Backup your phone: access points, bluetooth devices, bookmarks, calendar, cookies, messages, notes, profiles, and T9 dictionary

New phone? Hard reset? Firmware upgrade? Or you just want to be prepared for just in case? Of course you can backup all kinds of things on your phone with PC Suite or the backup feature of the data manager on your phone, but that takes forever, requires a computer (PC Suite), and won't let you choose what to backup (data manager).

But if you hack your phone to set it free and get full access to all system folders, you can backup exactly what you want.

All you need is a hacked phone, and a decent file manager like ActiveFile, X-Plore, SExplorer, FExplorer, or Y-Browser.

Access Points:
Your access points are stored in C:\Private\10202be9\persists\cccccc00.cre. Just make a copy of cccccc00.cre, and restore it to your phone (or send it to another phone), restart your phone, and you have your access point settings back just the way they were when you made the backup.

Bluetooth:
Your bluetooth name is in C:\Private\10202be9\persists\10204dac.cre, your paired devices are in C:\Private\100012a5\DBS_100069CC_btregistry

Bookmarks:
The bookmarks of Symbian's built-in web browser are stored in C:\Private\100012a5\DBS_101FD685_BrowserBookmarks.db.

Calendar:
Calendar entries are stored in C:\Private\10003a5b\Calendar. For more info on backing up and restoring your calendar click here.
On some phones the folder name is 1000395b.

Contacts:
Your contacts database is in C:\Private\100012a5\DBS_100065FF_Contacts.cdb.
On some phones the folder name is 10001295.

Cookies:
The cookies of Symbian's built-in web browser are in C:\Private\101f8530\cookies.dat. Restart your phone after restoring or transfering the cookies file. If you've told your browser to delete your cookies, there is no cookies.dat file in C:\Private\101f8530.

Messages:
Your SMSs and mails from Symbian's built-in messaging application are stored in C:\Private\1000484b. If you've told your phone to store messages on your memory card, they are in E:\Private\1000484b. Copy the entire folder, and restore when needed. For more info on backing up messages click here.

Notes:
The notes you write in Symbian's Notes application are stored in C:\Private\100012a5\DBS_101F8878_Notepad.dat.
If you can't delete or replace the file, it's because Symbian is using it. But there's a workaround for this problem: go to settings, data manager, memory, and select "back up phone memory" from the options menu. While your phone is making the backup, you can delete or replace the DBS_101F8878_Notepad.dat file.

Profiles:
Your profiles are stored in C:\Private\10202be9\persists\101f8798.cre. If you restore the backup, restart your phone.

T9 dictionary:
Your frequently used words in SMS and email are stored in C:\Predic\101F8615_F.dat. You don't even need to hack your phone to get into this folder. For more info click here.


This post was stolen without referring to the source by the copycats of Mobile PC, Mobile Tricks on G-Blogs, and Mobile Geeks.

Back up your calendar: yet another good reason to hack your Symbian phone

Phones that run Symbian S60 (Nokia) and Symbian UIQ (Sony Ericsson) are like Fort Knox: you can't even access the files and folders that contain your calendar entries on your phone, which means that the horrible piece of bloatware called PC Suite is the only way to back up your calendar. The draconian restrictions of Symbian are like not having the keys of your own house.

But Symbian has been hacked : ) With a few modifications you can access all files and folders on your phone, and make backup copies whenever and whereever you want without having to connect your phone to a computer that runs PC Suite.

Need a quick way to back up your calendar without having to hook up your phone to a computer to struggle with PC Suite?

Then hack your phone to get access to the c:\private folder. The built-in Symbian file browser won't get you there, but X-Plore or ActiveFile will.

Inside the folder with the user friendly (ahem) name "10003a5b" you'll find a file called "Calendar" which contains (yes, you guessed right) all your calendar entries!

Make a copy of c:\private\10003a5b\calendar and you have a backup of your calendar. Delete the file and you'll have lots of free time. Keep two different copies if you want a double agenda ;)
On some phones the calendar folder name is 1000395b.

No PC Suite needed, so Mac and Linux users can back up their calendar too!

If Symbian won't let you restore your calender backup (because the calendar file on your phone is in use), you can restore the backup with one of these tricks:

1) Tell Symbian to back up your phone memory to your memory card and send the backup program to the background. You can restore your calendar backup while Symbian's phone-to-memory-card application is running.

2) Rename c:\private\10003a5b to c:\private\10003a5ba (or any other name), delete the calendar file from the renamed folder, copy your calendar backup file into the renamed folder, rename the folder back to its orginal name (10003a5b), and restart your phone.
On some phones the calendar folder name is 1000395b.