It's that time of week again CrackBerry Nation. There have been a few queries come in, so let's crack open the mailbag and clear up your BlackBerry woes. This week we have a question from confused and slightly frustrated PlayBook owner who asks:
How do I change the alert settings on my Blackberry playbook? It has the little beep everytime I get an email and I have no idea how to turn it off??
Thanks,
- Shereen
At first glance this seemed like a pretty simple solution -- go to Sounds & Notifications and slide the Audio notifications all the way to the left. But then Shereen replies with:
The actual settings tab " Sounds & Notifications" tab is not even visible on my playbook. I want to turn off the email sound alerts but have no way of doing so? How do I get this setting back on my playbook??
- Shereen
This of course was mystifying. Follow me after the break to find out the solution I recommend for Shereen.
Dear Shereen,
The only viable option here would be to perform a security wipe on your PlayBook. This process will delete all data and personal settings, as well as reinstall the OS back to factory conditions, so it will mean that you may be prompted to update to the latest OS once the PlayBook boots up. I recommend that you perform a backup of your PlayBook, before you do this, using the BlackBerry Desktop Manager, which you can download here if you haven't already.
You can go one step further and perform a "Debrick" on your PlayBook which would completely wipe your PlayBook and performs a fresh install the latest PlayBook OS. We have a lot of information in our forums that guide you through the debricking process if you choose to go down this route.
- Berry
That's it for this week folks. Do you have futher suggestions for Shereen? If so, sound off in the comments. If you have any BlackBerry woes, BlackBerry etiquette questions that need answering, send them my way at dearberry@crackberry.com or tweet my @DearBerryCB.
Reader comments
Dear Berry: Where is the Sounds & Notifications option on my BlackBerry PlayBook?
"Sound Off" in the comments, that made me laugh so hard.
IT IS NOT A BAD IDEA TO CLEAN SWEEP YOUR TABLETS OR COMPUTERS ONCE IN A WHILE. This will help you to get rid of junks, residues and speed up your system.
What's the difference between a wipe and debrick? Does the same thing no?
Debrick will make you get back to "factory state". You get that by downloading the whole OS and installing from the desktop manager. It is kinda like formating your computer.
The security wipe only deletes user data, but the OS is intact. You're just taking out the trash
I'm not savvy enough to "wipe" anything clean. Speeding up the system sounds good, but I'm too afraid I would lose everything and not be able to get it back.
Use desktop manager.
So your saying I have to wipe a week old device that never had the sounds and notifications tab. If I do a backup wipe restore won't it just return it to the state it is now?
I had to do the same thing to get back three options and also, recover almost 6GB of space that was mysteriously taken up.
I noticed in OS version just before OS2 the sounds and notifications section was gone. Make sure you have the latest OS
It showed 2.0.1.358. I did the wipe and the tab is now there.
OK, (and I know I'm gonna get blasted for this) but aren't 'debrick' and security wipe the same as master reset, soft reset, hard reset? Why not just use those familiar terms?
Yes, I am aware that security wipe is an actual term used on the PlayBook OS, I'm just sayin'.....
Good question, and hey you don't know if you don't ask.
The reset modes are used to present how long you hold the buttons down for a soft and hard reset respectively. And it only results in how much and what type of RAM is cleared before it comes back up (more or less).
Security Wipe means everything gets deleted down to your stock OS on the PB. A user sometimes "restores" the apps and what not from a backup at that point. Assuming it could backup. And assuming the backup is not corrupted.
Debrick means even that stock OS is redownloaded *i believe*.
Ed.
Has anyone found a way to change the notification sounds on the playbook or is that not available yet?