Recently I tried to snap a picture while using my BlackBerry® smartphone and a new message was displayed that I hadn’t seen before. I had ignored the reminder my BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone displayed when there was only space for 25 pictures left, and now my removable microSD® 8 GB card was full. However, my BlackBerry smartphone had my back – I quickly changed my camera settings so that pictures saved to the internal storage. I was then able to continue and take the photo.

I had two options at this point: Move pictures I’ve taken on my BlackBerry smartphone to a computer, or upgrade to a larger microSD media card. Jump ahead a few days and I’m ready to install my new 32 GB microSD card. Since I have data on my old 8 GB microSD card, here’s an overview of how to move this information to a new, larger microSD card.

A Few Things to Consider

• Notifications for when you are running low on free space can be slightly different depending on which version of BlackBerry® Device Software you are currently using. To learn more about how your smartphone notifies you when it is running low on space, consult the user guide for your device.
• Something else you should be aware of is that some models of BlackBerry smartphones do not have an internal storage option. To find out if your BlackBerry smartphone has this feature, jump to www.blackberry.com/smartphones and click on your device.
• Part of this process requires using the BlackBerry smartphone as a USB mass storage device. If you have never used the mass storage mode for your device check out our blog post about using your BlackBerry smartphone as a USB drive.
• You also may need to have the BlackBerry Desktop Software for PC installed depending on what OS your computer is using. We won’t be using BlackBerry Desktop Software for the media card swap, but it does have the necessary software your computer needs to recognize the BlackBerry smartphone if it is not recognized by your computer. If you do not have the BlackBerry Desktop for PC software installed, you can download it from the BlackBerry Desktop Software page.
• Another important thing to keep in mind is if your BlackBerry smartphone has the built-in storage feature and a removable microSD card, each one will show as a different drive when you connect your BlackBerry smartphone to your computer. If you see more than one drive, the microSD card will always be labeled as “BlackBerry2”.

Note: To find out what microSD cards are supported by your smartphone, check out BlackBerry Knowledge Base Article KB05461 – MicroSD card sizes supported by the BlackBerry Device Software, which can be found in the BlackBerry Technical Solution Center.

Alright, with the above being said, here’s how to move data from one microSD card to another!

1. Connect your BlackBerry smartphone to the computer, then click “Start” and select “My Computer”.

2. Under Devices with Removable Storage, locate the BlackBerry USB drive for the microSD card. If you see more than one BlackBerry drive, the microSD card will always labeled as “BlackBerry2”:

3. Right click on “BlackBerry2” and select “Copy”.

4. Choose the location on the computer where you want to copy the data, for example, your Desktop then right click and select “Paste”.

5. When the copy process is completed, disconnect your BlackBerry smartphone from the PC.

6. Remove the old microSD card from your BlackBerry smartphone and install the new microSD card. For assistance inserting a microSD card, check out the documentation for your smartphone.

7. Your BlackBerry smartphone will recognize that a new microSD card has been inserted. Because this is a new media card and we know it contains no previous data, choose “Yes” to format the microSD card.

Note: If this is not a new microSD card, any old data on the microSD card will be lost if you select “Yes” when prompted to format the microSD Card. Please ensure that any old data is backed up prior to formatting the microSD card.

8. Connect your BlackBerry smartphone to the computer, then click “Start” and choose “My Computer”.

9. Open the folder you copied to your computer during step 4. Inside the folder, right click on the folder labeled “BlackBerry” and select “Copy”.

10. Under Devices with Removable Storage, locate the BlackBerry USB drive for the microSD card and open it. As mentioned in Step 2, the microSD card may be displayed as “BlackBerry2”.

11. Right click on the open window and choose “Paste”. A message may appear indicating that the folder already exists; choose “Yes to All” will overwrite the existing folders with the data we copied from your old microSD card.

You have now swapped your data to a larger card, so go out and take more pictures!

Got a question or comment? Make sure you leave a comment and let us know!

How many of you BlackBerry® smartphone users have lots of pictures that you’ve taken with your device that you haven’t backed up or stored elsewhere (such as your computer’s photo library)? If you said yes to this question, stay tuned because today I’ll be providing an overview of how you can safely store the photos on your BlackBerry smartphone in another location, so in the event that you lose your device, priceless memories are not lost!

This week I’ll be focusing on how to do this using BlackBerry® Desktop Software for PC and the USB Drive feature of the BlackBerry smartphone.

Transfer pictures using BlackBerry Desktop Software for PC

If you are not already familiar with BlackBerry Desktop Software, it is an application you can install on your PC that allows you do things such as synchronize your media and personal information, as well as add and remove programs from your BlackBerry smartphone. Before proceeding, if you haven’t installed it yet, visit the BlackBerry Desktop Software for PC website to download it and learn more about some of the features available. After installing it, here’s a quick overview of how to import your photos from your smartphone:

1. Connect your smartphone or tablet to your computer and open BlackBerry Desktop Software
2. In BlackBerry Desktop Software, click “Pictures”
3. Click the “Device Pictures” tab
4. If you want to import all your pictures, including pictures that have been imported previously, in the drop-down list, click “All device pictures”
5. Click “Import”, and when the process is completed, select “Click here” to view imported pictures on your PC.

At this point, depending on the option you selected, your photos will now be stored on your PC so you can use your favorite photo application to personalize and share your pictures. An important thing to keep in mind is that importing photos does not remove them from your BlackBerry smartphone, so to prevent running out of space, you should double-check how much free space you have available and remove some pictures so you can take more in the future.

Checking free space on a BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet

An easy way to check your free space on BlackBerry® 6 and BlackBerry® 7 OS smartphones is to highlight the Pictures app, press the Menu key and select “Memory Usage”. After doing this, a dialog box will appear with a breakdown of memory usage on your BlackBerry smartphone. Click “Details” to see a more detailed breakdown of how much space items such as music, ring tones, pictures and more take up. If you use BlackBerry Device Software 5.0 or earlier, select “Options” followed by “Status” to view the amount of free space on your BlackBerry smartphone.

If you use a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, you can check your free space by opening the settings, which you can accomplish by tapping the gear icon that appears on the top right corner of the home screen. After doing this, select “About” followed by selecting “Hardware” in the dropdown box to view your free space.

If you decide to remove some photos to make more room, check out the overviews below on how to explore the file system on a BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet using a USB cable, which will allow you to delete photos. You also have the option of using the Pictures app on a BlackBerry smartphone or BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to delete photos as well. Before you begin, I’d recommend identifying where you currently store photos on your BlackBerry smartphone. To do this, complete the following steps:

1. On the BlackBerry, open the Camera app
2. Press the Menu key and select “Options”
3. Review the Storage section, which will indicate where pictures are currently being stored.

Transfer photos using the BlackBerry smartphone USB Drive feature

BlackBerry smartphones include a USB Drive feature that allows you to access it, similar to a USB memory drive that many of us have on our key chains. This feature is my preferred method for copying files to and from my BlackBerry smartphone, as I can delete photos I’ve copied or imported earlier using BlackBerry Desktop Software, which means I’ll always have room to take more pictures.

1. Connect your BlackBerry smartphone to your PC
2. On the BlackBerry smartphone, select “USB Drive” when the option appears on your home screen

• If the BlackBerry smartphone is password protected, you’ll need to unlock it in order to access the USB Drive option.

3. On the PC, click “Start” followed by “My Computer”
4. My Computer will now display your storage drives including ”Devices with Removable Storage” which is where the BlackBerry drives will appear

• In the screenshot below, I have two options – ”BlackBerry1” and ”BlackBerry2”. The reason for this is because I am using a MicroSD card in addition to the memory that’s built into my BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone. By default, BlackBerry1 is the memory that’s built into the smartphone and BlackBerry2 is the MicroSD card that’s been inserted.

5. After selecting the drive you’d like to work with, browse to one of the following paths (you may have both, or one of these options)

• Built-in Memory: BlackBerry1\home\user
• MicroSD: BlackBerry2\BlackBerry

6. Drag a file from a location on your computer to a folder on your tablet. You can also delete files if desired from your BlackBerry smartphone.

Transfer photos from a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet using USB File Sharing

An easy way to copy files to and from the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is to use USB File Sharing. This method does use a USB cable, but you also have the option of using Wi-Fi® File Sharing as well (to learn more on this, check our post on How to use Wi-Fi Sharing to copy files to and from a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.) To get started with USB File Sharing, complete the following steps:

1. On your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, tap the Gear icon on the home screen followed by Storage and Sharing
2. Set the File Sharing switch to “On”

3. To set a password to help protect your files, tap “Password”
4. Connect your tablet to your computer using a USB cable.
5. Your computer automatically maps your tablet to a drive on your computer. To view the drive, click “Start” on your PC followed by “My Computer”, and the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet drive should appear as per the screenshot below.
a. If prompted for login details, the username is “playbook” and the password is the one you created in step 3.
6. Drag a file from a location on your tablet to a folder on your computer. You can also delete files on your tablet, if desired.

Got a question about photos? Leave a comment and let me know.

Taking photos using a BlackBerry® smartphone with v6.0 device software or BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet is really quick and easy, and allows you to capture great photos in plenty of different environments. Today I’d like to provide an overview of some of the options available when taking photos so you can customize them as you see fit, as well as take advantage of some options you might not have previously used.

For this post, I’ll be focusing on BlackBerry® 6 device software, so if you are using an earlier version of BlackBerry device software, check the user guide for more information on available camera options. If you don’t know which version of BlackBerry device software you are currently using, check out our post on How to Identify your BlackBerry Device Software version.

BlackBerry 6

Beyond the viewfinder, the first thing you’ll notice when you launch the camera application are the options along the bottom of the screen, as per the screenshot above. I’ve numbered each of the buttons in red so you can see what they mean below:

1. Camera Pictures – Selecting this option will allow you to review photos you’ve taken previously. This is a quick way to access photos you just took so you can send your favorite one to a friend.
2. Geotag Options – This setting allows the camera to record geographical information of the location in which you take a photo. Tapping this icon will allow you toggle this feature on and off.
3. Camera Button – This one is pretty obvious, but to snap a photo, just tap on this button when you are ready. You can also press the convenience key on your BlackBerry smartphone to take a picture instead of pressing the camera button.
4. Flash Settings – To change the flash settings, just tap on the flash icon. The options available to you are Flash On, Flash Off, and Automatic Flash, which triggers a flash if required.
5. Camera Scene Mode – You can select from several different scene modes which allow you to optimize the settings for different environments. A complete listing is below for those that are curious:

• Auto – Ideal for capturing a wide range of subjects under most conditions.
• Face Detection – Detects the faces of subjects and puts them in focus in most lighting conditions.
• Portrait – Ideal for capturing people; skin tones are accurately reproduced.
• Sports – Ideal for capturing sports or other quickly moving subjects.
• Landscape – Ideal for capturing bright, outdoor scenes; enhances the detail and sharpness of the scene.
• Party – Ideal for capturing people in dim, indoor environments.
• Close-Up – Ideal for capturing subjects that are close to the camera; enhances the detail and sharpness of close-up subjects
• Snow – Ideal for capturing snow scenes; colors are accurately reproduced in scenes that are primarily white.
• Beach – Ideal for capturing beach scenes; colors are accurately reproduced in the scenes of sea, sand, and sky.
• Night – Ideal for capturing dim, outdoor scenes.
• Text – Ideal for capturing text on white backgrounds; enhances the detail and sharpness of text.

To learn more about taking photos on a BlackBerry 6-enabled BlackBerry smartphone, check out the user guide for your particular BlackBerry smartphone model, which be found at http://docs.blackberry.com. This site also includes other information such as how to change the location of where photos are saved, and how to customize the autofocus and digital zoom settings.

BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet has a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera that you can use to capture great pictures. The 3 megapixel front-facing camera is perfect for quickly taking a self-portrait or creating a profile picture. With that being said, when you tap the Camera icon on a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, you’ll be presented with the following screen. To help explain the options, I’ve numbered them in the screenshot in red so you can see what they mean below:

1. Current Scene Mode – If you swipe down from the top bezel while using the camera, you’ll be able to set the scene mode to one of the following options: Auto, Sports & Whiteboard (which is great for capturing images text on white backgrounds). In the screenshot, A denotes Auto has been selected.
2. Zoom Slider – Slide this toggle up and down to zoom in and out while you prepare to take a photo.
3. Geotag – This setting allows the camera to record geographical information of the location in which you take a photo. Tapping this icon will allow you toggle this feature on and off.
4. Camera/Video Camera Mode – Tapping this button will allow to switch between the camera and video camera in case you want to shoot a video instead.
5. Camera Button – Tapping this button will snap a photo.
6. Switch Cameras – Since the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet includes two cameras, tapping this button allows you to switch between the front and rear facing camera.

Don’t forget to swipe down from the top bezel while using the Camera application, as you’ll be presented several other options such as the ability to enable Image Stabilization and the ratio of the photos you take. For a video walkthrough, check out the BlackBerry PlayBook How To Demos for Taking Pictures. You can also review the user guide for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet by visiting http://docs.blackberry.com.

How do you use the camera on your BlackBerry smartphone or BlackBerry PlayBook tablet? Leave a comment and let me know!

I recently started using the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9800 smartphone, and one of my favorite new features is the upgraded camera. On top of the incredible photo quality, I can now geo-tag my photos as well as change scene modes to ensure I get the best photo possible!

If you want to learn how easy it is to geo-tag photos in addition to changing scene modes, check out the video above. What do you like the most about the Camera functionality in BlackBerry® 6? Leave a comment and let us know!