BlackBerry Messenger is no doubt one of the most popular apps that BlackBerry has to offer today, especially with the younger crowds.  Losing all of your BlackBerry contacts is devastating and can take hours if not days to recover them there is no backup and they are lost.  There are a couple of ways to back up your BlackBerry contacts both of which will be discussed in this tutorial.

Method One: BlackBerry Desktop Software

The first method that you can use to back up not only your BlackBerry Messenger contacts but your BBM groups as well is to do a full or selective backup using the BlackBerry desktop Software.  If you have never done a backup using this method and would like to know how you can read our tutorial on “How to Backup you BlackBerry Information”.

Method Two: BlackBerry Messenger Internal Backup

The second and in my opinion most preferred way to backup and safeguard your BlackBerry Messenger contacts is through the use of BlackBerry Messenger’s internal backup utility.  This utility is great and allows you to make a backup to an email address or a media card if your BlackBerry is fitted with one.  Here is how to backup your Messenger contacts using this method:

Step 1: Open your BBM app on the BlackBerry

Step 2: Press the BlackBerry(menu) button to pull up a list of options

Step 3:  Scroll through this list for an option that says “Options”, Once found click on it.

Step 4: On the screen in front of you will be a bunch of different options that you can look through and configure, however; for this tutorial you will scroll down to the “Backup Management” section and will press the button labled “Back Up”.

Step 5: You will be prompted with 2 options.  The first option is to do a remote backup, this is where your contacts are backed up to an email address that you provide.  The second option is to back up your BlackBerry Messenger contacts locally, this is where your contacts will be backed up to the media card on the BlackBerry itself.  Select the option of your preference.

Remote Backup Selected

5 a) Scroll down and select the integrated email address(es) you want to back up your Messenger contacts to by placing a check mark in the checkbox beside the emails.

5 b) Once done select the “Register” option.  This will trigger BBM to send out a verification email and will then allow BBM to go in and validate that you own the email.  Once your email has been verified the remote backup will be enabled and will begin backing up regularly to that email address.

Local Backup Selected

5 c) A screen will pop up with a checkbox and a button, make sure that the checkbox is selected and then press the Back Up button.  A box will be displayed and you will be able to choose where you want to save the file to your media card.  I would suggest leaving it in the default location.

5 d) Click the “Save” button and you are finished the Backup is created.

Both the local and remote backup methods should on a regular basis continue to backup as changes are made, however; as best practice about once every month I would suggest doing a manual backup to your media card just to be safe.  Using these backup methods will save you a lot of time and frustration and I would encourage you to back up your BlackBerry Messenger contacts as well as all of your other BlackBerry information as the BlackBerry is an electronic device and is subject to corruption.