BlackBerry Status Indicator Icons And Their Meaning
Back in days, I remember how difficult it was to help a friend over the phone to clear all notification icons from her new BlackBerry Bold home screen. Many times, it’s tough for new BlackBerry users too learn all notification icons in few days. Well at that time, I didn’t have this post published else I could have send the link via email.
If you are a new BlackBerry user reading this post or sending a link to fellow new BlackBerry user, do keep in mind that following icon set belongs to the standard themes which are built in with all new BlackBerry devices. It may differ if you’re using custom theme. Also these indicators appear on the Home screen of your BlackBerry device or at the top of the screen in some applications. Depending on your device model and wireless service provider, some of these indicators might not appear.
Home Screen
Message list
Typing
Phone
Camera and video camera
Camera flash status
Calendar
Battery power level
Do you see any missing icon from the above list? There is one which is not listed above. It appears when you press Menu Button while you are on active phone call and select Enhance Call Audio and then select Boost Bass or Boost Treble. Once you select any of these two, the icon will appear next time when you’re on voice call.
Stay tuned for the next post on all Application Icons on standard BlackBerry themes.
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BIG Thank you! This was a very informative chart which I was unable to find anywhere else. I was having trouble with the “Enchance Call Audio” setting that I had accidentally enabled, but fixed it rather swiftly after taking a look here. Thanks again.
I have an icon that is not on this list and I can’t find it anywhere. It’s a black/white round symbol with an arrow pointed to the bottom left and a red star (indicator) in the top right. What is this?
check your app world for updates
Katie, I have the same icon – it appeared a few hours ago and it doesn’t seem to link to anything (opening the menu doesn’t show any red stars). Any ideas Munish?
It’s hard for me to find it from the description. Any screen shot to my email (info AT blackberrytune.com) would help.
Hope, that’s the App World Update icon. Let me know what happens after you upgrade to AppWorld 2.0.
Yes, it is the App World icon. It went away after I checked the App updates.
Katie, a quick Google search for “blackberry bold unknown home screen notification” helped me. Turns out that this is a notification for an application upgrade, which is in the “Messages” folder. I’m busy upgrading to Appworld 2.0, and I expect that that notification will disappear then.
Katie,
I had this same icon… and after reading the response above realized it was an application upgrade icon. I went into the Blackberry Apps – My World section and you will see the available upgrade. Finally – this icon has been bugging me for weeks!
i have this icon on the bit where u get messages and it says 1 next to it. It is orange and is the same circle which is the internet browser without the orange line going round it. do you have any idea what it is? because i have looked everywhere and it doesnt tell me >???
thankss x
sorry i just figured it out for anyone else who doesnt know do this, its an internet browser which hasnt been opened :
It is a browser message icon. Go into the messages folder > menu button> search > type: unopened> menu > search – Read the message and the icon will go away
hi Sophie, i have the very same icon and followed your instruction but it says no messages – any other suggestion
Hi, I have the same indicator there, it’s a Broswer Message. You can go to Messages, then press BB button to open the menu, then scroll down to find “View folder”. Then select “Broswer Messages” to read the message. Then the indicator will disappear.
i have an icon on my home screen that i do not understand it is a circle with an arrow inside(always pointing down towards the left)with a red new item symbol on the circle line.
please can you tell me what this is.
I have the same. What is it??
When you press the Menu button and see all icons, do you see any notification icon (red star) on any app. I am not sure about what the icon is from the description you’ve provided but it’s a notification icon for an app for sure.
Did you installed any new app recently. If you don’t find any red star on any app icon then do a battery pull and check again.
That’s the App World update indicator. I had the same question until I went back and read Munish’s answer on 8/22 and Laura’s answer on 8/23. Mik is right – it’s definitely a notification icon. Pulling the battery won’t help. But sometimes you have to really dig to find which app is indicating an available update.
On my 9630 (Tour), The “Blackberry App World” icon does not show a red star like you might expect. But, once you click on it, the “My World” icon DOES show the red star. The newest version is 2.0.0.36. You don’t have to actually upgrade to get rid of the icon on your home screen. Once you go in and read about the upgrade, the red star will disappear. Of course, the next time you go into App World, it’s going to again remind you of the available update.
Excellent advice. I have a Bold 9650. This symbol was driving me crazy!
Seems you missed the “App. Download Pending” icon, a circle with an arrow pointing from the One O’clock to the center with a red and white asterisk on the edge of the circle. Without other online forums I may have never found it.
What really fries my nads is that I could not find this listed anywhere in the Blackberry listings. In fact, they don’t seem to be very descriptive in several areas.
There is a #1 a red star and a happy face on my Blackberry Curve Homepage ???? What does it mean???
1 Globe (yellow) appears on 8900 after I saved a weblink due to being in a no data coverage area and given the option to save for later access. Cannot find it in messages, nor Saved messages, nor Browser except I deleted the Browser History link (still did not go away. Pls Help. This would be a missing ICON from the above chart. Thanks in Advance.
I have the same yellow globe on my 8700 after I saved two emails for later sending because I was in an area with no service. I can’t believe BlackBerry would have an icon and not tell anyone what it’s for and how to get rid of it.
i found the solution after holding for 14 minutes waiting on VODACOM…they could not find the solution.
here are the steps , 1: go into messages 2: select the BB icon which will open a menue 3: scroll down to “view folder” select it 4: then scroll down to “WAP Push Messages” open and read it. Done
The complete task is: Go to Applications – click on Saved Messages – then press th Blackberry Option button – then scroll down to View Folder – then scroll up to Browser Messages- and all of your messages with the Yellow Globes will appear. These are websites that you were unable to open up and selected save or maybe you save them to look into later and the Yellow Globe is just a reminder.
Fantastic advice ! just done it and the round orange circle is gone after 4 months ! many thanks !
Wonderful… finally the yellow globe are gone (after 6 months), after I open the “WAP Push Messages”… thanks Wes..
I have a blackberry curve and there is a hangman symbol at the top of my page what does it mean
I have the same hangman symbol and have tried numerous steps as mentioned on the forums to no avail!! Mine is a Bold 9700
in regards to the smiling hang mans head on the home screen.its a indacator that the game has sent you a message.to remove his stupid head try go to messanger folder (open),read hang man message and his head will GO AWAY finaly
Hello,
i am using bb 8520. just a couple hours back a strange icon has shown up on my home screen which is not on the list above. Its like a small greyish rectangle with a small yellow bell in the lower right hand corner of the rectangle. It two of them, seperate icon, Request for your help.
I have the same icon that just appeared last night. I cannot find what the meaning of it is.
When I receive a text on my Curve 8520 I get a slanted envelope with a 1 beside it, but a straight envelope with the 1 has appeared and I don’t know what it means, when I receive a text the slanted envelope appears as normal but the straight one stays there I’m so confused.
I have 2 icons that I can’t get rid of. One is the yellow globe, I saw it was posted above. I tried those steps and it didn’t go away. Does anyone know what to do? Also, I have a small yellow smiley face on my screen How do I get rid of that?? Thanks!!
Jenn – go to your text message folder- go to “View Folder” then scroll down to “WAP Push Messages” – read or delete those message(s). The “yellow globe” should disappear.
The globe is a notification for a “Browser Message” . Go to mail > view Folder >browser messages > delete them
Thanks for the enhanced audio icons….after 3 weeks of thinking my phone would only work on speaker( I know but my IT dept knew no better!) I finally found your site, made a call, and changed the icon back to normal from previous! Da Da phone works again and I no longer transmit to all my converstaons nor do I have to send my phone away for 5 weeks to be reparired…
I have an icon on my Blackberry Bold 9650, its a pale yellow smiley face. There’s no other icons around it, and it moves from the left side of my home screen (usually to the right of my new mail icons) but moves to the top middle of the screen when i check messages. I have no idea what its for, and I’ve looked and can’t find it anywhere online, and haven’t read anything about it anywhere in any of the forums so far. If anyone could help, i would really appreciate it!! Thanks!!
I just got the same icon on my phone and I have a BB Curve. Did you ever figure out what this icon represented?
Hi all,
I have a yellow icon on my email icon just below it , it is a yellow envelope with a curvy line in the low end of it,i do not know what is that.
Any help
I have a blue box with white bubbles. Suppose to mean I have BB messenger notices but I’ve checked and there aren’t any. I can’t clear it.
i had that same problem. i dont know what that meant! someone help please…
I have the ‘app world icon’ that some people above have been talking about. I’ve followed numerous steps but cant get rid of it! I cant find out how to upgrade to app world 2.0 Its driving me mad! x
But did you select run? Because it will not complete unless you say run, that’s when another screen will pop up and say it was a success
I had the happy face icon on my Bold. I believe it is from Hangman. If you have enabled the daily themes. Open the Hangman app, select settings, and de-select the top selection which displays on the home screen when new packs are available.
Hi
Does anyone know how to remove the Browser push message / saved browser search off my home screen?
I have 2 symbols that have shown up on my BlackBerry Bold 9000. They are both in the upper left hand corner. the first is the number 1 with a black circle and an arrow pointed down and to the left there is also a red star at the upper right of the circle. the second one is a yellow circle that looks like a globe with the number one beside it. I have had this model of black berry since April of last year, and have never seen either symbol. Also, I recently received a refurbished black berry bold 9000 so I am not sure if that has anything to do with it.
Any help would be appreciated!
the number 1 with the black circle with the arrow pointing down with the red star means that black berry world app has an update for you i just figured mine out
Any idea how to remove the icon? I am trying to get it removed but even after clicking the apps icon..still stuck..help!!!
I have an Icon that NOONE seems to know what it is. it is a little blue circle with a checkmark in the middle… any one have any ideas?
i have blue circle with a white around it for my torch
i have a symbols that have shown up on my BlackBerry Bold 9000. It is in the upper left hand corner. It is the number 1 with a black circle and an arrow pointed down and to the left there is also a red star at the upper right of the circle.
i have a orange circle with a number by it (think its something to do with a web browser) anyone know what it is ?
I have one that I can’t find the explanation for anywhere! It is a circle with a cross in it and also the “message is being sent” icon next to it. What is it that I’m sending? Please help me!
I have the same circle with a cross in it in the upper rt of my mainscreen on my curve and no one can tell me what it is. I can’t find it in any publications either.
That means there’s a upgrade waiting in one of your bb apps.
does anyone know what a white envelope with a black circle in the middle and a red circle in the top right hand corner means??
same problem dude white envelope with black circle and red curcle to the right above the black one
Bob – I had the same problem tonight. I went into my sms inbox, pushed the menu button and clicked on view folder – then it comes up a list of all your folders, I went into them one by one tille I found the one with a new message. It turned out it was blackberry world, although I had already went into blackberry world before that and saw nothing. Yours could be the same problem as it seems to have happened at the same time as mine. Hope this helps!
Thanks-this worked for me!
Thank you Bob for asking that question! That darn symbol has been haunting me and thank you Carolyn for your reply!!!!! Turns out it was memory booster upload message from bb app world.
carolyn – thanks so much for ur response.. It helped me a lot!! @ bob, thanks for askin the question!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
I’ve got a half a grey envolope with half a circle in the middle at the top left hand side of 8900, can’t find how to get rid of it anywhere. Can anyone help?
I have the same thing and dont no what it is , anyone got any ideas
I have a yellow star and I have no clue what it is??
Check your emails, you’ve placed a Star on something as a reminder.
how can i remove the sending data icon?
While charging my batter icon of my curve 9300 changed into something that is not shown above. Its a battery sumbol, but inside it, it appears to be some kind of a spanner or some wierd gadgety thing. Anyone knows anything about it?
i just got an new icon on my home screen, but i can’t find what does this icon stands for. Can anyone help?
Description : Green bubble with white phone in side of bubble and there is new item icon on right top of the bubble.
Please help.
Thank you.
I have a white envelope with a black circle in the middle of it and red circle on the top right hand corner of the evelope on my home screen. Does anyone know what it means??
i have the same question , please help
i have that too and it wont go away, someone please help ?! its driving me nuts.
i just found out what it is ! if you go onto messages, ( not SMS and MMS ones, just plain messages) then you wshould havea message from app world , click on that then close it and the icon should be gone (: !
thanks Sophie , that has worked for me too . sweet
I have 8330 and just this morning at the top just to the right of the center of the screen is an icon that looks like a test tube. It is red and has a number beside it that changes from time to time. Does anyone know what it is?
Anyone know how to get rid of this icon? An envelope with circle black dot in the center and a red dot too in the upper right…
…..or what this icon indicates? What is it?
Go into MMS and there should be a message from App world and click it and it will go away.
…..or what this icon indicates? What is it?
I have a status indicator icon that appeared ten days ago. It is a red turret or cooling tower-like shape – perhaps a chemical flask – with the sides outlined in white. It has a number (18) shown next to it that has not varied since it appeared. I have no games on the machine, even those with which it was supplied.
Its the temperature for the app accuweather.
Ahh!! mine has this weird icon that isnt on here and its bothering me!its silver and has somthing black in the middle then a run astix then, does anybody else have this?? HELP!
i guess if i read the comments i would have figured it out lmao thanks Sophie.
I have an icon at the top of my screen, it’s a white envelope, with the black circle blackberry logo in the middle, with the red star indicator. I’ve tried everything and it won’t go away! Anyone any ideas?
- I don’t have a message on my messages from App World
It’s come up! Thank you
Hi-a weird icon came up on a 9300. It’s like a tiny white envelope with a very little black dot right in the center, and you can almost see a little white something inside that eeeextremely little black dot. Next to it, in the top right corner of the envelope there is a red dot, the same size as the black one….someone please help me..it’s driving me nuts!….thanks a lot
never mind..I found it..thanks sophie
+i have a problem on my blackberry 9650, there is an icon whihc is square and black in colour, it has an arrow pointing up, its driving me nuts, hep!!!!!
I also have a green speech bubble with a white bubble in between and have no idea how to get rid or what it is. I have a Blackberry Curve. Any help would be great! thanks
My dad has a continuous green light flashing on his 8520, for the past 6 weeks or so.
Also a red circle with a white dollar sign inside it.
Can anyone help?
I have a 9300 and have never seen these icons before.
Thanks
i have this “system is busy” icon, even though im not doing anything (stanby mode) anyone can help me?thanks
how can you download facebook using 8520?
I have an icon that showed up today that I am really hoping someone can help me with. It is in the top right corner of the screen under the signal bars, it looks like a target (circle with a + in the middle and 3 ))) beside it. Can’t find it on anhy of the lists. Plse help! Thanks!
Trying to figure out the same thing, nobody seems to know what it is
The other work around to try would be to “Show All icons” in the home screen and open all the apps one by one to see if there is any notification. This will surely help find which 3rd party app has that icon.
Oh I have the BB Curve
I have an indicator light on my phone that I can’t figure out. It is a message but in the bottom left their is a White circle with some sort of symbol that I can’t quite figure out. Any advice would help.
I have an indicator light on my phone that I can’t figure out. It is a message but in the bottom left their is a White circle with some sort of symbol that I can’t quite figure out. Any advice would help
In my messages folder, I have started to get a clock icon (a red square clock showing 3 O’Clock) where I would normally see an envelope to indicate message read or a tick to indicate message sent. Intuitively I suppose the icon means that the message is pending, but what’s it waiting for? I have signal. Hitting “re-send” doesn’t do anything. I’ve only had this in the last few days since last week’s meltdown. Any ideas?
Resolved by removing the battery and restarting. All the pending emails sent. No idea what caused it though…
What does the icon NL means at the top right hand corner? How do I get rid of this?
Dear all,
Please help, I always see a blue bbm icon on my start up page of the 8520.
there are no open chats in the bbm, no saved messages, nothing!
how do i remove this logo?
thxxx
hi all!! plzz help me. messages in my inbox are green outside, when I want to read it, there are no messages.Although there should be
(( it disappears time after time. messages that are sent/received more then 1 month ago. 
(( help
There should be some unread messages. Did you try deleting all Messages and see if that go away. Highlight the “Date” filed in Messages, press Menu and select “Delete Prior” to delete all messages in one shot.
May have it figured out soon, but there is an icon on my status screen. Bb 9900. May be an app . Unsure yet. Its a small circle, white outline, black interior, white arrow pointing to approx 7-8 . If it was a clock lol. The arrow end on top which is at approx 1-2 starts outside of the circle. There is no updates available, no notifcations on amy of my icons. And right now can’t figure out why its there. Any help would be appreicated.
hi can anybody help please i have got the bb 9700 and everytime i type a message 3 small square boxes pop up in the middle of the screen and stop me carrying on with my message unless i click it off it is driving me mad, please help many thanks
Hi, I have a little red square clock icon next to an MMS I am trying to send. Does anybody know ehat this means? Thanks
Hi. An orange square with a $ symbol and a 1 next to it has popped up on my 9630. I can’t find a reference to what it is or how to get rid of it. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!
It appears to be from 3rd part app. However check the following link for default OS 5.0 status indicators for BlackBerry Tour 9630.
http://docs.blackberry.com/en/smartphone_users/deliverables/16527/
Hope this helps else sorry it’s hard for me to identify from the description.
Thanks for the help. I still can’t identify it though. It is a green dollar sign inside an orange square. It is located just to the right of the new message indicator icon. It currently has a “1″ immediately to the right of the square. Puzzling. Thanks again.
It turns out it was an app installed by my company for approving FCA’s. Once I found and opened it, it went away. Thanks for your help.
Thanks Curt for letting us know. Have a good weekend!!
my blackberry storm was fully charged this morning and by lunchtime it had a very very low battery signal (red in colour). there is a funny icon on the top right hand side of my screen under the 3G sign. it looks like a circle with a “cross” in the middel. looks like the lines of a gun scope. could this be some application that’s open that used my battery life
thanks
I don’t think so it is related with low battery event you had in the morning. It would be some sort of notification came of any app.
Did you installed in new app recently. Try opening all the apps one at a time. Reboot the device and see if that helps.
Hi, I have a white circle on my bb8520 with a arrow showing down to the left and I can not find anything that is still open or bussy.. Can someone help me..??????PLEASE…
i need some help! i got a bb 8520. only had it few months. today i needed to find my mobile number. so i turned my phone off, then took the battery out to see if my number was written on the sim card. it wasnt so i put battery back in, and it turned its self on like normal. or so i thought. the screen is totally frozen. and there is a symbol on the screen i have never seen before. next to the speaker phone picture( the one that tells u if ur phone is silent or not) is a little yellow outline of a star…ive treid soft and hard reset. and once its rebooted, just goes back to same screen. i dont know what to do..
kelly