How do I reset the Nokia N97 phone

There has been a number of people having problems with their N97’s and having to totally reset the phone to fix different issues, so I’ve decided to put together this guide on the best way to go about the task and have the N97 back to full optimum usability.

Prepare for Reset
1. Phone contacts is the only thing I really backup, best way I use is to copy all contacts to mass memory for quick reinstall later:.

Within Contacts application:
a) Options \ Mark/Unmark \ Mark all
b) Options \ Copy business card \ To other memory
c) Select ‘E: Mass memory’ and ‘Yes’ to remove existing contacts from selected memory.

NOTE: You could use Backup in File Manager to copy Contacts, Calendar and Bookmarks to a memory card?

2. Other Application Data depends on what applications you have installed, have a look yourself and save on mass memory. I have Profimail & SplashID which I export the settings/data and save on Mass memory for importing later.

3. Goto Menu\Settings\Application mgr.\Installed apps. and uninstall all applications installed on the Mass Memory.

4. Hard Reset the phone my dialing *#7370# from the homescreen and entering Lock Code 12345

Phone with now hard reset to the original firmware and factory settings. Once finished it will restart and ask you to enter region, date, time, etc. as if you just took the phone out the box when you first purchased it.

Installing from Fresh

You now have a clean phone ready to load your data and install your applications back on, so this is the time you need to be careful what you do, where you install things and what you install. Personally I’ve got a list of the best application I like for Nokia phones and will only install these on a non-test phone, i.e. personal phone.

5. Reclaim back phone memory before installing by uninstalling any firmware pre-installed applications you don’t use. I removed Facebook, weather apps, most of the widgets. etc.. If you’re never going to use them, then get rid of them, you can always reinstall from OVI Store or the nokiAAddict downloads page later :)

6. Reinstall Phone contacts.

Within Contacts application:
a) Options \ Copy business card \ From other memory
b) Select ‘E: Mass memory’.

7. Install all new applications to the Mass Memory, there might be a few apps which can only be installed on phone (Python & Wordmobi), but most should work okay installed on the Mass Memory. What applications to install is up to yourself, but I’ve found the main memory hugger is email. For Email the best application I’ve found is LCG Profimail which installs and works great on Mass Memory, unlike Nokia Messaging which only installs to phone memory. Although Profimail isn’t FREE its well worth the money for heavy email users.