Please make sure to read the entire post before you start. I will not necessarily be able to help you when you have problems because of my job and my limited knowledge. You should visit this forum for any problem that may occur. They have pretty much all issues covered.
If you’re happy to proceed, these are the 5 steps you need to do first:
1. Download the OS6 file from any mirror site
2. Download BBSAK (BlackBerry Swiss Army Knife)
3. Download BBHybrids
4. Go into your device’s options | advanced | service book - HOLD THE ALT KEY and type SBEB. (This, I believe, allows you to backup your service book)
5. Backup your phone with Desktop manager. Backup your service book separately using custom backup settings.
Then, these are the steps I followed:
1. Install, on your COMPUTER, the OS6 file.
2. Open BBHybrids - go to Phone Tools tab and connect your device.
3. Click on Factory Reset
4. Then on Wipe
The device will wipe entirely - might take a good while.
It will then boot to a 507 error screen.
5. When that's done, click on the Shrink-A-OS tab. I then clicked on Shrink my OS (not sure it's necessary though. Had more than 70MB free after restore and apps install when I didn’t do it the first time)
6. Select the OS you want to install from the drop down menu at the top. Click Launch Loader. The OS will install. When selecting features, leave out the apps. Device will boot (might take a good while) and a pretty video will play showing the new OS in action. And finally it will boot into a very slick new OS. NO EXTRA THEMES can be installed as there aren’t any yet for the 9700. Why would you anyway?
7. All your OS5 ringtones and sounds will be gone. If you want them, follow these easy steps
8. Restore ONLY critical data: calendar, contacts, address book, bookmarks etc. DO NOT restore Apps. Install manually afterwards.
9. If you’re an international reader and using T-Mobile, do this step.
10. If your browser doesn’t seem to work on BIS, go to Options | Device | Advanced system settings | Service Book – and delete BlackBerry Internet Browsing Service 2 (only if there’s a duplicate i.e: an entry with the number 2)
Finally: Do a couple of battery pulls an hour after new OS6 to get everything going smoothly.
These are some minor bugs I found (There will undoubtedly surface some more):
When the phone finds contacts using universal search function the following bugs appear:
a) scrolling between the results is all over the place
b) clicking the BBM menu and click onb commands like "text [name]" doesn't work. I have to click and open the contact and select a menu command from there.
Update: It seems that after a second or third search, the problem completely corrects itself and works absolutely fine. Weird.
c) In BBM, scrolling between chats is sluggish. However, scrolling between contacts is perfectly smooth.
d) In BBM, scrolling inside a conversation doesn't display a cursor, so copying text is virtually impossible.
e) In calendar, struggling to scroll (swipe left and right) to next and previous days.
…will add more as they appear…leave comments for bugs.
DISCLAIMER: These are the steps I followed. I couldn't find any step by step guide online, so these bugs may occur simply because I did something small incorrectly. Also, there are reports of devices which browser and twitter apps didn't work. There are specific steps to follow to correct that. I didn't have that problem though.
