Delete Old/Read Messages and Maintain a Tidy Inbox

Storing old or already-read text, e-mail and PIN messages on your BlackBerry can take a significant bite out of your device's available memory. Get rid of all that clutter.

Click your Messages icon on the BlackBerry home screen to open your messaging application, and then hit the BlackBerry menu key. Scroll down the list until you see Options, in the next menu choose General Options, and then scroll down to Keep Messages. Set that option to the smallest number of days/months you can tolerate. Obviously, the lower the number of days, the more memory you'll free over time. You can keep your messages for as long as you want--forever, if you choose--but 15 days is the shortest time period

You can also minimize the amount of device memory taken up by messages by keeping a tidy inbox. Don't let your message counter get out of control, if you've got 50 or 100 unopened messages that you already read on your laptop, get rid of them on your BlackBerry. One easy way to delete a bunch of messages without having to go through each one is to hold the left or right Shift key while scrolling through your inbox or outbox. This highlights all the messages you scroll past until you release Shift. Then simply hit your BlackBerry Menu key and select Delete to get rid of the list.

You can also delete all messages sent or received before a specific date. To do so, scroll down to a date line and hit the BlackBerry Menu key. From there, select Delete Prior, and you'll trash all previous messages.

Enable Content Compression:

BlackBerry content compression is meant to decrease the size of the data on your device to take up less memory, and you should take advantage of the option. When enabled, all your device data is compressed, including messages, contacts, calendar entries, tasks, and memos.

To turn content compression on, click the Options key on your BlackBerry's home icon screen, scroll to and select Security Options and then choose General Settings. Once inside the General Settings menu, highlight Content Compression, click your trackball or trackwheel and choose Enabled. Then save your changes by exiting the screen via the Escape key or otherwise and select Save when the Changes Made dialogue box appears.