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BlackBerry Unite – The Bugs Report – Proceed With Caution

by Ronen Halevy on May 9th, 2008 at 4:06 pm EST
16 Comments »
 

I know many of you have installed BlackBerry unite after we mentioned it yesterday. We also mentioned some of the issues in our last FYI. It turns out that this is more of a full release that really needed some testing. So far people have been liking the functionality but their happiness has been hampered with some serious bugs and unknown consequences.

The list so far – Feel free to add to it with comments:

  • Once you install Unite you get an IT policy on your device that you have to wipe your BlackBerry to remove
  • You also have to deal with Errors such as the one below where it says “Browser is disabled by IT policy”

Unite_errors

  • You will also find that it makes your browser bookmarks no longer work unless you delete and re-enable them.
  • It can lock up a nice machine on and also gives quite a few of Unite File Sync errors
  • The calendar is missing recurring events and the ability to change reminders
  • The file upload/download aspect is awesome in theory, but the 1 meg limit renders it useless
  • Your device may lock up now every time you hit the CNN.com home screen shortcut or others
  • This program may make your browser, Facebook, Viigo, and most other applications unusable due to the IT policy error
  • You also cannot sync your desktop outlook calendar to Unite. Nor anything else from your desktop

Thanks to the brave souls who brought this to our attention. Hopefully version 1.1 will be coming out soon. It seems like RIM rushed this out before WES.

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 and is filed under News.
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16 Comments to “BlackBerry Unite – The Bugs Report – Proceed With Caution”

  1. Posted by: Nikolaus
    May 9, 2008 at 4:15 pm EST

    I think it is hilarious the Unite help is already translated into German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese, since it was only officially released so far for Bell Canada, and the help offers no help for the issues listed above.

  2. Posted by: Nikolaus
    May 9, 2008 at 4:20 pm EST

    Oh and they can’t even get that right. If you go from English, to German, and click back to English, the English Help loads within the German Help. That’s another bug.

  3. Posted by: Nikolaus
    May 9, 2008 at 4:32 pm EST

    [I give full credit to Crackberr.com for this one]
    This is how to remove the eeeeeeeevil policy. cut and paste (remove spaces) the link below. everything you need is there. took me less than 20 minutes. I thought I had made a brick out of my BB. Wipes don’t do the trick on 8830’s. It baffled a Sprint engineer.

    blackberryfaq.com / index.php /Remove_IT_Policy

  4. Posted by: Nikolaus
    May 9, 2008 at 4:33 pm EST

    [I give full credit to Crackberry.com for this one]
    This is how to remove the eeeeeeeevil policy. cut and paste (remove spaces) the link below. everything you need is there. took me less than 20 minutes. I thought I had made a brick out of my BB. Wipes don’t do the trick on 8830’s. It baffled a Sprint engineer.

    blackberryfaq.com / index.php /Remove_IT_Policy

  5. Posted by: Sems
    May 9, 2008 at 6:12 pm EST

    Actually Unite was released in spain last year in Spanish. This is not the first release afaik

    Also, I wonder if it is my os being 4.5, I didn’t have any issues other than email reconciliation not deleting messages from server.

  6. Posted by: Nikolaus
    May 9, 2008 at 6:48 pm EST

    Did you call me a “afaik?”

    If Unite does work best with 4.5 or higher, when the OS be released for all devices, like my T-Mo 8320? That is what I REALLY want to know. I doubt I’ll try Unite again until I have OS 4.5 and Unite is at 1.1 or higher.

  7. Posted by: Nikolaus
    May 9, 2008 at 7:42 pm EST

    The big issue I encountered was mainly the face that BB “Internet Browser” was replaced by “Unite! Browser” which would give the IT Policy issue error. After THREE hours on a support call with RIM, we removed the “Unite Browser” but then I only had “WiFi Browser” as my only browser option, period. If you don’t have a wifi-berry, you’ll not know that if you set your Browser to “Wifi Browser” none of your links will work when you’re on EDGE, so I knew this was bad. I think I’m all good again now after wiping my whole device, removing the Unite IT Policy (instructions found on blackberryfaq.com, look up Remove IT Policy).

  8. Posted by: Nikko
    May 10, 2008 at 6:17 am EST

    Thanks Guys!!!

    This program killed my 8830 :+( It was so bad I had to purchase a new one today. In addition I lost all 5 years of contacts in my Outlook address book. plus $490.00 on a new blackberry device. In the future it would be nice to test somthing before you post a download link and sentance our Blackberrys to an early death…

  10. Posted by: Nikolaus
    May 10, 2008 at 8:41 am EST

    Nikolaus,

    AFAIK is an acronym, it means “as far as I know”. Blackberry OS 4.5.0.18 has been sent to carriers last week or so. It is up to them to decide when to release it.

    On another note, on my 4.5 device, when I deleted Unite service books, I did not see any traces of the Unite policy. This could be related to the fact it is also active on BES (which overrides many sections of Unite policy) or 4.5 OS. See http://www.blackberry.com/select/blackberryunite/Device_management/Associating_a_BlackBerry_smartphone_activated_using_a_BlackBerry_Enterprise_Server_with_BlackBerry_Unite!_software.htm

    Nikko, care to share your experience? Which OS version, what exactly happened? Were you using BIS or BES before? The contacts sync on the Unite is one way so it will NOT touch any of your Outlook Address Book, how did you lose it?

  11. Posted by: DavidB
    May 10, 2008 at 9:17 am EST

    @Nikko:
    Whoah there, hold on a second. You not having a backup of your device (and contacts) is somehow BerryReview’s fault? and whoever told you a new device had to be purchased (why did you not just reinstall device software for a clean start?) Is likely laughing pretty hard at you right now!

    @BR:
    Thanks for this review. I was thinking of trying Unite but obviously I should not.

  12. Posted by: Greg Myers
    May 10, 2008 at 11:10 am EST

    I could really rub salt into the wound here and say you should have waited until a couple of weeks for when the BlackBerry Bold (aka 9000) is released (hopefully) but I wont.
    I agree whole-heartedly with DavidB on this one though and there were warnings the whole way through…Backup, Backup, Backup. (sounds like a mantra)

  13. Posted by: Alimah
    May 10, 2008 at 3:38 pm EST

    I do have a backup. It does not remove the IT policy. In addition I downgraded the OS. That did not work. Upgraded it again and restored from backup. That did not work. This is ridiculous. Everything is pretty much back to normal with the exception of the browser. I have no more browsing capabilites. Just my opinion but this program was not worth the hassle.

  14. Posted by: Sems
    May 10, 2008 at 4:25 pm EST

    If you are going to wipe, you can grab a copy of Javaloader, wipe the device fully, then install the OS afterwards. That should do the trick. Or you can try methods explained at //www.blackberryforums.com/rim-software/67224-remove-policy.html

  15. Posted by: Paul Stimpson
    September 24, 2008 at 8:32 am EST

    I just installed this and was totally unaware of just how much it was going to change on my devices. If RIM had described it accurately I would never have installed it.

    I have the following problems with it:
    1) Major security threat – anyone using the computer the Unite software is installed on can see call logs from any device and arbitrarily change the device policy or lock the device down.

    2) It makes adds a mailbox on the device home screen that can’t be removed (or I can’t find out how)

    3) It changes browser settings.

    4) It installs a policy and messaging services that I can’t remove.

    5) It redirects one of my mail accounts via a PC that now has to be left on.

    I removed my user from the Unite server, removed the download manager and the remote admin app, set all my services back to the BIS service but I still can’t make the damn thing go away.

  16. Posted by: Greg Myers
    September 24, 2008 at 9:49 am EST

    Are you using the latest software version? (v1.0.2) available at http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/blackberryunite/#tab_tab_download