When “backup” is a relative term…

I recently posted about my love/hate relationship with the Nokia E71x. It’s gotten a bit more contentious lately, due to various and mysterious software issues. Calendar entries that refuse to accept date changes, programs that freeze repeatedly, games that malfunction…it has been frustrating to say the least.

Cue Nokia PC Suite and their backup suite. My first thought was that perhaps a backup and then full restore might smooth out the quirks, plus it would provide an excellent test of the backup system. If that did not fix my issues, I could reset the phone, rebuild it, and then back up my “clean” setup. I’ve done this before on Windows Mobile phones, iPhones and Palm OS devices and have never had a major issue…until now.

PC Suite backed everything up without a hitch. I followed the convoluted hard reset instructions, looked up the code to authorize the reset, and the phone was wiped. I plugged it back in, started up PC Suite, and set up a restore from my backup; it threw out that an error occurred, but the log didn’t list anything. And now roughly 1/3 of my programs are MIA, mail for exchange isn’t working, and I have no idea what else has/has not carried over. Easily the most disastrous backup I’ve ever used.

Any thoughts from the Symbian experts out there? I’m about to drop  kick my phone across the room, so any tips or calming words would be helpful. And let this serve as a warning to anyone else…make sure you carefully investigate any backup system before you attempt anything drastic, and keep careful records of important data in case something goes awry!

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Tags: Memory Devices, Mobile Phones, Nokia, Symbian