Ever wonder why at times your BlackBerry smartphone has the hourglass on the display screen? Maybe it is loaded with extra added/unused junk? If you would like to pretty much remove that or minimize it, then this article on how to shrink a BlackBerry operating system is for you.
There are many benefits for shrinking your OS the main one would be freeing up memory on your device. It also may run a lot smoother. BlackBerry OS’s usually come with preloaded apps, games, a lot of things that we do not want/need, before installing an OS.
The tool that we will be using to help clear up that clutter is called BBHTool, that can be downloaded here, provided free by @theiexplorers.
Download that, have it ready.
Note: No need to have your phone connected at the moment, the shrinking of the OS must be done before installing a shrunken OS via Desktop Manager or App Loader.
- Next download your OS that you wish to install, official or leaked (at your own risk).
- Once BBHTool & your chosen OS is downloaded and installed to your computer
- Open up the BBHTool application, it will look something like this:
BBHTool has a lot of other features, but we will be focusing on Shrink-A-OS, so click on that.
Once Shrink-A-OS is open it will look like:
This is the main display screen, it shows you everything you can include or remove from your BlackBerry OS. List of Applications, DocToGo, Fonts, Games, IM/Social Apps, Media, Languages to name a few. Remember everything that is checked will be removed from your operating system, as you can see there is a long of “stuff” that you don’t really need or use.
The OS and device I will be working on or “shrinking” will be OS: 7.1.0.714 on the Bold 9900 device as circled below:
If you are wondering why are there different OS versions on the Select BBOS Folder option, that is just showing the OS’s that I have currently installed.
Now for the choosing what to shrink and what not to shrink. To my knowledge if you shrink everything listed here you are still in the “safe zone”, I of course leave the Latin default font and the UK English language, just my preference. Once your have pre-selected what you want to shrink
- Click the Shrink my OS! button on the bottom:
Now for my favorite part, the results. Will be listed on the bottom right:
As you can see the pop window in the middle displays: “Your OS has been shrunk. Launch Loader/Desktop Manager to update your phone. With the shrink info displaying. Before size of 273.42 MB, Files 1876 now results after 96.47 MB, Files 548, saving a whopping -141 MB. That is a great amount of memory freed up! As the popup display mentions launch desktop software or app loader as your OS is now shrunk, the OS you selected in the BBOS Folder option.
After you have shrunk OS and need help installing the shrunk OS visit our How-To Install & Update BlackBerry Operating System detailed guide. If you decide you want to place something back in your OS or delete more simply use the Put it Back! option:
That is it! You are done. Remember install at your own risk, as BlackBerryEmpire.com is not responsible for anything that may happen to your device. If you have questions simply drop a comment below. Say good-bye to constant hourglassing!
About Michael H.
