Tips for IT Administrators

Feature Topic: Unable to write or update application data error message

For more on this error message, including troubleshooting tips, see this article:
What is ‘Unable to write or update application data’?

Top 5 BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Issues

Here are the top five issues facing IT Administrators right now, based on the calls we received in the past month. Click the links below to read about the issues and discover how to resolve them:

1. Identifying and troubleshooting enterprise activation issues
2. Unable to send messages because the Send As permission has been revoked
3. Unable to write or update application data
4. How to perform a clean install of BlackBerry Device Software using Application Loader
5. Leave or remove copies of email messages on the messaging server when using an email client

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Feature Topic:

What is ‘Unable to write or update application data’?

Unable to write or update application data is an error that occurs when information in a database can not be written or updated. More commonly, it is produced by BlackBerry® Desktop Manager when the user is trying to synchronize organizer data (such as contacts, calendar entries, tasks, and memos) between the BlackBerry smartphone and a Personal Information Manager (such as Microsoft® Outlook ®, Novell® GroupWise® or Lotus Notes®). The error occurs when performing a wired synchronization through the BlackBerry Desktop Manager.

The following are common symptoms seen in regard to this error. For a more complete set of causes and troubleshooting steps, please see KB00729.

Symptom 1
This issue is commonly caused when a user has an invalid entry in their organizer data. What is an invalid entry? An invalid entry can be classified as one that has First Name, Last Name and Company fields blank. With these three fields empty, the BlackBerry Desktop Manager is not able to read the entry correctly and thus the error is produced.

How can this be resolved?
This can be resolved in two ways. The first option is to go through all of the entries to find any entries that do not contain a First Name, Last Name and Company name. By populating one of these three fields, the Desktop Manager will be able to process the entry and the error will not occur.

The second option is to have the user download and install BlackBerry Desktop Manager v4.2.1 or higher. In these versions, these types of entries are skipped during processing, avoiding the error, but this would only apply to entries that do not have an email address.

Symptom 2
Invalid characters are commonly seen as a cause of this error. Invalid characters (anything other than a hyphen [-] or an apostrophe [’] that are found in the name fields) may cause this error to occur.

How can this be resolved?
This can be resolved by verifying and removing any invalid characters from entries. Prefixes and Suffixes (Mr. Mrs. Jr. PhD) should also be put in the correct field instead of the Full Name field.

To help with this, consider using advanced logging during the synchronization process. For more information on advanced logging, please refer to KB01451.

Symptom 3
Another reason this issue would be caused is due to an application database on the BlackBerry smartphone being corrupt. Application databases are databases on the smartphone that contain Address Book, Calendar, Memos or Tasks information. On occasion, there is information written incorrectly that can cause the database to be un-writeable.

How can this be resolved?
The best way to resolve this symptom is to determine what database is causing the issue and clear the contents of that corrupt database.