The Great BlackBerry Outage: Read RIM’s explanation and the update you’ll need for your BlackBerry.
Tuesday December 22, 2009 will always be known as Black Tuesday for many BlackBerry addicted users – the day BlackBerry users were cut off from their Beloved BlackBerry Data network. Some users began noticing service failure as early as 4:00 PM EST, with service being restored at around 2:30 AM EST. RIM explains what brought the mighty BlackBerry network to its knees in the following statement:
A service interruption occurred Tuesday that affected BlackBerry customers in the Americas. Message delivery was delayed or intermittent during the service interruption. Phone service and SMS services on BlackBerry smartphones were unaffected. Root cause is currently under review, but based on preliminary analysis, it currently appears that the issue stemmed from a flaw in two recently released versions of BlackBerry Messenger (versions 5.0.0.55 and 5.0.0.56) that caused an unanticipated database issue within the BlackBerry infrastructure. RIM has taken corrective action to restore service.
RIM has pushed out to users a new version of BlackBerry Messenger (version 5.0.0.57) and is asking BBM users worldwide who had downloaded or upgraded to new verison of BlackBerry Messenger since December 14th to upgrade to this this version which resolves the issue. RIM continues to monitor its systems to maintain normal service levels and apologizes for any inconvenience caused to customers.
You can UPGRADE to the latest version of BlackBerry Messenger with the fix from your BlackBerry’s web browser by clicking this link: blackberry.com/messenger, or click here to download from BlackBerry App World. Keep in mind every BlackBerry user on the planet who uses BBM will be trying to download the update, so you will need to be patient.
Also before you install the update, be sure to backup your BlackBerry Messenger contacts via wireless backup and/or to your SD card. If you don’t have an MicroSD card, then you can do a back up to the device.
How to Backup instructions are provided below:
BlackBerry Messenger Contact Backup: Open BBM v5.0 > Go to option > Scroll down to contact list > Next to Save a copy of your contact list select Backup > Next select Backup files locally > Change to: Save backup files to – Media Card or to Device, If you you do not have an SD Card. Then click Back Up Now to backup your contacts. You may also backup to one of your email address by selecting remote backup.
