How to: Keep your data and survive a repair or firmware upgrade

[slitchfield]

In which I explain perhaps the all round best way to keep your data safe and your disruption to a minimum when it comes to repair, replacement or firmware upgrade time. I also propose it as a possible way to restore operation to a 'broken' phone.

Read on in the full article.

[ashu]

i have been using this method only of late steve, and its the most hassle free process of backing up and restoring!
No need for a pc, no need to sync via various suites. Simple, easy and quick. Of course, you need to reinstall the third party apps, but then its better to reinstall on a new firmware!
Just one query though, i have recently indulged myself with skye quickey. Does it fall under the genius developer category or the lesser app developers!

Yes, for me this works much better than PC Suite.

Only one issue: everytime I backup this way I cannot use SIM Toolkit (I mean, I can explore the menus but I cannot send any request) until I restart the phone: tested with E71, N95 8GB and E51, with different italian TIM SIM cards...

[neilhoskins]

"re-download latest versions of any third party apps". At this stage, you discover that you should have paid the sharks at Handango a premium, otherwise they won't let you do this.

[Ratkat]

A good way of backing up just your contacts is to download the freeware program Contacts Transfer from http://www.elisanet.fi/portal/s60/

With the Contacts Transfer application you can copy the entire contents of the contacts database includig thumbnail images and caller groups from one phone to another via bluetooth, infra-red or a memory card.

I use it to keep a backup of my contacts on my memory card, along with a copy of the install file, handy if you away and need to reset your phone for some reason.

[malerocks]

What I prefer to do is take a complete backup using PC suite, but when re-storing, I just choose to restore the contacts, messages and calendar entries. Of course, I do have to manually set all the settings and then re-install all the apps, but then I think its better that way to ensure that my phone is glitch free..

I think it is easier to use memory backup for the phones with memory card, but with integrated memory (n95) is much harder, although you can do it, if you upgrade phone and there are p preinstalled applications on the internal drive they will start installing which sometimes results in a phone inability to boot :(

'Sync PIM data to Ovi.com'

I used this method during my last re-boot. It backed up only the main numbers & lost all other contact info, including addresses!

Luckily, I'd used iSinc 1st which saved all the information ...but still lost my (custom) Contact labels.

I'll try the back up memory card method next time.

[chucky.egg]

Having come from Windows Mobile this is kinda interesting.

I used to use Sprite Backup to get a complete image of my device in a self-extracting EXE. Creating one takes about 5-10 minutes, but then recovering from a Hard Reset (when the device is misbehaving beyond the point that you can control it) took just a few minutes and could be done anywhere any time.

Since I have a hosted Exchange account for my PIM data, and with a nice stable (albeit less-configurable) E71, I simply don't worry any more.

[Arjen]

I've been using this method since the Psion days and luckily this still works on the latest S60v3 devices.

The fact that some applications simply seem to have disappeared after the restore is something new to S60v3 though. With all Psion and Symbian devices up to the Nokia 9500 this was never a problem.

To make re-installation easier for the applications that don't adhere to the pure Symbian standards, I always copy the .sis files of all external applications that I install on my phone to a dedicated "Installations" folder on the MMC or SD card. This way, a complete reinstall of all applications after a format, repair or firmware upgrade never takes more than about 15 to 30 minutes.

One of the steps I use to make sure I don't suffer problems after a firmware upgrade is to reformat the memory card.

So, I'll be re-installing all apps.

[Hih]

Nice reading, again.

How about backing up the memory card and restoring it back.

For example, I have 8GB card and buy 16GB card. How should I transfer the files?

I have found the Nokia PC Suite backup to be very unreliable. Some applications are backed up and restored, others are not. Some data goes missing; in my case, I lost all of the passwords data that I had entered into BestSafe. When I contacted the producers, they told me that Nokia's backup was notoriously unreliable with regard to 3rd party data, which is why they had included an import/export function in Best Safe; I hadn't used this, as I had assumed that the Nokia Content Copier would do this for me... how wrong I was!!

I usually use this way of backup too.

Just: roughly in one in about four cases it doesn't work proper!

I do backups regularly, but IF there is an already damaged file or whatsoever on C:, the backup process to memory card suddenly stops (without further notice). For example, if the phone switched off simply by removing the battery, if there is no other way to restart the phone, I could imagine that this leaves some "mess" on C:. Result: the next time you do a backup, it may be incomplete, but I won't know about that.

Once you need to restore the backup, it does not run through completely.

So, my advice on this: make backups regularly, maybe keep the last 3 of them in a safe place (your computer's HDD), so you can try no.2 and no.3 just in case the most recent one does not work. And watch the duration the backup to memory card takes carefully. If it just takes 10 seconds, there obviously IS SOMETHING wrong already Better use your previous backup.

[Arcade]

Steve, may I know what "power cycling the phone" means ?