I recently upgraded my old BlackBerry Pearl to a new BlackBerry Curve 8320. The problem you are always encountering is: how do I transfer my data from my old BlackBerry to my new one? Well, you could technically just do create a backup and then restore it on your new device.
However, as the new BlackBerry Desktop Manager that came along with the Curve, has is a new option called “Switch Device Wizard”. So I thought it might be an good idea to use it. I mean, that thing seems to be built exactly for the above mentioned reason. I guess, it internally does exactly the same like the “backup & restore” procedure you could do “manually” as well.
The “Switch Device Wizard” is easy to find. Please make sure, your old device is connected to the computer and the BlackBerry Device Manager recognized it already.
After you have started the wizard, you can now select whether to switch from an old to a new BlackBerry device (what I did) or from another mobile device (e.g. iPAQ, Palm, etc.) to a BlackBerry.
Now you can select all data that should be transferred. Of course, this screen looks different if you are switching from a Palm for example (applications cannot be transferred due to the fact that Palm is running Palm OS or Windows Mobile on their devices; and BlackBerry is running BlackBerry OS which are kind of incompatible for applications). Anyway, I selected everything, because it is good to get all my old stuff (contacts, tasks, calendar events, applications, emails, sms, pin messages, photos, etc.) to my new BlackBerry. It seems it is not possible to copy MP3 and video files with this wizard.
After confirming this you might need to wait a while. Depending on the amount of data you have on your device, this might take quite a long time. Please ensure you do not disconnect your BlackBerry from your computer or switch the computer off. You will have to restart the process if you perform one of those actions 
After some time, all data has been copied from your old BlackBerry to your desktop computer.
Now it is save to disconnect your old BlackBerry from your computer and connect the new one. By the way: the most reliable and fast connection would be USB in this case.
You can now also select to automatically activate/register your BlackBerry at your BES server or not. If you are not on a BES (e.g. you are on BIS) the second option would be the better choice.
It looks like system recognized all application I have had installed on my old device before. That’s nice.
Reloading the data onto the new device might take a while as well. Patience is needed here.
It looks like this went pretty well. No errors, no nothing, just easy going!
But stop! It wasn’t that easy as it looked. I began using my BlackBerry and encountered that my BIS setup was gone. I mean the new setup on my new device (which came with a new contract, new telefone number, new PIN, new email address, etc.). I used the new BlackBerry Curve before I decided to transfer the data from my old. So the problem was, that the device switch procedure deleted some stuff on my new Curve that was working already. I have listed it below:
- BIS email settings
- BIS email service book entries
- All SMS
- All EMails
This was not good! It should not happen! I discovered it when I tried to write an email as the following message poped up:
“No message services configured. You will only be able to Save Draft.”
I was a bit confused as it was working one day before. After google-ing a bit, I figured out that my service book entries were gone - as well as all the stuff mentioned above. However, the service book entries could be restored. I looged in to the web access of the BIS where my new BlackBerry is registered.
There found this small but helpful button called “Send Service Books”:
That did the trick. After I sent the service book entries again, the BlackBerry got a message for registering my device at the system. Everything is back working fine. 
I hope this howto is of a bit help to you guys. More helpful howtos can be found in our Category:Howtos.
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