I recently had a friend come to me and ask for help – he was trying to add his Gmail™ account to his BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet (with BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0) and after typing the correct user name and password, he was receiving a message stating: “Please check your user name and password and try again”. He had attempted an advanced integration but was still unable to associate his Gmail account with the device.

Having double-checked that he could log into the Gmail account on his laptop computer successfully to verify his credentials, he was stumped. Luckily, I had an answer for him: you have Google’s 2-step verification enabled.

Are you experiencing the same issue? If so, here’s an overview of how to set up your Google account using 2-step verification on a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Before we begin, this post is specific to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, but in the event you are encountering errors while adding a Gmail account to your BlackBerry® smartphone, check out BlackBerry Knowledge Base Article KB12288 – Unable to integrate or validate a Google Mail account with BlackBerry Internet Service.

Google’s 2-Step Verification Explained

Google’s 2-Step verification adds an extra layer of security to your Google Account so that if your username and password are stolen, your personal information is unlikely to be accessed. For more information on the Google 2-step verification for account authentication, please visit the Google online support site and search for “2-step verification”, “application-specific password” or visit Getting Started with Google 2-Step Verification.

Like many other products, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is unable to ask for the verification code required during the second step of Google’s 2-step login process, but this doesn’t mean that there isn’t a solution. An application-specific password for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will have to be created.

(Note: Disabling the two step verification temporally to add the Gmail account will not resolve the issue. Doing this will let you add the Gmail account to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, but after the 2-step verification is re-enabled, the tablet will not be able to receive email from your Gmail account.)

Create an Application–Specific Password from Google

For Google 2-step verification to work with a device or product that cannot request the verification code (such as the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet), Google has created a bypass called an application-specific password. To set up a Google account on your tablet using an application-specific password, complete the following steps:

Step One – Create an application-specific password for use with Google 2-step verification

For information on how to do this, view Google’s Signing in using application-specific passwords page or search for “application-specific password” from the Gmail help support site.

Step Two – Add the Gmail account using the application-specific password

1. While viewing the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet Home screen, tap “Setting” (Gear icon) followed by selecting “Accounts”
2. Tap “Add Account” followed by “Email, Calendar and Contacts”
3. Enter your Google account information and tap “Continue”
4. Select your desired synchronization options
5. Tap “Save”.

After saving your new account, you have successfully set up your Google account using 2-step verification!

Want to learn more? Check out these other useful BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 posts available here on the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog:

• Getting Started with Email, Contacts and Calendar in BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0
• Setting up multiple email accounts on BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0

Have a comment or question? Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.

How many times have you tried to find an email on your BlackBerry® smartphone so you could show a friend an attachment, only to realize that you can’t find the email because you deleted it from your BlackBerry smartphone inbox? This used to happen to me all the time until I discovered the remote search feature. This feature allows you to search your desktop mailbox using your BlackBerry smartphone, thus allowing you access to emails that are no longer stored on your device!

This feature is available to BlackBerry smartphones that are activated on a BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, or have integrated a Gmail® email address. Provided you have one of these types of email integration, you can start using the remote search feature.

Let’s take a look at how to use this feature and where you can learn more about it.

In order to use remote search, the first thing you should verify is that your BlackBerry smartphone supports this feature. To verify which version of BlackBerry® Device Software you are using, click here to review a knowledge base article in the BlackBerry Technical Solution Center. Provided you are using a BlackBerry smartphone with BlackBerry Device Software 4.5 or later – such as the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9000 smartphone or the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9800 smartphone – you meet this requirement.

The next step will be identifying if your BlackBerry smartphone is activated on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, or if it is using an integrated Gmail email address using the BlackBerry Internet Service. Instructions to find out if you are using one or both of these messaging services are listed below.

How to identify if your BlackBerry smartphone has a Gmail email address

If you are using BlackBerry Device Software 4.5 to 5.0:

1. On the Home screen, open the Setup folder.
2. Select “Email Settings”.
3. Log in, if prompted. The email accounts that you have integrated will appear.

If you are using a BlackBerry® 6-enabled smartphone:

1. On the Home screen, select “Setup”.
2. Select “Email Accounts”.
3. Select “Internet Mail Account”.
4. Log in, if prompted. The email accounts that you have integrated will appear.

If you have a Gmail email address that isn’t currently integrated, feel free to integrate it now. Click here to see a video that guides you through setting up a new email address, if you don’t know how to do this. Keep in mind that the remote search feature is only supported for Gmail email addresses and BlackBerry smartphones activated on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

How to identify if your BlackBerry smartphone is activated on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server

If you are using BlackBerry Device Software 4.5 to 5.0:

1. On the Home screen, select “Options”.
2. Select “Advanced Options”.
3. Select “Enterprise Activation”.
4. Review the Status field to determine if the BlackBerry smartphone has been activated on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server. If no accounts are active, the status field will display the words “Not Activated” similar to the screenshot below:

If you are using a BlackBerry® 6-enabled smartphone:

1. On the Home screen, select “Setup”.
2. Select “Email Accounts”.
3. Select “Enterprise Mail Account”.
4. Review the Activated Accounts field to determine if the BlackBerry smartphone was activated on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server. If no accounts are active, your BlackBerry smartphone is not associated with a BlackBerry Enterprise Server. If the BlackBerry smartphone is activated, it appears as follows:

How to find emails using remote search

At this point, provided you have met the requirements above, you can start using remote search to find email messages that are located in your desktop mailbox but are no longer present on your BlackBerry smartphone. A really nice feature is that if you have an integrated Gmail email address and your BlackBerry smartphone is activated on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, you can use remote search for both addresses. Now let’s take a peek at how to use this feature!

To start a Remote Search for email messages using BlackBerry 6

1. Open the Messages application on the BlackBerry smartphone.
2. Press the “Menu” key, select “Search By” and then “Advanced”.
3. Change the Search Messages option from “On Device” to “Remotely”.
4. Toggle “Service” to show your Gmail email address, or select “Desktop” if you are using a BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
5. Specify your search terms, press the “Menu” key and select “Search”.

To start a Remote Search for email messages using BlackBerry Device Software 4.5 to 5.0 or later

1. Open the Messages application on the BlackBerry smartphone.
2. Press the “Menu” key and select “Search”.
3. Change the “Search Type” option from “Local” to “Remote”.
4. Toggle “Service” to show your Gmail email address, or select “Desktop” if you are using a BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
5. Specify your search terms, press the “Menu” key and select “Search”

After starting the search, you’ll notice that, when you return to the Messages application after viewing your search results, you’ll see a banner appearing at the top that contains these search results for future reference. Once you’re done with the search results, you can remove them from the Messages view by highlighting them and pressing the “Menu” key and selecting “Delete”.

There are a few things you need to keep in mind when using the remote search feature. The first is that encrypted message text search is not supported, and if your BlackBerry smartphone is activated on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server for IBM® Lotus® Domino®, your mail file must have full text indexing enabled. The other important thing here is that you can only perform one remote search at a time. If you perform another search, the results will replace the previous search results. Find out more about remote search, including other important information!

Do you have any questions about this feature? Leave a comment and let me know as I’d love to hear from you. Don’t forget to stop by the BlackBerry Support Community Forums and say hello as well!

One of the questions I get asked frequently is: “How can I wirelessly synchronize my Gmail Calendar and Contacts with my BlackBerry® smartphone?” With a BlackBerry smartphone data plan and BlackBerry® Device Software 5.0 or higher, this simple to do!

The first thing you want to do is make sure you have the right software on your BlackBerry smartphone. To do this, navigate to Options and click About. On the third line down, there will be a number like 5.0 Bundle 1602. This tells you are running BlackBerry Device Software 5.0. If you are using 4.7.1 or lower, you should check to see if there is an upgrade available for your device. Please see my previous post here for instructions on how to perform the upgrade wirelessly.

The next step is to confirm you have a data plan. If you are already receiving your Gmail messages to the Messages application, then you are all set! If not, go to Setup and then Email Settings to see if you can setup your Gmail account. If you can’t, then you should talk to your wireless provider to ask about adding a data plan to your BlackBerry smartphone.

Now that you’ve confirmed you have a data plan and that you’re running BlackBerry Device Software 5.0 or higher, the next step is to setup the synchronization. This is the easy part! Go to the Setup folder and click Email Settings.

If you do not have your Gmail account set up, then you can add it by pressing the Set up another email account button. If you already have it set up, then highlight it, press the Menu button and select Edit.

Scroll down and expand Synchronization Options. With Synchronization Settings open, you will see checkboxes for Calendar and Contacts. Select one or both of them and press the Save button. You will then be prompted to confirm your password, and the activation process will start. Contacts will synchronize about every four hours, and Calendar appointments will synchronize about every thirty minutes.

Please leave me a comment and let me know how it goes!