With a BlackBerry at IU, what should I do if I lose my device or forget my password?

On this page:

• If you lose your BlackBerry
• If you forget your password

If you lose your BlackBerry

At Indiana University, if you lose your BlackBerry device, immediately do the following to render the device unusable and protect your data. This is especially important if you did not have a password set or if the password lock was not engaged when you last had the device, since whoever finds it has access to your mail and data.

With a BES account

If you have an account on the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), contact your campus Support Center to report that you have lost your device. To do so, see Getting your BlackBerry password reset below.

Without a BES account

First, turn off the Desktop Redirector, which stops delivery of new mail to the device. Next, contact the reseller from whom you purchased the device, and request that its service be disabled.

The BlackBerry service provider may need the BlackBerry's PIN in order to disable it. Hopefully, you previously stored that information; see What can I do to make my BlackBerry more secure?

If you recover your device, you will need to contact your service provider to get your account reactivated.

If you forget your password

Important: If you forget your BlackBerry password, do not keep trying to log in. If you have a BES account and you have the password option enabled on your BlackBerry, you will be locked out of the device if you type the password incorrectly 10 times.

If you do get locked out, resetting your password would require a low level reset, or "nuke", which is a fairly drastic procedure. A low level reset wipes out your BlackBerry's memory completely, including the operating system. To make it functional again, you would have to cradle the device and reinstall all the BlackBerry software.

If you have a BlackBerry with a BES account, and you have forgotten your device password but you have not locked yourself out of the device, the password can be reset by a BlackBerry BES administrator:

Getting your BlackBerry password reset

1. Contact the UITS Support Center in Bloomington or Indianapolis.

   For help at Indiana University Bloomington, contact the UITS Support Center at 812-855-6789, or send email to  ithelp@iu.edu . At IUPUI, send email to the same address, or phone the UITS Support Center at 317-274-4357.

2. Explain that you need your BlackBerry password reset remotely. If this is due to the device being lost or stolen, be sure to inform the consultant, because this poses a data security risk to you.
   
   
3. You will need to verify your identity in order for UITS to proceed, either by appearing in person with a photo ID at a UITS walk-in location, or by answering the questions you set up in the Secret Questions online form you filled out when you got your BES account. For an explanation of secret questions, see With a BlackBerry at IU, what is the Secret Question ID Verification service? For walk-in operating hours and locations, see UITS Support Center walk-in locations and services.
   
   
4. A UITS consultant will verify your identity and initiate a request for the BES administrators to remotely set a password. In the case of lost or stolen devices, an emergency request is made, and the administrators will be paged, even if you call beyond regular business hours of Monday-Friday 8am-5pm.
   
   
5. The UITS consultant will then communicate the new password to you without directly stating it. For example, the consultant will say "The password is the first four letters of your mother's maiden name plus the last three letters of your favorite pet's name". Make sure you clearly understand what the consultant is communicating to you, but do not say the password out loud.
   
   
6. If you are locked out of your BlackBerry but haven't lost it, make sure it is turned on and is within range of a usable signal. In this case, if you make the request before 3pm Monday-Friday, the reset should be accomplished by 5pm. Otherwise the reset will occur in the morning of the next business day.

   In the event of a lost device, the BES administrators will send the password reset signal to your device as soon as possible.

7. The next time you have access to your device, simply enter your new password to unlock the device.

Also see:

• What can I do to make my BlackBerry more secure?
• Getting started with a BlackBerry at IU
• For a BlackBerry, where can I get help or more information?