There seems to be a a problem facing BlackBerry Curve users, specifically those who have Verizon’s 8330. Once again, I’m not sure how widespread this problem really is, but most people I’ve talked to experience it on the 8330. This has come up in numerous forums, and I received no fewer than three emails over the weekend asking about it. Essentially, the problem is that the hourglass icon keeps popping up every five seconds, while nothing should be loading. It causes not only a visual nuisance, but it actually lags the processor, causing everything to run a bit slower. So how can we remedy this problem?
I talked to my Verizon rep about it, and she nearly tore my head off. She’d been getting the same complaints recently, and no one has really been able to do anything about it. I had a similar problem with my 8830, but a quick battery pull took care of it every time. It appears that the solution to every BlackBerry problem did nothing for Curve users.
Now, I have stake in this, too. A few weeks ago, I traded in my 8830 for an 8330. I haven’t yet had the problem, but judging from the emails and forum posts I’ve seen, I think I can narrow it to the Facebook application. Actually, it’s really just a quick launch. In any case, it comes pre-installed on new Curves, and people I’ve talked to have used it. I, on the other hand, have launched it but once, and even then I stopped the browser before it loaded.
This is, of course, not a scientific deduction. It’s just what I’ve been able to figure given the evidence presented. To delete the application on the 8330, go to Options -> Advanced Options -> Service Book. Under there, you’ll see Facebook [BrowserConfig]. Hit Menu and delete it. Head back to the main screen, and it will be gone. Here’s the catch, though. Normally, I’d recommend a battery pull to refresh everything. However, I’ve pulled my battery a few times, and sometimes the Facebook icon comes back. I’ve taken to just hiding it, so I can never accidentally launch it.
Sorry there’s not a better idea yet. If any of you have found a real solution, post it in the comments.
73 comments… read them below or add one
Had the exact same problem on my 8310. It only started after installing the stupid facebook app. It got to the point where I’d have about two minutes (after a battery pull) before it just froze up completely. Since removing the app, it’s been running smooth and without a hitch!
A friend had the same problem and they told her just to delete her old email because the hourglass meant the phone was searching for memory. She cleaned up her email and it is now working fine. Hopefully this will help everyone else.
David, I had the same issue on my 8830. It happened when I loaded certain web pages. A battery pull fixed it, though.
Most people I’ve talked to with the Curve issue, though, check their memory and have plenty.
There is a memory leak. I bet when this happens you would find 0 bytes free. I have never had Facebook on my 4.2.2.196 Verizon 8830 and it happens to me too. Deleting stuff to maximize free memory seems to only delay the inevitable.
Disabling javascript in the browser can help too but breaks some sites.
Just my experience.
I had the same problem with Viigo, KSAT, but it was with the pre-build edition for WES. I didn’t notice it with the first public beta.
I’ve had a similar problem on my VZW 8830 – but, quickly realized it had to do with Viigo 3.0 beta. I notified Viigo and they seemingly corrected their problem. I do still get it occassionally, but, can’t yet pinpoint the problem. FWIW – I DO NOT have the FaceBook application loaded. There is something else going on here.
It very well may be preventing it, Nathan. Anyone else using 4.5 and not have this issue?
I use the Facebook app on my 8330 all the time and never have any trouble. I even leave it running quite often. Of course, I am running 4.5.0.77. That might be preventing the issue from occurring.
Thank you so much! I was convinced that facebook was the problem, and several of my friends (who also have the curve) said that I was crazy! Once I deleted it, I got 36 backed up Facebook notification emails, and the hourglass is gone.
Thanks again.
I had EXACTLY the same problem – battery life reduced to 4 hours, no emails coming in. hourglassing every 2 seconds, the blue arrows flashing and my phone lagging for no reason whatsoever.
I deleted facebook, and i had a flood of 105 emails.
You saved my life, and my sanity. thank you so much.
had the same exact problem in #7919. deleting facebook fixed it.
go on your DM and delete facebook…. ive been having the same problem all week and i just deleted that app… 250 FLOODED EMAILS!!!!! so thanks guys! this was really helpful!
8310 -no facebook app installed. Always happens on sites that have particular javascript that crashes the crappy bberry browser. Very annoying.
Had the same exact problem, just deleted facebook, i did what this site said and it didnt work, so I had to actually go into advanced options, applications, and delete facebook from there and it restarted, and now i got flooded with about 300+ email notifications i apparently never got before. I have the 8330 btw.
I just got my blackberry curve , I installed the facebook app yesterday, and literlly 15 mins after i installed it I got the hour glass, it pops up every 5 to 10 mins and it wont let me do anything until il finished, sometimes it takes up to 5 mins, i have just deleted my facebook app and the phone has been running fine for about 2 hours, this seems to have fixed the problem, what i did was go to OPTIONS,THEN ADVANCED OPTIONS, THEN APPLICATIONS, THEN FIND THE FACEBOOK APP AND DELETE IT, CONFIRM YOU WANT TO DELETE, THEN IT WILL ASK IF YOU WANT TO RESTART, SELECT YES AND IT WILL REBOOT, YOU SHOULD BE GOOD AFTER THAT, MAKE SURE YOU HIDE YOUR FACEBOOK ICON
The Facebook application and icon seem to be making my life miserable as well. My troubles began with the annoying ‘POP’ at the launch of the Curve media player and between songs – after a lot of troubleshooting and forum-browsing, it seems this problem may actually be related to other apps like Facebook. Please read this thread on the official BB forums for info:
http://supportforums.blackberry.com/rim/board/message?board.id=8300&thread.id=3864
…
Anyways, I have exactly the same problem with Facebook – I can’t seem to get it to go away completely and why the heck does it get pushed back on a hard restart. RIM, help us out here.
Deleted the Facebook app and all seems well, so far. If this works long-term, I will forever consider you my new hero! Thanks!!!!!!!
Deleted FB and immediately received all my emails. Thanks.
I had the same problem– spinning, battery drain, sluggish– and tried restart and removing battery–still spinning. I too have a mac and I couldn’t figure out how to download a mac compatible desktop manager (anyone know how?). Removing facebook seems to have helped for the moment, but I’m tempted to return it. I bought the 8330 in October 2008.
i have a blackberry curve on at&t and i have the hour glass problem that is reportedly connected with facebook, i can’t do anything at all with the phone. i went into my emails on my pc and deleted all the emails-there were about 400 between 4 email addresses. how can i reboot or remove applications from my phone if all i get is hourglass? please advise. your post haste comments are appreciated as at&t wants to sell me a new blackberry for $350 and i’m not eligible for a new phone till aug and then it’ll be $90!
I’m using the Curve 8320 with the 4.5 OS. The hourglass keeps appearing all the time I don’t know how many times I’ve done a battery pull. I do have the Facebook application installed, I’ll try and delete it and see what happens.
I’ve had my 8330 for 9mths now and have had the facebook app on my phone for 5mths and never experienced this until today. cleared memory, cache, deleted messages, pulled battery etc, and nothing helped. deleting facebook (options/advanced/service books not applications) did help but I’m perplexed as to why its just happening now. can’t get any info from RIM but they wrote the app and have some explaining to do.
Thanks everyone- removed fb on my 8330 (had been running fine for about 8 months) and problem is gone… no more battery drain or slow processing.
Thanks!
Removed the FB app…still clocking. Removed the Twitterberry app…still clocked. Cleared Cache…no change. God I hope I dont need to use my phone in an emergency situation!
Verizon Pink 8330 OS 4.5
I had the same thing as misterjames…Had the Facebook app for almost a year with no problems. The other day this started and had to recharge my full battery almost twice a day with no emails coming in… I deleted the facebook app and rebooted…then got 4 days worth of emails all at once… And no more hour glass, no more battery drain… my 8330 is working just fine….for now….
the battery pull worked for me
My blackberry bold is always shutting down! I have taken it in but they sais that it was aome software thing,
But when I got it back the next day it was doing the same thing! What can I do?
If you have wiped it and loaded the latest OS from your carrier and your phone is still turning off I would suggest looking into having it replaced.
OMG! Thank you so much!!! I was using FB for a year and just in the past week this dang thing with the clocking, no emails, slow, etc. started happening; so, I deleted FB application and VIOLA! It worked! Thanks so much Joe!
That worked great! Thank you! I have been having this happen for a long time. It would come about, I would spend a day taking the battery out, and deleting everything I could from my BB, then it would go away only to come back in a few weeks… This worked great! Thank you
I have 8320 and no facebook configuration. My hour glass appears, screen goes blank and the unit shuts down. The unit remains off unless i turn it on again. Batery pull only restart but it ramdomly goes again sometime immediately.
Help is needed.
thanks.
i HAVE A BLACKBERRY BOLD AND I HAD THE SAME PROBLEMS, WHEN I LOGGED OFF OF FACEBOOK ON MY CELL PHONE THE HOUR GLASS IMMEDIATELY WENT AWAY AND I HAVE NOT SEEN IT SINCE, THAT WAS 4 HOURS AGO. I AM VERY HAPPPPY!
I have at&t blackberry curve 8310 stuck in reboot mode, hour glass, red light, black screen over and over. Have tried desktop reload of operating system and get error message cannot connect to device during multistage reload. Have tried jl_cmdr wipe. Can’t seem to get anything to work. Is there any fix for this?
take out memory card and delete it if the phone keeps turing off , wipe handheld.
i deleted the FB app but my hourglass keeps flashing. waht else can i do?
I bought a used curve 8310for 50 put a new sim from motorazr v3 att hade houer glass problem shutdown battery drain whyt I got it a contrac phone for 50 use it for go phone prePay removed facebook problem solved thanks
I ran into issues with the 8310 and FB as well. I’d had both before, but had to get a new 8310 due to a bad thing that I’d done to the old one. So I downloaded the FB App to the new 8310 and everything worked just fine….for about 36 hours. Then the poor thing went into a JUM Error 102. I tried to reload os and apps and sent the poor thing into the eternal initializing hour glass. So I turned to my friends at Crackberry and found an awesome ‘how to’ that saw me through it. If you are in a situation were the hour glass is constant please go to this url and follow the steps.
http://crackberry.com/blackberry-101-lecture-12-how-reload-operating-system-nuked-blackberry
my bb 8900 has been freezing since i got it, so i’ve been taking out the battery every time taht happens. however, the worst thing just occurred – it doesn’t want to turn on!! what should i do?
@kim
Looks like you will have to reload your operating system. Here is a post that will help:
http://www.bbgeeks.com/blackberry-guides/step-by-step-guide-to-upgrading-your-blackberry-os-88196/
I’ve got an 8320 that just started doing the eternal hourglass thing a couple of months ago. I can’t tell what sets it off. It’s kind of random, but when the hourglass is spinning (which could take ANY amount of time to finish), the phone is totally non-responsive. I’ll try deleting the Facebook app and see what happens.
Well, I took facebook off (per Abdiel’s directions) and that did NOT solve the problem. The Hourglass is back…
The hourglass icon is constant shuts my computer off sometimes. don,t know what to do. I am 60 yrs. of age and never typed before nor used a computer am teaching myself but don,t know how to delete old mail without loosing what i want to keep.
@Jo Ok the first thing I am going to suggest is that you read and complete some of the steps in this post:
http://www.bbgeeks.com/blackberry-guides/8-ways-to-trim-the-fat-from-your-blackberry-88493/
That will free up some memory on your device and hopefully stop the hourglass from coming up so often.
The next step is to check that any applications you are running are closed completely when exiting them. You can verify that they are not running by hitting menu> switch application and looking at the icons. (phone browser home messages and messenger are the only ones that will always run in the background)
As for mail I assume that you are using the @gmail address to get email on your phone. If this is the case then you should not have to worry much as messages deleted from yoru BlackBerry will still be in your inbox when checked online.
If you are using a second email address then I suggest setting up a forward so that all mail sent to your BlackBerry is also sent to your gmail account. This way you can delete all you messages off the Blackberry and still have them backed up with the gmail account for future access. The gmail account can hold many many messages where as the same number of messages on your BlackBerry will cause problems.
Could use some advise.
I keep having this problem and I don’t use facebook on my phone. I don’t have data and therefore, barely use the internet on my phone.. can anyone help?
You may have low system memory of some kind – check this out for ideas on how to combat that:
http://www.bbgeeks.com/blackberry-guides/8-ways-to-trim-the-fat-from-your-blackberry-88493/
I have deleted the facebook app and also did the steps that you have provided. I also have something on my phone called facebook [CICAL]. Do I need to delete that as well.
@Dez You can delete it – it is a calendar reference for the FB calendar.
I completely wiped off (reset) my Verizon Blackberry 8330. There are no aps running (Service book is empty). Turned off and on, took the battery out several times but the hour glass still keeps on popping up every few seconds when the phone is on. Imagine how annoying that can be.
i had the hourglass as well, but i can’t seem to restart my blackberry, so i just pulled out my battery, and now i can’t even on my handheld, anyone have any solutions?
this method do dont work instead of going to service book , go to options,advanced options and applications to permentally delete this from your 8330
OMG! I had been using Facebook for well over 2 years with no problems. I suddenly had this hourglass issue start last week and in desperation (and a healthy amount of skeptisism) deleted the facebook app….and PRESTO all my hourglass problems disappeared and a hundred blocked emails flooded in! SWEET!
When I try to upgrade my bb 8330 with the new 5.0 software it doesnt work
@Kiersen Caines Are you trying to update the Operating system files to OS 5.0? If so what kind of error are you getting and where did you download the files from?
I have the hourglass issue. I deleted the fb app I deleted it in the service book! I free up space! Mine is not coming up every five seconds but whenever I go to do something it pops up! It is aggravating as u got to wait on it to go away before you can do anytthing
@melinda You need to free up more space. Try deleting some more apps or themes if you have more than you need.
I have a BBerry Curve 8330 from Sprint and the hourglass lingering forever, rendering the phone useless for a few seconds or even a minute at a time has been a real pain. Though the Facebook app has been blamed for the problem I found out that my problem was related to the amount of text messages, emails and Facebook notifications that I never deleted. Deleted them all and never had the problem again. Now I’m deleting these memory munchers right after reading them. They can be deleted one at a time or by highlighting the date of the messages you want gone, then clicking the menu button and then “delete prior”. Anything up to that date will be gone.
I HATE I EVER GOT A STUPID BLACKBERRY 8330! THIS THING HAS BEEN A PAIN SINCE THE DAY I DOWNLOADED MY FIRST APP. I DON’T EVER WANT TO SEE ANOTHER HOURGLASS AGAIN IN MY LIFE!!!!!
Had the same problem with my bb pearl. I have been using the facebook app for years with no problem. On Friday of last week the hour glass started spinning and draining my battery. Calls would come in, but never ring the phone. Deleted the facebook app and everying appears to be normal again.
I don’t have a blackberry or communicate with FB o my phone, but that hourglass is makingme nuts. Help please
@Dolores If you do not have FB installed and in use do you have any other messaging apps?
One thing to check for is apps updating like Twitter etc – set these so they update every 20 minutes instead of every second.
Also read these posts about freeing up internal memory as this is often the cause of the hourglass:
BlackBerry memory leaks
Optimize your BlackBerry
Would the FB app cause the same problem on the BB3G? I just got this phone last night and the hour glass is driving me crazy. Its slows the browser. Stops me from dialing. Even scrolling through contacts. Please help. I was told to do a hard reset on the phone by tech support. It doesn’t seem like I should need something so major after just a couple of hours.
@Ryane I would upgrade to the latest OS available for your device. Sometimes they ship with older os versions.
Once upgraded – remove FB if you still have the hourglass happening.
I would also look at apps like twitter and other IM apps you may have open and updating every minute. Change the frequency of the updates so they happen every 20 minutes instead
you are a fucking genius. you dont know how long i have been troubled and lost productivity because of this stupid FB. thanks a ton. really appreciate it.
i just finished my problem with the stupid hour glass on my BB curve….yipeeee….. I just deleted unnecessary apps that i never used….such as google talk, go bible, windows live messenger, and….wallaaaaa……it worked…and i still have my FB on….
Hello, a few weeks ago my blackberry curve 8520 got stuck on the home page , however the scroll was working but was only moving to the left and right and to the profile icon on the homepage. After countless of battery pulls i finally got it back working. Last night the same issue it froze when i locked the keypad. I did a battery pull many times but i end up in the same situation where my homepage comes up , the scroll works but i can’t select anything. Also the call button , end button and menu button seems not to work. PLEASE guide me how to rectify this ! I need my blackberry . Thanking you in advance
Is the Facebook [CICAL] the same as the Facebook [BrowserConfig]? Should I delete the Facebook [CICAL]?
I have the 8320 and was faced with the same problem, that is the hourglass, however i read
Berg
September 19, 2010 at 1:53 pm
I have a BBerry Curve 8330 from Sprint and the hourglass lingering forever, rendering the phone useless for a few seconds or even a minute at a time has been a real pain. Though the Facebook app has been blamed for the problem I found out that my problem was related to the amount of text messages, emails and Facebook notifications that I never deleted. Deleted them all and never had the problem again. Now I’m deleting these memory munchers right after reading them. They can be deleted one at a time or by highlighting the date of the messages you want gone, then clicking the menu button and then “delete prior”. Anything up to that date will be gone.
posted and i tried it and it seems to work also i deleted apps that i don’t use, let see what will happens…
thanks much!
GRR I’ve had my blackberry bold 9700 for almost a year (which i have been happy with) and since i upgraded the software due to it rebooting constantly, now all i get is the timer lasting for ages and freezing my screen, i however have memory and I’ve deleted allot yet the timer still shows up. its SUCH a pain & difficult to chat to people! HELP :)
i have the same problem,b curve 8250 and it loads up hour glass shows den it comes to the home screen my password thing doesnt show so i cant type my password and now i cant get into my phone am pressing all buttons all it does it light uo screen and its not even charging nw!
THANK YOU! Finally I can use my shat berry without the stupid timer draining the battery and making it near impossible to use anything on my phone. I took out the battery. No go. I took out memory card. No go. I tried to delete all e-mails and it wouldn’t let me. Then finally I was able to delete all my text messages and problem solved (for now). I hope I never see another timer!! Note to self: NEVER get another Blackberry Curve. Ya’ll are life savers.
thank u so much for this post..it help my curve to run browser w/o hanging..no need for me to do the hard reset..
just delete the service systems that you dont need it really works. #tried and tested.