FAQ: Options for Rebooting A BlackBerry – Hard & Soft Reset

Over the years there have been quite a few options for performing a hard or soft reset of your BlackBerry. In case you don’t know the difference between a hard and soft reset I will describe it. A soft reset is when you request a reset from the BlackBerry OS by performing the functions below. This does not always perform a full reboot. A hard reset is sometimes necessary and simply involves removing the battery from your BlackBerry and replacing it.

In case you were wondering why you would need or want to reboot/reset your BlackBerry you need to understand what it does. The "Turn Power Off" icon and power button on your BlackBerry does not reboot device. It just hibernates the device to standby mode; if something is messed up with your device such as it running slow or hanging, "Turn power off" won’t solve the problem. You usually need to solve such problems by rebooting the device, which allows the Java Virtual Machine on your Blackberry to release any leaked memory and kill zombie processes. Below are some options for rebooting your device that were collected and submitted by our reader w13738:

• Pull out battery (hard reset) – this reboots device for sure. However things can get ugly if you have to do it on the go. I have seen a guy doing this when walking into an elevator, he dropped the back cover, and it stuck in the door of the elevator…
• alt-del-shift (soft reset) – only available to those with QWERTY keyboard so that excludes Storm & Pearl users. Hold your device’s ALT, Right Shift/CAP and DEL keys simultaneously. The LED indicator on top turns red and the reboot process begins. It should usually finish rebooting within 1-5 minutes.
• Soft reboot applications. There are a few apps out there that can perform a soft reset for you in case you do not have a QWERTY device or need something simpler.
  1. Quick pull. I think this is the oldest one. It works very well on old devices, but seems not working well on new devices (OS 5.0), so there are many negative reviews on AppWorld since OS 5.0 has been released, seems it sometimes work sometimes does not. I tested on my two devices, it works OK on my 8310 but not storm with OS 5.0. Quickpull offers a free version with advertisement; but since I am having a corporate device, I don’t want to try because I don’t want unknown data traffic get recorded on the companies gateway. This one offers a nice feature – schedule, which reboot your phone everyday at scheduled time.
     Paid version: appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/2327
  2. A+ Reset. It works on both of my devices. It offers a 7 day free trial. It has a unique feature I don’t see on any other reset app, which is one key press reboot. I end up set one side key as shortcut to reboot. I like this feature because sometimes the display does not respond, Press a key to reset always work well. I had to pay $2.99 to buy this app. This one offers the schedule feature too, which
     reboot your phone everyday at scheduled time.
     Free trial: appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/5880
     Paid version: appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/5879
  3. RestartMe. This one is not stable; and I think it tries to offer you too much advertisement, which make it awful slow. And it works on one of my device but not the other one. It offers a free version but I think nobody wants to keep this app. There are tons of negative reviews on the AppWorld for this app.
     Free with Advertisement: appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/3403
  4. PBTaskManager. This one works on my 8310. But does not work on my Storm, it seems try to download and install something. I am suspecting it is also trying to collect my device information, so have a little bit concern about it. It is too expensive ($6.99) as it also offers features like lock device, password, etc. I tried those features, don’t feel particular useful to me, but you might be
     interested.
     Paid version: appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/7607

Let us know if you use any other method for rebooting your BlackBerry!