How to install OS 6 on the BlackBerry Bold 9700

Updated over a week ago

By

Aidan Fitzpatrick Ethics & fact-checking

Owners of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 in the UK will likely be running BlackBerry's version 5 operating system. Version 5 isn't bad, but RIM released OS 6 some time ago, and it's excellent. The interface is really souped-up, and it makes the phone easier and faster to use.

Unfortunately, OS 6 isn't released in the UK, and UK carriers don't let you upgrade without jumping through some hoops first. Here's our guide on how to complete the upgrade yourself. This release isn't officially supported in the UK yet, and we can't support or recommend doing this.

Make sure you have the latest copy of the BlackBerry Desktop Manager installed. If you don't, you can get it here.
Sync your phone with the BlackBerry Desktop Manager, and be sure to take a backup of your phone's data. The upgrade should be a lossless process, but you never know. If you do lose data, you should be able to recover some of it with BlackBerry Backup Extractor.
Visit BlackBerry's software download site and select the latest AT&T OS for download. At the time of writing, that's 6.0.0.2342.
Run the downloaded OS update program, and it'll install the update into BlackBerry Desktop Manager.
Open the BlackBerry Desktop Manager's "Apploader" folder. This will likely be in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research in Motion\Apploader (or C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Research in Motion\Apploader on x64 systems).
Rename the "vendor.xml" file to "_vendor.xml" so that the desktop manager cannot find it.
Run the application loader program, "Loader.exe" from the folder, and follow the instructions it presents. It'll take you through the OS upgrade on your BlackBerry, which could take 5 - 10 minutes.
Enjoy your newly upgraded BlackBerry!

There's a neat video showing off some of the new features in BlackBerry OS 6 below:

Aidan Fitzpatrick

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Comments (4)

J

by jas

February 3^rd, 2014

thanks for this very brief instructions! im enjoying my OS 6 now. really worth the wait of almost 3 hours downloading. :) <3

H

by Hassan

April 7^th, 2012

There is no apploader folder or any file named vendor what should i do?

@Hassan; The appdata is stored outside the IPB or BBB file, but still need to be backed up.

The apploader folder is found C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Research In Motion

And restoring App third party apps is carried out via the Loader.exe and a stored PIN executed in this folder. If it doesn't exist something has gone wrong, its important you pick Backup Data and Apps (including Messages) during the backup process.

S

by sunny

March 4^th, 2012

thanks for these steps i have tried 2 times but it worked

N7

by novo 7

February 22^nd, 2012

nice post,thanks for sharing!