BBDM doesn't recognise Curve 8520

[nimraynn]

Hi there

I'm new to the world of BlackBerries, so I'm probably missing some really obvious vital step, but after having tried various different things, spent a few hours on Google looking for answers, I can't find anything that fixes my issue.

I've recently got a BlackBerry Curve 8520 on a contract with Virgin Mobile, and after spending about 5 hours getting by BIS services enabled (What a pain that was!), I've got to sync the BlackBerry with my computer, and it just doesn't want to play ball...

A bit of info about my setup first to clear up anything that may be of relevance:

Computer: Apple iMac 20" (Late-2008)
OS: Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.5
BlackBerry Device: Curve 8520
BlackBerry OS: v5.0.0.592 (Bundle 1096, Platform 5.2.0.64)
BlackBerry DM: 1.0.1 (Build 10)

Right, so, what's wrong? Well basically, I installed BlackBerry Desktop Manager, did all the reboots when it asked me, and now when I run the application, I get the welcome screen.

So great, it tells me "To begin, connect your device to your Mac using the supplied USB cable."

I grab the USB cable, hook it all up, and on the screen on the BlackBerry, I get a message asking me if I want to enable mass storage mode. My first thought on this, comparing it to older phones I've owned, was to say no to this. After it didn't work and a bit of Google'ing, I've found that I'm supposed to say yes to this...

So I say yes to the mass storage mode message, and Finder then pops up with a new removable storage device called "BLACKBERRY". Great. BlackBerry Desktop Manager on the other hand is still asking me to connect the device, regardless of the fact that it is connected...

No matter what I do, I can't get this to work. I've tried rebooting the computer. I've tried rebooting the handset. I've tried reinstalling the software on the Mac. I've tried updating the BlackBerry OS from 4.6 to 5.0 on a Windows-based machine. Nothing seems to make it work.

I did try connecting it up to my computer at work, and BlackBerry Desktop Manager picked it up straight away and started asking me what I wanted to sync.... which is all great, but even as a Desktop Support guy, my removable device access is pretty limited, so I couldn't do too much with it...

I still can't get it to work on my Mac though. It's really confusing me. Today I started having another fiddle around trying to get it to work, and I noticed the event log was showing this:

2010-12-03 16:19:53.508 INFO default main ------------ Starting on Mac OS Version 10.6.5 (Build 10H574)
2010-12-03 16:19:53.508 INFO default main ------------ BlackBerry® Desktop Manager Version 1.0.4 (build 10) USB: Version 1.0.4 (build 0.0.39)
2010-12-03 16:19:53.508 INFO default main kern.version: Darwin Kernel Version 10.5.0: Fri Nov 5 23:19:13 PDT 2010; root:xnu-1504.9.17~1/RELEASE_X86_64
2010-12-03 16:19:53.646 WARNING DEVICES main Device not found with PIN: 0
2010-12-03 16:19:53.649 INFO DEVICES main Setting activeDevice to (null)
2010-12-03 16:19:54.348 INFO MEDIA SYNC MediaSync Initializing media model with iTunes version: 10.1 iTunes persistent ID: -5446214572720522100
2010-12-03 16:19:57.470 INFO default pimSync ------------ Log rolled over on Mac OS Version 10.6.5 (Build 10H574)
2010-12-03 16:19:57.470 INFO default pimSync ------------ BlackBerry® Desktop Manager Version 1.0.4 (build 10) USB: Version 1.0.4 (build 0.0.39)
2010-12-03 16:19:57.470 INFO default pimSync kern.version: Darwin Kernel Version 10.5.0: Fri Nov 5 23:19:13 PDT 2010; root:xnu-1504.9.17~1/RELEASE_X86_64
2010-12-03 16:19:58.928 INFO default pimSync Saved UI config data model.
2010-12-03 16:20:13.726 INFO CONNECT 138BE770 Handle removable disk event GUID 6DDB4445F871682DB2BA44BF9E40B43321D5D19F
2010-12-03 16:20:13.729 WARNING DEVICES 138BE770 Device not found with GUID: 6DDB4445F871682DB2BA44BF9E40B43321D5D19F
2010-12-03 16:20:13.730 WARNING CONNECT 138BE770 Unable to process disk event, device not found! GUID 6DDB4445F871682DB2BA44BF9E40B43321D5D19F

The last 3 lines only added themselves when I connected the device to the computer and enabled mass storage mode. That says to me that BlackBerry Desktop Manager is seeing that the device is connected, looks at the device and then decides that it isn't a BlackBerry.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can fix this problem?

Thanks in advance,
Mike

[nimraynn]

Right, I've had a bit of a success story, but I'm not quite there yet...

Since posting this, I've found that under Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.x), BBDM will only work in 32-bit mode. I remember playing around with 32-bit and 64-bit kernel boot modes with Snow Leopard ages ago, but since then I've changed the hard drive inside my iMac to upgrade it from 250GB to 1.5TB and since I've installed the OS on this new drive, I've not bothered to play around with the boot settings, and I know that by default, Snow Leopard will still boot into 32-bit mode unless you specifically tell it to go into 64-bit mode...

Now as it turns out, when I was playing around with 64-bit, I found a decent application that allows you to switch the boot modes at the click of a button, and it appears that it has embedded the 64-bit setting into EFI somewhere, as even since changing the hard drive and reinstalling the OS, it was still booting up into 64-bit mode.

I re-downloaded the switcher application & switched back to 32-bit mode to see if it made any difference, and surprise surprise, BBDM is now working.

Thing is, I'd rather be running the 64-bit kernel and run any applications that require 32-bit in some sort of compatibility mode and Apple appear to have put in just the thing. On the "Get Info" tab for any .app file, there is a handy checkbox labelled "Open in 32-bit mode", except BBDM doesn't seem to have this option. I can only tell it to "Open in Rosetta" which doesn't make a blind bit of difference when running a 64-bit kernel.

I have checked some other applications and some have this option, but other's don't. Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Safari for example, do have the option to run in 32-bit mode, while Spotify, GarageBand and BBDM don't have the option for this.

How do I go about getting this option for BBDM? Surely it's possible to run it in 32-bit mode if 32-bit is the only platform is supports?

Thanks in advance,
Mike