Finally, the time had come when I needed to Hard Reset my Nokia N8. 'Hard Reset' is a term used to define the resetting of your phone back to its state when it is just born out of its brand new company sealed package. I have opted to reset my phone after 6 months of rigorous usage and experiment with my phone. Earlier I had Nokia 5800 and I had to reset it after just a month of buying. I do give credit to the new Symbian^3 OS which is a much more robust and refined version of Symbian than any of its earlier predecessors. Before I did a hard reset, I took complete backup of my phone using the Nokia PC Suite. The PC Suite included options wherein I could take backup of all my Ovi Music Store audio, images and videos. I selected all the possible options available for the backup in Nokia Ovi Suite.

I have been experimenting with my phone a lot with all forms of application - Beta, Alpha and Unsigned. I have literally screwed the brains out of my phone and still it is going great. I have installed, uninstall-ed and cancelled the installations of numerous applications mid way that could scar the OS and make it unstable. So, now I was unable to install the latest Beta version of Ovi Maps. I wanted to install the new version even though the Ovi Maps v3.06 worked like a charm. I was not able to install the latest Nokia Big Screen application after upgrading to the firmware version PR 1.2. I was feeling that my OS was a bit slow but never crashed. I did not have any other issues with my phone other than the one I mentioned above.

How to hard reset your Nokia N8?

Switch OFF your phone. Switch it ON again. Hold the 'Lower button of the connected volume key' + 'Camera key' + 'Menu key below the screen' pressed as the phone restarts. All the buttons should be pressed together.

There is nothing much to do in this section. Just make sure you have backup of every item using the Nokia Ovi Suite. Make sure you are using the latest Nokia Ovi Suite for the backup. Do not use the beta version of the software.

I have successfully hard reset my phone and it is functioning as good as new. I have been successful in getting Nokia Map installed and also the Ovi Store. You should only go for this if you have genuine issues with your phone. Do not try this only for experiment.