn it ON again after a few seconds, the time isn't reset. So I think that there is indeed a different behavior happening between physically turning OFF/ON your device and the OS-assisted Restart.

Cave, cave, moderator videt

[Omnitech]

When I use the "Restart" option, my phone reverts to a particular time other than the current time until it connects to the network and updates the time, but when my phone got empty and charged it, or I pressed the power button until the phone turns OFF and I physically turn it ON again after a few seconds, the time isn't reset. So I think that there is indeed a different behavior happening between physically turning OFF/ON your device and the OS-assisted Restart.

Interesting observation.

Here's another place where the company distinguishes between a "restart" and a "reset": the help file included with the OS. (I believe the screenshot below is from the 10.2.1 series):

[tonythecanuck]

Thanks for all the great info for restarting the Z30. I didn't realize there are so many ways to restart the phone!

Posted using my BlackBerry Z30.

[Thud Hardsmack]

Interesting observation.

Here's another place where the company distinguishes between a "restart" and a "reset": the help file included with the OS. (I believe the screenshot below is from the 10.2.1 series):

Ha! The first line of defense for technical problems.



And just in case you're one of those that finds themselves saying it a lot:



Posted via CB10

[MrGlenn]

Edit: Okay, maybe do not do this. Seems to mess up my headless apps a bit (some not starting at boot-up).
Q10: Press and holding the Alt (left), Shift (right) and Del keys turns the device off instantly. This happens without any signs of shutting down. I am not sure if it would count as 'hard' or 'soft', because this method does not initiate a reboot automatically. It just powers off the device.

And if you use the volume rocker reset when the screen is off, it will not take a screenshot.

[Omnitech]

Edit: Okay, maybe do not do this. Seems to mess up my headless apps a bit (some not starting at boot-up).
Q10: Press and holding the Alt (left), Shift (right) and Del keys turns the device off instantly. This happens without any signs of shutting down. I am not sure if it would count as 'hard' or 'soft', because this method does not initiate a reboot automatically. It just powers off the device.

And if you use the volume rocker reset when the screen is off, it will not take a screenshot.

That's the old key combo to restart the legacy BBOS devices. Had no idea they preserved it on BB10. (Since I have not so far owned a physical-keyboard-equipped BB10 device)

But why on earth an "instant shutdown" command? What a weird function to map that key combo to...

[Ragbert]

Just found this thread - great post, Omnitech, very informative and helpful! Thanks very much!

Q10, SQN100-2, 10.2.1.2234

[MrGlenn]

No idea why, but I have tried it a few times now. Nothing happens for the first few seconds, and then the device is suddenly off. At first I thought it was just the screen dimming, lol.
It certainly does more than just shut down though, because on all occasions it has ended with some headless apps not working (reinstall fixed). Have not noticed any benefit to it.

But why on earth an "instant shutdown" command? What a weird function to map that key combo to...

BlackBerry 10 signed.

[SmellWhole]

Thanks for the terrific topic.

Tip: Whenever you do a hard-reset and the Android runtime has to start up from scratch, remember that the first Android app you run will first have to wait for the Android runtime to initialize before it can launch. Be patient - this can take around 90 seconds or so. You will see a black screen and also a blue progress indicator at the bottom of the screen after a short wait.

Had no idea what this was. Thanks for including this part.

I also believe that there are some other low-level processes that get re-started during a "hard" reset that do not do so during a "soft" reset, but this is only speculation ...

What do you think those low level processes are?

[conbrio29]

Interesting read. Thanks!

Posted via the Z30 on CB10

[Omnitech]

What do you think those low level processes are?

Stuff like loggers, indexers, data sync things, update checkers, etc.

Still speculation on my part until I see more detailed documentation on it.

[JamieWilson01]

Great topic.

What type of reset is initiated by holding the power button for 10 seconds?

Via CB10 from Scotland using PassportSQW100-1/10.3.2.798

[Omnitech]

What type of reset is initiated by holding the power button for 10 seconds?

That's basically the "power down" reset- as you hold the button it tells you "Turning off in 3... 2... 1... seconds". Then after it completely shuts down, you have to power it back up. I consider that a "hard reset".

Whereas I consider "Hold for 2 seconds, then press restart button/prompt at lower-right of screen" to be a "soft" reset.