Backup and restore
About backing up and restoring data
You can back up and restore most of the data on your BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, including
settings, fonts, saved searches, and browser bookmarks.
If you're using a smartphone, you can also back up your messages and organizer data.
If you're using a tablet, you can also back up your media files.
Research In Motion recommends that you regularly create and save a backup file on your computer, especially before you
update any software. Maintaining an up-to-date backup file on your computer might allow you to recover smartphone data
or tablet data if your smartphone or tablet is lost, stolen, or corrupted by an unforeseen issue.
By default, the BlackBerry Desktop Software saves your backup files to My Documents/BlackBerry/Backup on your
computer.
Back up smartphone data or tablet data
Before you begin: If you're using a BlackBerry smartphone that includes built-in media storage, mass storage mode must
be turned on.
1. Connect your smartphone or BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to your computer.
2. In the BlackBerry Desktop Software, click Device > Back up.
3. Do one of the following:
• To back up all your smartphone data or tablet data, click Full (all device data and settings).
• To back up all your smartphone data except for email messages, click Quick (exclude email).
• To select which types of smartphone data or tablet data to back up, click Custom (selected data only). Select the
checkbox next to the data you want to back up.
4. If your smartphone includes built-in media storage and you want to back up data that is stored there, select the Files
saved on my built-in media storage checkbox.
5. Do any of the following:
• To change the default name for the backup file, in the File name field, type a new name.
• To change the folder where the BlackBerry Desktop Software saves your backup files, click Change > Yes. Browse
to a folder and click OK.
User Guide Backup and restore
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