That Blackberry You Bought on eBay

You've purchased a used Blackberry on eBay or through some other online or offline seller, you put your sim card (hopefully you've already called your carrier to add a Blackberry data feature) into the device and try it out. Maybe the phone works okay, but the browser doesn't respond. Perhaps the phone and browser work, but you can't download any games or apps. What's going on?

It is very possible that the Blackberry you purchased was once on a company's Blackberry Enterprise Server. If that's that case, it may have an IT policy restricting it from doing some or even all things. The device may have been lost or stolen and the Blackberry administrator for the user's company sent out a "kill" command, or it could just be that the company had some features it routinely blocked for all users (such as ringtone and application downloads).

Just doing a "wipe handheld" won't fix the problem for you, and it won't do you any good to call and yell at the data rep with your carrier. Most data support people are simply told there's nothing they can do if a device has IT policies in place.

If this is your situation, there may be a solution for you that doesn't involve tracking down and killing the person who sold you the blocked device (violence is never the answer) or using the Blackberry as a paperweight or new toy for your three-year-old. Click here for a possible resolution, and if it works for you, please come back here and tell me in the comments on this post.

Removal of BlackBerry Policy: Free Step by Step Directions