Missing Memo, Password Keeper, and Tasks from your BlackBerry?

After updating my BlackBerry wirelessly and with Desktop Manager within a couple of weeks of each other, I thought that wireless was the better option. Some commenters disagreed, but eh, that’s going to happen. It really is about personal preference. Yet in this case I might need to adjust my praise for the wireless update. It came to my attention over the weekend that I was missing a couple of core applications. Was this because of the wireless update? I hadn’t noticed them missing after my DM update. In any case, if you’re missing these core applications — for me it was Memo, Password Keeper, and Tasks — you can recover them via Desktop Manager.

Yes, they’re really gone

As with most problems, I turned to various BlackBerry forums for an answer. Unfortunately most of the “helpful” people were incredibly rude and ultimately not helpful. Sorry, guys, but you might not know everything. If someone says that the applications aren’t there, they aren’t there, and I don’t care if “every Tour I’ve seen has them.” Not every problem fits your cookie cutter solutions. /Rant Anyway, yes, I took all measures to make sure that these apps were in fact not on my BlackBerry. I displayed hidden icons and checked all sub-folders. I went into the Applications screen and looked for them there. I even turned off home screen dialing and pressed D for Memo. It did not launch. Hence, I am 100 percent sure that the software is not loaded on my BlackBerry. I even tried re-registering my Host Routing Tables, since that usually works when the BlackBerry browser icon disappears. No dice. I still did not have any of those three applications.

You’re going to need DM

Unfortunately for us Mac folks, the only solution I could find to this issue involves Desktop Manager, and not the one for Mac. No, you’ll need the Windows version, the one with App Loader. This means you’ll have to download the latest OS from your carrier. Once you download the file you’ll have to run the .exe. Now it’s time to boot up Desktop Manager. Connect your BlackBerry and either run App Loader or select it through DM. You should see your core apps all listed. From there you can choose to reinstall any missing ones. I restored Memo, Tasks, and Password Keeper. You can choose to bring back any applications you happen to lose along the way.

How did this happen?

Since I use the Memo application fairly frequently, I found it odd that it was no longer in my Applications folder. I’m not sure if I used it between the time I updated to OS 5.0 via Desktop Manager and when I did a wireless update, so I can’t say for sure that the wireless update was the culprit. It does seem the most likely candidate, though. I can’t think of anything else I would have done that would have removed those apps from my device. So tread carefully. If anyone has an OTA remedy to this problem, please leave it in the comments.

About the Author

Joe Pawlikowski is the Senior Editor at MobileMoo.com and has been covering the mobile industry full time since 2007. When he's not writing about the tech scene, he can be found discussing his personal love - baseball (and more specifically the New York Yankees) as well as writing on his personal blog.