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102 Comments

How to restart the BlackBerry 10 Hub easily using this awesome five swipe gesture!

By Kevin Michaluk on 11 Feb 2013 04:47 pm
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Ok, now this BlackBerry 10 tip is just way too cool. I just discovered you can restart the BlackBerry 10 Hub using a super awesome five swipe gesture. It's kind of crazy, but it absolutely works.

From within the BlackBerry Hub, all you need to do is swipe down on the right corner of the display five times in a row. After the fifth swipe the BlackBerry Hub will restart. Confused? Don't believe me? Watch the video above to see it in action, or if you have a BlackBerry Z10 try it out yourself.

So far in my time on BlackBerry 10 I have never had an issue with the BlackBerry Hub where it would require me to restart it. Though with so much going on in the Hub I'm sure it's *possible* that things could glitch up, and since the Hub is an always-open app that cannot be closed like other apps on the phone, having a way to restart the Hub without having to restart the phone just makes logical sense. Have a secret awesome gesture like this definitely beats having to pull the battery. Odds are you'll never really have to use it. My guess is this feature was more of a necessity when the BB10 was being developed, and was just left in there as a little Easter egg for all us CrackBerry types. 

The more I use the BlackBerry 10 operating system, the more I'm finding it's full of shortcuts and surprises like this that make me love it all that much more. Spread the word! 

Topics: BlackBerry 10 BlackBerry Z10 BlackBerry 10 Help Help, How-To & Tips

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Kevin Michaluk Kevin Michaluk 3682 (articles) 3022 (forum posts)
102 comments

netviper

Kevin, you are either a genius, or have too much time on your hands. :)

Kevin Michaluk

Little of column A, little of column B. :)

Or more specifically... all the time I have is spent with a BlackBerry in my hands. 

Abrante

One thing you haven't figured out yet. How to make the Z-10 appear on t-mobile.com (USA) so I can buy it :). Better yet, create a link and post it on your site. I don't even want to type it in :)

digtech

That is soooooo freaking cool! Reminiscence of the Playbook days when we were all finding cool swipe gestures. This one takes the Cake tho! BlackBerry people need to know these things!... sigh cant wait to get my hands on a Z10

digtech

oops Im soo jittery..

Jimcmf

I bet that BlackBerry doesn't even know about it.

This is enough for me to buy another one.

Great work Kevin!

Are you still loving the Z10 over the physical keyboard?

Double-Zero

Kevin -
Do you know if the 3-key reboot (alt-rt shift-del) will work on the Q10?

Lela Lelo

OMG... I've been known to be adorkable especially when I get super stoked about tech stuff, but this one was fabulous. Can't wait to discover and learn all the hidden gems Z10 is still surprising me each day and moment with.

bluetroll

how the f*ck did you figure that out???

GTiLeo

thats a question i'd like have answered also

GeneralHerzog

His Mommy never told him about playing with it too much, so he plays with it alllllll daay longgg

BlackQtCoder

Kevin possibly know many people from Blackberry HQ

twirlyboy

Mine restarted after just 4 swipes :)

tte404

So, would this act like a quick system restart and make the device flow better after time, like a battery pull - without pulling the battery? Or is there any change other than restarting the HUB?

Still pretty sweet tho!

grahamf

Considering that QNX negates 99.9% of the reasons why a full system reboot would be needed, this is only needed for the Hub.

djdnz

You haven't used a Playbook enough then :P
Memory leaks come every so often, hopefully BB10 has addressed this.

gord888

memory leaks come from the core applications that are "leaking". This could free some of the hub memory leaks... maybe. Someone want to check?

sk8er_tor

There are no memory leaks in the current PlayBook OS. At least I don't experience any and I rarely reboot.

07thking

I have and I seldom reboot. I haven't seen those leaks. And I am a very heavy PlayBook user

GTiLeo

this is just to restart the hub, i tried it on other apps and doesn't work, maybe because you can always swipe up and close it where as the hub its always open

ddlax22

Bingo. You got that one right.

BlackQtCoder

It seems a unique, specific gesture of Hub.

sbndrf

five finger death punch?

3_M4N

+1 that should definitely be the official name for that gesture.

GTiLeo

hmmmm they seem to have thought abotu everything, BB FTW

Rydive

they seem to have forgotten about EQ settings in the music player :(

GTiLeo

i haven't tried that yet but there are a few things missing that they could put in to make more people happy. for a 1.0 though BB10 rocks and its still competitive

Rydive

i guess so but it's not like they were short on time putting out BB10.
i would also like to see my music in list and not tiles, some of the titles are long and i can't read them.
i would also be nice if the hub went back to the hub when you leave.
example: i'm in a bbm, go back to my browser, red light comes on, i peek and i can't see the message because it's still in bbm and it's an e-mail. kind of takes away from the peeking ability i my opinion

timmy t

This is a very uninformed comment. How long do you think it take to put together an entire OS and ecosystem. How long did it take Apple or Google?

BrennanR2

3 years for the original version of iOS, allegedly. The key is not to announce it to anyone until it is done.

Raestloz

For a $600 piece of hardware, iPhone 3GS (I believe it shipped with iOS 4?) didn't even have multitasking, something NOKIA nailed years before on S60 1st. iOS wasn't finished at launch, check out the wikipedia entry for iOS updates, many critical features were not in the original release.
Either way, the whole "no release until finished" died out along with digital distribution; Nintendo DS and PSP were the last platform that requires actual, thorough, quality QA time. Anything else after those have the advantage of "patch" and "update" system, and humanity balanced things out by removing the QA from production cycle and moved it to maintenance cycle.

Rydive

you're probably right, i've never built an OS or any software for that matter. just thought an EQ would be a basic feature in 2013. don't get me wrong, i love my Z10

Justthecrack

Either close BBM if/when you are done with it or go look at the article posted earlier about "root peek". Otherwise, I'm sure if it was done the way you want it, then people would be on here complaining that they wish the last hub app remained open in case they needed to check something on the web to bring back to their bbm/e-mail conversation and avoid having to open it again.

Rydive

or at least have the option. have it stay to where you left it or reset back to the hub from where ever you were inside of it when you leave. sweet thanks, i'll check out that article.

Scooter68

I love Easter Eggs... i bet there's dozens.

Great work kev

BigAssBitchin

Kevin you're friggin crazy.. and I love you for it! Awesome haha

Andrew4life

I haven't gotten a Z10 yet to try stuff out, but on the Dev Alpha, doing 3 (maybe 5?) swipes from the top left corner would bring up a diagnostic overlay that shows cpu usage, memory usage, fps, etc.

Anyone know if they removed this from the final version or not?

eryvile

As even the simulator (ver. 10.0.10.261) shows the same behaviour, i.e. restarts the hub, I guess they removed the diagnostic overlay from the final version.

BBPandy

Kevin how did you find that?
were you trying to clean the screen or something?

Good job btw :)

Double_J75

Shut the front door. That is a cool trick.

Shintocam

What would be way cool is to not need to restart it at all....however...if you need to, this is pretty neat.

squished18

Kevin - Here's another tip that I don't think you've covered yet. Two-finger swipe up from bottom bezel toggles the keyboard.

Kevin Michaluk

That i knew.. as two fingers hides it too. We should probably put that into one of our tips posts too.

BlackQtCoder

It's the same for playbook. Old trick.

djenkins6

My hub got stuck once, and I did a battery pull. I'll try this next time.

zombie73

mind=exploded

....let the easter egg hunt continue!

AnimalPak200

Jealous of your occupation... *sigh*

grreyes24

There are a lot of people randomly swiping all over their phones right now.

sharranw

So true. After I watched this video, I am swiping all over my phone. LOL!!

rcab

I was thinking the same thing. I can picture people in the UK and Canada swiping all different directions and attempts to see what else is hidden inside.

TorBold

Works great, it even cleans out lots of old junk. Just delete old phone call records, tweets etc, then do this restart and voila...the hub she is empty of all the old junk.

sylvaing

It's not a bug, it's a feature!

athosellinas

Kevin when are you going to do a BBM stress test?

BBB78

ha you can even use the tip of your nose to swipe and restart the hub

bambinoitaliano

Okay people, let's just stop at the fingers and nose. :)

chan_the_killer

HEY KEVIN I've found out that you can talk in bbm when you go to share option in the picture app, browser app without leaving the app and without opening the other apps is fantastic :)

nt300

Do you know why the Z10 sometimes gets negative reviews? I will tell you, 1) They've never used a Z10 before, 2) They never spent enough time with it.

Case in point, this Hub restart. One word - AWESOME..

athosellinas

*edited* wrong post! The comment was for the contest

d z

Thank you! The email icon remains even after opening the new messages in my Hotmail folders. Now I don't have to restart the phone to get rid of it.

JMDBERRY

Very cool,...that's all I have to say about that!

PatrickMJS

2 audio streams at once OMG!!!

I was listening to Aretha, streaming from my Z10 thru my WDTV hooked to my sweet sound system.

At the same time, I was reading this article on my Z10 using the CB10 app, and thought whattt? "I gots to see that video" says I, so I taps it and if it didn't just play fine, no jittering, good audio... WHILE Aretha is still streaming, so I just lowered the volume on the home theatre, was impressed by Kevin's find. And both processes worked flawlessly.

costas1966

If I stroked my Z10 that many times, it would probably have an orgasm.

zerobelow

Wonder if it's an intended feature, or it's a bug that causes the app to crash (and subsequently restart)? :)

blue quill

Hey Kevin,
Thanks for the tip. Good information there.
But....well a few of us are a bit worried about you.
Maybe worried is a little strong, how about concerned?
To put it bluntly, do you have a girlfriend or significant other?
Really, you should get out more and spend a bit less time, umm, caressing your device.
Just saying....:)

BlackQtCoder

You're a bad boy, my friend ... ;-)

aloomis76

Gently caressing huh Kevin?? Hmmmm...yeah, I don't know if I buy that ;)

Ausgewandertca

This might fix my issues with twitter feeds and bbm not working in the mornings.

Love it.

Android Market for QNX

lmao Kevin! that was funny... was that the sound of orgasm when your BlackBerry hub restarted? You might have to sanitize your keyboard after that, lol

winter_hat

Kevin has been caressing his Z-10 a lot lately and most of the footage is from a darkened motel room.

aha

What?! How did you figure it out?

XtasyX

I am now swiping 5-10 times each corner in every app and screen I can lol. Can't wait to discover all the easter eggs!

ejej

Hey Kevin and fellows Crackheads.... I found a gesture that I haven't seen mentioned on crackberry.com yet. I could be blind but here it is... In any(most) apps where you would like to go back one step/screen you swipe from the bottom middle to the left but upwards a bit. Almost a 30 degree angle. It's worked on many apps for me. I find it a lot more useful than having to swipe down form the top of the screen then the bar at the bottom pops up then you touch the back arrow. Hope this helps someone out there who may have missed it.

cvdburgh

Crackberry Nation! We may have reached a point where we have to protect Kevin from himself! He is now 'caressing' his phone, so I think it is safe to say that all the time away from home and significant other, combined with the all-male environment that he was in for too long, has resulted in a 'transference of affection'. And that jeopardizes the future of CrackBerry, as time spent fondling the Z10 is time NOT spent producing offspring that in 20 years can take over his crown as King of Crackberry. It's not just about his own well-being (and that of Mrs Crackberry) but also about continuation of our community!
So, for reasons of survival (and humanity), I move that we abduct a relevant Blackberry engineer and coerce him (drink and women) to spill the beans. All the beans! That would (literally) free Kevin's hands.
There must be some legal loophole that would make kidnapping OK in this case of severe distress....

currentodysseys

Just WOW! :) Great tip and cool feature! The only thing I am missing since Jan31st is a Z10 to try all this out on....

For real, the plain fact of it being so different gives it even more appeal! OMG I am so love/hating my Torch right now....

cjagasken

Seeing as now everyone seems to be 'caressing' their iPhone... i mean Z10 (yes that was a deliberate dig at Alicia keys - idiot), Can we please hunt for a gesture that goes straight from the lock screen into the hub home screen. For some reason the "inverted L" is disabled when the screen is locked. This would be sooo perfect and obvious it hurts me everytime I have to unlock my Z10.

BlackQtCoder

wow !!!
Good trick, Kevin !!!

Dougielas

I don't know how many of you have tried this yet, when i did it my hub started way faster them Kevin's does in the video. but after the hub restarted i had nothing but problems with my phone.

No sound
blank screen on many apps
sluggish moving through the UI

I ended up having to reboot my Z10. Leaves me wondering if this is a bug or feature.

adamssuds

Kk, this looks very cool and efficient. I am having obviously doing something wrong... When I go to tap the screen 5 times (while I'm in the BB hub) it opens the message I'm tapping on.

Again, I am clearly doing something wrong, please advise where I'm supposed to tap? I've watched the video but still no luck.

pmich

Swipe...not tap. Start at the bezel and swipe diagonally inwards. (top right to centre screen)

ThaMunsta

This is brilliant. I would like to know more secret gestures like this. I tried it on BB world but it didn't work. I don't think QNX BB World will need a reset like the BBOS ones did sometimes. ALT+R,S,T might still work on the Q10 though.

SV_Trinity

I seem to only pull down the top menu ... (using an OtterBox Defender, though).

oops... finally got it ... I have to gentle caress my BB Z10 ...

Rootbrian

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks kevin!!

cbdwolff7

So just maybe,...?? Will this work on all apps also?? Just a thought.

howiefelter

Didn't work on my Z10......wtf!

qtkmart

When I first read this i thought, why would i ever need to do this really?? then today for the first time i was editing settings in the Hub and it froze up on me, 5 swipes and I was back in business.. pretty cool.. but how would anyone know this if Kevin had not told us?? I find no reference to this anywhere else.

maalmarzouqi

Thanks. This is very helpful.
Appreciated.

ejaazidris

Thank god I found this...my Facebook within hub just hung as I was transitioning from wifi to cellular...

niss63

Amazing that you discovered this. I tried it and it works, but I'm not sure what use it has, at this point. I agree that it makes you wonder what other "hidden" gestures are built into the thing.

mattc54321

Great tip. I love the hub but I have been scratching my head (and surfing the boards) for ages as it stopped showing my calendar entries, even though they still appeared on my lock-screen. This reset fixed the problem. Thanks

niravzaveri

Loved the post. Loved the video.
Loved it when you said "the crackberry types" :D

jjayin10

lol, the Hub restarted on me but I couldnt figure out what I had done. Well, at first my z10 froze for about 2min, and I couldnt swipe up to enter my password to unlock my z10. I frantically was making these gestures as Kevin was demostrating but was unaware of the procedure until reading it now. #crazy

colindebin

Kevin, your enthusiasm for BB and Z10 is very infectious. Keep up the great work!

shnozwo

Wow, that is a great find, the "5-swipe exploding Hub technique". Couldn't resist :)