[Axacta]

[It is advisable to read the whole thread before implementing this system.]

When I first came to the CrackBerry forum in Dec. /13 with my new Z10 I started a thread to introduce myself (1st Smartphone = Z10 Happy so far) and mentioned that I am a long-time PC tweaker that likes to keep my XP rig operating in optimum form. I then foolishly suggested that I could whip up a system for keeping Z10 phones operating at their optimum as well. That turned out to be more difficult than it at first appeared. Unfortunately there is no way to make hard drive snapshots of a BB10 phone, so I was going to have to figure out a way completely different from my PC technique. It took a while, but I finally figured it out.

(This system may be quite time consuming for those of you who load your phones up with various types of data and lots of apps, but the irony probably is that it will benefit you most of all.)

The key to proper maintenance and tweaking is a diary. Create a file on your PC and begin with a brand new (raw) OS install on your phone. Note the date in your diary, and over the next day or two set up the phone exactly the way you want it. Don't play any games or use any apps or do anything with the phone except set it up as you optimally desire it.

Wait at least a day from the raw install for the OS to settle and only then do a full backup. You now have a phone that is optimally set up with no trash on it, and a full backup of that setup.

(Backup your contacts and anything else important separately in case of need.)

Make a new date entry in your diary.

So now go ahead and use your phone. If you make any settings changes that you wish to preserve for later reference, note them in your diary. If you add apps, do the same.

When you get to a point where you do not think your phone is operating at its maximum, do a factory reset. This will wipe it clean and remove any garbage or conflicts in your phone.

Next, load your last backup.

Check your basic settings so that you know that they are as you like (I find the odd setting changes sometimes, from OS upgrades I assume, and sometimes I choose to change a setting).

Now add into your phone the entries from your diary. Some you may no longer desire. Be choosy. Keep your phone as minimalist as possible.

Again, wait at least a day from the raw install for the OS to settle and then do a backup.

Date a new diary entry and continue using your phone and entering into your diary any changes. Wash, rinse, repeat.

I have found that this keeps my phone operating smoothly without any ongoing glitches. It also allows me to confidently experiment with things without worry. When I do have a persistent problem I do a factory reset and restore my last backup and problems have gone away.

A similar system has allowed me to use the same original XP Pro install on a custom PC rig (upgraded over the years) now running dual 2.6 GH chips that began back in 2004 (obviously the OS has been updated, and over one thousand tweaked entries have been added to the OS over the years). I haven't used anti-virus or anti-spamware for years and never get viruses or spam since I discovered how the XP OS is better at defending itself when tweaked properly than any third-party programs that mostly just bloat it up and slow it down.

Good luck.

[eldricho]

Thanks! Subscribed to this

I remember your initial post, really glad you kept your word and also still use your Z

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[Rahul1234]

Just subbed to this useful tehread

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[Axacta]

Thanks! Subscribed to this

I remember your initial post, really glad you kept your word and also still use your Z

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You're welcome.

For a while I was wondering if there was a way to get around the BB restrictions on manipulating the OS. Then I realized that the factory reset was the key to wiping out the app bloatware, etc. Then it was a matter of figuring out how to preserve the desired settings, etc. Finally it all fell into place.

[Axacta]

Just subbed to this useful tehread

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Thank you.

[Axacta]

Something I should have added is that in my experience official OS updates have been automatically added to factory resets, so updating is unnecessary unless you are flirting with OS leaks. I don't do leaks, so if you do you'll have to figure out how to deal with this situation on your own. Sorry. But I expect that doing a factory reset and updating to your last update previous to your leak install should fix any problems.

If anyone has any other ideas, they are welcome.

[Gearheadaddy]

Pretty good ideas. All except for no antivirus on a pc or mac...not a good idea for most people out there
I use Kaspersky. Paid app. They only have ONE program. They devote ALL their time and resources to keeping crap from messing us up. I haven't had a problem for the 5 years I've used it.
Back to your advice...solid man! SOLID.
You Rock

Crackberry Genius on Verizon STL100-4 10.3.0.296/442

[00_Agent]

One question only, what do YOU Call a factory reset and how do you do it?

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[Uzi]

One question only, what do YOU Call a factory reset and how do you do it?

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Go to settings security choose security wipe

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

[Axacta]

Pretty good ideas. All except for no antivirus on a pc or mac...not a good idea for most people out there
I use Kaspersky. Paid app. They only have ONE program. They devote ALL their time and resources to keeping crap from messing us up. I haven't had a problem for the 5 years I've used it.

Yeah I wouldn't advise anyone else to go without anti-virus and anti-spamware.

Back to your advice...solid man! SOLID.
You Rock

Thanks

[Axacta]

One question only, what do YOU Call a factory reset and how do you do it?

You can also go to Back Up and Restore on Link and there is a Factory Reset button. Make sure your battery is well charged since it must be unhooked from the PC to complete the reset and it takes time. Also use wireless to save on data.

[Gearheadaddy]

Axacta, your post is well written. Easy to understand...
If everyone did as you say, they would have a lot less issues.
Good job.

Crackberry Genius on Verizon STL100-4 10.3.0.296/442

[Axacta]

I should emphasize that I backup my own data separately (my photos, videos, music, downloads, communications, and any other data). I don't trust auto backup of any kind (for its security or its reliability), so I have an encrypted folder on my PC where I drag and drop everything from my phone that I would miss if it was lost. I update this folder especially before a factory reset and restore (of course this includes anything that was added to the diary that must be preserved). I am a researcher, writer and daytrader with a lot of valuable data, so I also backup my PC to external hard drives that are occasionally switched out of my safety deposit box, so in case of a catastrophe almost nothing will be lost. On a daily basis I carry an encrypted thumb drive when I leave the house with any recent backups (I don't do it on my phone because I don't always carry my phone).

Also for my phone I take screen shots of anything important like how the icon folders are set up on my home page, important communications, anything important, etc. and keep them in my PC backup folder.

This may all sound complicated, but once it became a routine it is all actually pretty simple and quick to do. I don't even think about this stuff any more - I just do it. It provides me some peace of mind in a digital world that seems to create anxiety on a regular basis.

[Axacta]

Axacta, your post is well written. Easy to understand...
If everyone did as you say, they would have a lot less issues.
Good job.

Crackberry Genius on Verizon STL100-4 10.3.0.296/442

That's why I did it - I HATE issues - LOL!

[sum one]

... will definitely try to follow those advices. liked it very much OP...

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[Axacta]

... will definitely try to follow those advices. liked it very much OP...

Thank you.

[Axacta]

Just to round out this backup topic, I also install Hiren's Boot CD on my external hard drives and thumb drives. The Boot CD is a tweaker's tool box, including a compressed version of Windows XP in case of need, and Truecrypt which I use for all of my encryption.

[Superbuddy2007]

I would like to note that since I did a factory restore on my Z30, I've lost 5% in 7 hours. Normally, I would be hovering around 75% right now. I wish it was like this all the time, lol. I did make a phone call and text here and there, however. Gonna do a full back up later on tonight.

[Axacta]

I would like to note that since I did a factory restore on my Z30, I've lost 5% in 7 hours. Normally, I would be hovering around 75% right now. I wish it was like this all the time, lol. I did make a phone call and text here and there, however. Gonna do a full back up later on tonight.

Thanks for the update.

That's just another benefit of keeping any computer grunge-free. You'll also find that operations remain snappy - and you won't be satisfied with anything less than snappy. With the diary you can be bolder about tweaking, experimenting and abusing your OS, apps and programs, since you know that you can fix it all just right any time that you desire. You'll just plain sleep better.

[anon(1464249)]

While this post isn't to knock on your suggested method, I do feel the need to expand upon it.

BlackBerry OS10 is in many ways already optimized to run smoothly and any hickups you encounter along the way are either caused by apps or a bug/memory leak in the operating system. Two things you are able to fix by doing a security wipe but it's a bit overkill.

While bugs and memory leaks in the OS itself aren't up to the user to fix, pretty much all you can do to rectify this is either a hard reset or a factory wipe as you suggest.
If you experience a slowdown, the first reaction should be to open Device Monitor and check both CPU and Memory usage. If anything stands out, close it and see what happens. If the slowdown isn't fixed, perform a hard reset. If you do this frequently, you'll develop a feel and insight in what's causing your phone to slow down.
Please keep in mind that after installing an Android application, the App Installer keeps running in the background and consumes memory, just like WhatsApp, Facebook and others that keep running after opening once. Even after not using them for several days, if it's been opened, it's running in the background. So keep an eye on those kind of apps and manually close them if you don't need to have them running. This will go a long way to keeping your system run smooth.

HARD RESET: Hold top button for 15 seconds or hold Volume UP and DOWN button simultaneously for 15 seconds (doesn't work on STL1)
AFTER A HARD RESET: Allow for the operating system to restart all services (typically 1-5 minutes after reboot)

On the app side, there are some fixes available. BlackBerry allows for 3 kinds of apps to run on it's phones, Native, Web/Webworks and Android apps. While native and Web/Webworks apps shouldn't be giving you any problems, there's always a possibility they do. Headless apps, while they do have a memory restriction in place, can sometimes cause hickups too. Native and Web/Webworks apps are very restricted in memory use and resource stress out of the box. So persons using only these two kinds of apps will hardly if ever see a slowdown in their system. If a slowdown does happen, a hard reset would suffice to wipe every running/stuck process and start with a clean slate.

Android apps are more likely to slow down your phone because they use the Android Runtime and are JAVA based. The Android Runtime garbage collection runs periodically but the added stress to memory and system resources causes slowdowns frequently. Just try and open up 5-6 Android apps and keep them running in an active frame... slowdown mayhem! Again, if this happens, a hard reset will fix the slowdown as the opened apps are closed and the memory usage gets scrubbed.

The two surefire ways of optimizing the system are: tweaking on OS level and carefully selecting which apps to download and run.
The apps suggestion is pretty straightforward, don't run a lot of Android apps at the same time as system slowdown is a given if you do. Don't keep Android apps running in active frames if not needed and if you every experience a slowdown of your phone, perform a hard reset to clear the memory and close running processes.

The OS tweak suggestion, while most of this is up to BlackBerry there is a way to do some optimizing yourself. It involves manually deleting OS BAR files and installing that custom OS yourself. By getting rid of several BAR files you don't need you can free up 'disk' space and prevent memory being used by a running service you don't need. There are several threads on CrackBerry detailing what can be deleted and what not.
Keep in mind that a complete wipe before installing your custom OS is needed as some apps can't be deleted afterwards if the phone isn't wiped (Story maker is an example).

This being said, if you find that the OP's instructions work for you, by all means keep using his methods. It certainly can't hurt.

[Axacta]

Thanks for the input wout000. I didn't know about the hard reset. Good to know. I'll have to investigate it further.

I also like your ideas about monitoring CPU and memory usage, but that can also be time consuming and confusing for those of us not competently informed about OS/app interaction.

What I do like about the factory reset is that you can be sure that any conflicts have been removed and nothing overlooked will slip into your next backup, which will then contaminate all subsequent backups. And (this is important) you don't have to turn yourself into a BB10 Geek to be able to do it. So if I were to use a hard reset as an alternative, I would only use it as an interim fix - I wouldn't depend on it to set up my device for my next backup. I would always use the factory reset for that. But the hard reset may extend the time between necessary factory resets - that's a good thing!

It is unfortunate that BB10 doesn't have a Services application like Windows. Editing Services is the first place I go when tweaking a PC. There are always numerous Services turned on that are unnecessary, and some are significant security risks. BB should definitely think about implementing this in a future update.

[Axacta]

Something to add to my previous post is that if you do any of the suggestions by wout000 be sure to note them in your diary. Keep doing all of that stuff and recording it in your diary, along with any resulting observations, and you may turn into a BB10 Geek after all. LOL!

[Axacta]

Addendum:

As a precaution when deciding to do a factory reset, backup install and diary additions, before I do anything I am now doing temporary selective backups.

Link / BlackBerry phone / Back Up & Restore / Backup Type:

I do:

An Application Data + Include application executables backup

A Quick Backup

And a Settings, Contacts, Calendar backup

These are just precautions in case something goes wrong during the normal backup procedure, like if your contacts list or calendar entries are incomplete, or important app data goes missing, or some other freak thing. Eventually, after the normal backup procedure is complete and you have used the phone for a while and are satisfied, you can delete these temporary backups.

[Axacta]

Also, I am not a power user, so this backup and restore system is a pretty straight-forward procedure for me. If you are power user and have encountered difficulties, I am sure that all who read this thread would be interested in them and any solutions or efficiencies you might have discovered.

May I also suggest that some power user who has used this backup and restore system a few times and feels comfortable with it, write a blog post and submit it to CrackBerry so that more BlackBerry users can be made aware of it (I understand they'll publish amateur posts on occasion now). I would do it myself, but I am not a power user and have not experienced the complications that it might entail.

Or perhaps BlackBerry might wish to investigate my system and produce a tutorial on it if they are satisfied with it. (Having BBs continually running well is good for business - yes?)

[Axacta]

An important element to the diary that I didn't emphasize, but probably should have, is documenting instructions. At the top of my diary page I have the basic system instructions:

1. Drag and drop data files to PC
2. Do full Quick Backup (safety precaution) (temporary)
3. Do selective Custom Backup - Application Data + Include application executables (temporary)
4. Do selective Custom Backup - Media backup (temporary)
5. Do selective Custom Backup - Settings, Contacts, Calendar (temporary)
6. Do Factory Reset
7. Restore to desired backup date
8. Add saved files and diary entries
9. Update OS if necessary (check in case)
10. Update apps
11. Wait one full day for OS to settle before creating new full backup
12. Delete above (temporary) backups if everything successful

I also include particular instructions in each diary entry for anything important and/or obscure that I will likely forget or will make my life easier later. Make sure to use specific key words in your diary instruction entries so a quick search of your page down the road will bring you immediately to the info you need.

Something you may have noticed in the above list which I forgot to mention in above posts is to check for app updates just before your next full backup procedure so that these updates will be included. (Sorry for the omission - oops.)

A complication that doesn't really apply to me that may to you is browser cookies. I manage all of my browser cookies manually on my XP rig, but don't even think about them on my phone, because I don't do any important browser work on my phone. If you do, you may have to figure this into your backup/restore system. Good luck.