BlackBerry Z30, Bold 9900 and PlayBook all playing nice together

I am a die hard Bold 9900 user, but also have a BlackBerry Z30 and PlayBook. I bought the Z30 to play around with and learn more about the BB10 platform, and it's been an outstanding device even if only on WiFi. My Bold 9900 is my main phone connected to my carrier, but I am planning to experiment with switching the SIM back and forth with the Z30.

Normally you can use the same BlackBerry ID on multiple devices, but through some research on CrackBerry and BlackBerry Support forums it's recommended to use a different BlackBerry ID for BBM. If you end up using the same ID, you may encounter some eventual issues as your BBM account would need to unlink from the former device during switchback. Through all this, I wanted to get my BlackBerry Desktop Manager and BlackBerry Link running side by side, and I managed to do that without any issues.

For anyone with similar multiple devices or just for interest sake, here's what I did:

• Install and configure BlackBerry Desktop Manager with my Bold 9900 (this was already done as I had the device first)
• From Options/Preferences, disable BlackBerry Desktop Manager from auto starting when a device is plugged in
• Shutdown all other running applications (everything you can which is also running in your system tray, just so there is no risk of interference during the BlackBerry Link install)
• With Z30 plugged in via USB, do a clean install of the latest BlackBerry Link (making sure it installs in its own dir under C:\Program Files (x86)\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Link
• Disconnect Z30 and reboot Windows
• Re-Connect Z30 over USB and wait for BlackBerry Link to autostart. If it doesn't autostart, launch the program manually
• Do initial setup of Z30 with a new BlackBerry ID (in my case, I used the same ID I was using for my PlayBook)
• Follow instructions and set up Z30 device, and whatever other customizations you want
• From Preferences, disable BlackBerry Link from auto starting when a device is plugged in
• Shutdown BlackBerry Link and disconnect Z30
• Launch BlackBerry Desktop Manager and "forget device" on the PlayBook (because we will use BlackBerry Link for it, which works nicely)

Now when I want to sync my 9900, I will connect it over USB and manually launch BlackBerry Desktop Manager. BlackBerry Device Manager detects the 9900 once it's plugged in, but but will not attempt to autostart Desktop Manager or BlackBerry Link (which is exactly how we want it). When I am done syncing, I will then shutdown Desktop Manager and disconnect the USB cable from the device.

When I want to sync my Z30, I follow the same routine. I can either connect the Z30 over USB and launch BlackBerry Link, or just launch Link and it will detect the Z30 over Wifi (if you enabled the device's home screen option for "Turn on wireless connections to my computer"). The wireless connections to my computer option is very handy.

For the PlayBook, I will connect it over USB and launch BlackBerry Link, or connect it anytime while Link is up and running while connected over WiFi to my Z30

All works well in this setup, and even if you are using the Passport or Classic or a combination of multiple BB10/BBOS devices, it should work just as well. The general rule is, use BlackBerry Desktop Manager for BBOS7 and prior devices, and BlackBerry Link for the PlayBook and BB10 devices.

Backups are stored under My Documents\BlackBerry\Backup\devicename_xxxxxx.bbb (in my case for Z30, 9900 and PlayBook). Your documents, music, pictures and video folders will have a new folder named after the devicename which is set up in BlackBerry Link. The Bold 9900 will continue to function as it did previously, and you can dual sync native Outlook on both your 9900 and Z30 with this setup. If I decide to plug my 9900 SIM into my Z30 at some point, it should continue to function without causing any issue except for the fact that I will be using a different BBM ID.

It didn't take too long to get the hang of BlackBerry Link, and although it's a nice program it could use some improvements like the ability to sync more than contacts and calendar over native Outlook. Also, when you navigate to the connected device's Music link, it would be useful to be able to select multiple items (using CTRL or SHIFT) from the grey area navigation on the left hand side panel. I wasn't able to get this working, but from the selection context area on the right you can select multiple items. It would be easier to be able to do this from the left hand side navigation as well.

Just replace your 9900 and Playbook with the Z30.

There is a screen size difference between the playbook and the z30. Having a z30 didnt make me want to stop using my playbook.

Ha, I stopped using the Playbook years ago. I barely use my replacement tablet after getting a lowly Z10. I just prefer the OS.