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The BlackBerry device is a wonderful thing. RIM’s magical SmartPhone allows us to keep up speed with all of our business correspondence while on the move, as well as keep in touch with all our important contacts. We load our BlackBerries with various softwares and applications to increase our productivity and customize them with interesting themes and ringtones. We watch movies and play games and track day to day activities. All of these things require passwords and usually involve storing data on our devices that is sensitive in nature.

So what if you want to wipe your BlackBerry clean?

No I am not talking about cleaning your screen folks, I am talking about erasing all of the data that is stored and bringing the BlackBerry back to it’s factory default state.

There are a number of reasons why you might want to wipe out your Blackberry. Perhaps you have switched jobs and need to submit your BlackBerry into your new IT department so they can set it up for their network. You wouldn’t want them to have access to your previous employers data would you?

Perhaps you have purchased a new model of BlackBerry and would like to gift your previous model to a friend or sell it on ebay. The same rule applies, you do not want them to see what you were using your Blackberry for prior to handing it over.

If you fall into either of the above categories, or another with the same goal of wiping out your BlackBerry, you are in luck. The process is actually extremely easy and accomplished in one of two ways:

1. Incorrect password entry: If you enter an incorrect password into your BlackBerry 10 consecutive times, the BlackBerry is programmed to wipe itself out as a security precaution. You will be prompted to type the word “blackberry” (no quotes) in order to confirm the wipe.
   
2. Manual Wipe: In order to perform a manual wipe of your entire BlackBerry, you will need to do the following: Options > Security Options > General Settings > Click the trackwheel/trackball on the Password field > Select “Wipe Handheld“. As with the above method you be prompted to enter “blackberry” (no quotes) in order confirm the system wipe.

I hope this guide has been helpful to you folks looking to wipe out your BlackBerry. Please do remember to perform a complete system backup before you proceed with the wipe. You never know when you will need to recover some of that data in the future.

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