Saturday, 12 July 2008

Backing up settings on your S60 device

Over at Symbian-Guru, Rita has posted her 'Ultimate guide to switching devices' which has some helpful tips for your standard user with a locked down S60 device. At the end of her guide, Rita mentions that there are still some things that she couldn't transfer over from one phone to the other. I'm here to fix that.

Note: To perform these back ups you will need full access to C:\. See my video guide here on how to do so.
Access Point settings? Piece of cake:
To back up your access point settings navigate to C:\Private\10202be9\persists. Scroll down until you find a file called cccccc00.cre and copy it to your memory card. When you need to move your access points to a new phone, just send over the .cre file, paste it into the appropriate directory and restart.

Profiles? As easy as 1-2-3:

To back up Profile settings navigate to C:\Private\10202be9\persists. Scroll down until you find 101f8798.cre and copy it to your memory card. When you need to move your profile settings, just move the .cre file to the appropriate folder and restart.

Web Cookies? Here you are:

To back up your web cookies, navigate to C:\Private\101f8530. Copy the file called cookies.dat to your memory card. Whenever you need to restore your cookies, just copy them to the above location and restart.

Notes? pfft, give me a challenge:

Notes are stored in a file named as DBS_101F8878_Notepad.dat. This file can be found in C:\Private\100012a5. Copy the file to your memory card and your notes will forever be safe. Tip: If you can't delete the original file, this is because the system is using it. To get past this just go to Tools>Utilities>Memory and from the options choose to make a backup of the phone memory. While this is being done, you can delete and replace files as you wish!

Ngage data? Sure thing:
Backing up Ngage saves is slightly more difficult. To back up your Ngage saves, go to C:\private\20007b39. Here you will see a bunch of other folders. Copy the folders that start with 200 to your memory card as these contain the game data for each game you've downloaded. Whenever you need to restore your saves, just copy these files back over!

Bluetooth? Oh come on!:
For Bluetooth settings, there's two files. In C:\Private\10202be9\persists, you'll find 10204dac.cre. This file contains your bluetooth name. If you want to save your paired bluetooth devices, copy over DBS_100069CC_btregistry which is in C:\Private\100012a5.

Browser Bookmarks? *Yawn*:
Browser bookmarks are saved in a file called DBS_101FD685_BrowserBookmarks.db. It can be found in C:\Private\100012a5.

Menu Layout? I'm falling asleep here, guys:
The settings for your menu layout(for FP1) are stored inside appshelldata.xml which is located in C:\Private\101F4CD2\Content. If you have a pre-FP1 device for example the N73 or N80, your file is located in the same folder but it's called Applications.dat.

Text Messages stored on memory card? *Zzzzzzzz*:
If you backup the mail2 folder that can be found in E:\Private\1000484b you'll never need to worry about the safety of your text messages again.

Any requests?
If you would like to back up some settings/information that I haven't listed here, just post a comment and I'll see if I can find the corresponding files.



  1. Cj

    Any idea about N-gage game saves ? Its a pity even Nokia doesnt have a game save manager yet.

  2. Mr-X

    Cj, I've added instructions for Ngage data.

  3. Anonymous

    The real challenge is contacts and calender. I've managed to copy them, but I can't restore them.
    Also the bluetooth settings and the browser bookmarks are not so easy.

  4. Mr-X

    I've added details on how to restore those files that are already in use.

    Also added bookmarks and bluetooth backup procedures. :)

  5. Andrew

    Wow, this really is great stuff!

    Keep it up man!

  6. Anonymous

    How to backup java games saves (installed on memory card).

  7. barbara

    I want to know how I can backup all the applications and the games that I have installed. I install all the app's and games on the flash memory of my N95-8gb. But a lot of app's/games (mostly Java) also put a file on the phone's memory.

    My intention is: I format my phone (new firmware) and after format I must have all the games and applications running, as before.

    Is that possible?

  8. barbara

    and I also need to know how to copy sms messages stored on a memory card. In which folder can I find these?

  9. Liebaart

    Is there a way to save the menu layout like this? MenuEditor on my 6120c does not allow to backup the Menu because it doesn't find the memorycard for some stupid reason.
    Also, on S60 pre-FP1 devices, how can you save the menu layout?

  10. Anonymous

    I can't delete files like contacts or calendar using the back up to memory card trick. How is that possible? With which file explorer is that possible?

  11. Mr-X

    @Barbara, backing up all applications would be rather complex and would also differ from person-to-person. Sorry that I couldn't help you there. I have edited the post with how to backup memory card text messages, though!

    @Liebaart, menu layout details added.

    @Anonymous, I used file browser and it has always worked for me. Do you try deleting the files after the backup has finished? Try deleting them _during_ the backup.

    Sorry for the late replies!

  12. Anonymous

    What's wrong with "Switch" application? Far better way to transfer or even keep in sync user data between two phones, especially contacts, with no hassle at all!

  13. Mr-X

    The 'Switch' application is limited. Can you backup your browsing history/cookies, Bluetooth settings or even Ngage saves with 'Switch'? No, Nokia limits 'Switch'... Just like they limit a lot of other things.

    I acknowledged at the beginning of this post that Rita has already covered the basics, this post takes it up a notch.

  14. Dileep

    Any idea where i can find saved pages in S60 browser. i would like to move the page to my PC.

  15. Anonymous

    any one know how to backup nokia map 1.0 landmark or nokia map 2.0 favorites???

  16. Anonymous

    Thanks for this - found it very useful!

  17. Anonymous


    I installed Y-browser alright.. but then it doesnt have any option for copying the folders.. how do i back up the folders then?

  18. Mr. M

    Hi Mr. X, nice post. I own a nokia n95 8GB. I backed up files from th mail2 folder on th computer, but could not restore them back to th phone. The restored files cannot be read, and message memory cannot be changed to memory card. I had to format my memory card(flash memory) because of that.

  19. Dariusz

    Hi there Mr. X, how about Internet Radio favourites stations? Where's the app folder?

  20. Anonymous

    That's quite informative for me Mr. X! and i like the way you described it point by point (commonly as step by step)... thanks to share

    DLT Tapes

  21. Miloš

    maybe this can be a challenge.
    how to backup tools->settings?
    (personalisation, date and time format, slide handling....)

    of course, without PC suite.

  22. Anonymous

    hi, is there a way to turn up the volume of the call waiting beeps on my nokia n95?

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