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Nokia N8: How To Reset Your Nokia
By Phil Barker on January 20,
 2011 at 00:00,

We love the Nokia N8, but with a brand new operating system, it can occasionally crash. You can't take out the battery – as the Nokia N8 features a single-piece chassis – but it is easy to reset your phone. Join us after the cut to find out how to reset the Nokia N8...

If you ever had any trouble with an older Nokia handset, it was easy to whip out the battery and restart the phone. You won't be able to do this with a Nokia N8 if it crashes – due to the anodised aluminium casing – but it's still very easy to reset the phone without doing any damage.

Nokia N8 Ultimate User Guide!

If your Nokia N8 freezes, it's just a case of knowing which buttons to press. Give it a minute or two to make sure your Nokia N8 definitely has frozen – if it has the screen will remain the same, whether you try tapping the screen, buttons or lock key.

If definitely frozen, click and hold down the menu button on your Nokia N8. While holding that, click the lower button on the volume switch. While holding the two of these, tap and hold the power button until your Nokia N8 turns off.

You'll be able to restart it straight away – without having to wait for your Nokia N8's battery to die – and it should work without issues.

If there's anything else you want to know, check out our Nokia N8 Ultimate User Guide! We'll be bringing you comprehensive tutorials for everything you need to know – from getting the best out of the Nokia N8's 12-Megapixel camera, to extending the battery life.

Confused? Check out our Nokia N8: How to reset your Nokia photo gallery below:

nokia-n8-how-to-reset-your-nokianokia-n8-how-to-reset-your-nokia-3nokia-n8-how-to-reset-your-nokia-2nokia-n8-how-to-reset-your-nokia-1
Tags: How to reset your Nokia N8 Nokia Nokia N8 Symbian ^3
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  • Jssssch

    First I would try holding down the power button until the N8 vibrates 3 times, this should sort out a freezing problem. If that doesn’t work, then try a hard reset as described above.

  • http://blog.ovi.com he

    how many update of n8 has been release so far.

  • andy burgin

    My N8 froze today an was told by Nokia Care, that this is the Best way of turning the phone off,as my first N8 froze often an luckily got a new one sent to me by my network,hope we do get the symbian3 update soon to stop freezing happening again

  • Mahavir Deshlahra

    The above tips is useful. But Nokia n8 generally doesn’t get hang at all I’m using it and having 100 apps running never ever get hang until you install incompatible apps on handset specially themes. So avoid themes other wise the operating system is enough handle the bugs.

  • Wayne

    My n8 has never frozen so far, been using it daily for 3 months, but worth knowing anyway!

  • lopiop

    I heard it was a manufacturing process defect

  • lucas

    *** WARNING *** Do not do the hard reset that is mentioned in this article as it will remove some very important features from your phone which will not come back even with a reinstall of the firmware. Such things that will break are Ovi Store (and you wont be able to install it again) and Ovi Maps. There is a whole section on Nokia’s forum dedicated to this issue and still no solution. The solution mentioned in this article is only for people who’s phone is dead and wont turn on.

    how i wish i had followed my own advice as i have had my N8 since it was launched and apart from the first 2 weeks i have not been able to install any new aps. Im hoping that the new firmware update (out any day now) will fix this however if NokNok know of the solution to this problem please let me know and i would be very greatful.

  • Pingback: Tip Of The Day: Restart An Unresponsive N8 | The Nokia Guide

  • Clash

    well i kept holding the power button till it vibrated 3 times, it shutted off and now it works perfect

  • golux

    Since it has been pointed out that this “hard reset” procedure will remove essential software, meaning the phone will have to go to Nokia for repair, don’t you think it is time this “tutorial” was removed?

  • golux

    Since it has been pointed out that this \"hard reset\" procedure will remove essential software, meaning the phone will have to go to Nokia for repair, don\’t you think it is time this \"tutorial\" was removed?

  • wirly

    tonight my N8 had total frozen, tried holding down the power button as before but nothing still frozen, tried the hard reset above and it worked, switched back on and ovi maps ovi store etc all still there and working fine.

  • shaz

    thanks it worked , my mums phone freezed and she was really upset pahaha thanks alot (:

  • Michal_PL

    Mahavir Deshlahra – are you kidding me?
    N8 never hangs? I have N8 since November and it hanged like 1000 times.
    Today I have a problem because my N8 hanged and nothing I can do – 8sec power button tip – not useful in this case, also hard reset doesn’t work.
    I have been Nokia user since 1999 but I will change the brand this year.

  • ANDY

    I USED THE HARD RESET AS MY PHONE HAD FROZEN IT HAS WORKED PERFECTLY SO FAR AND HAVENT LOST ANY DATA AS OF YET.

  • Charles

    I used the hard reset too and absolutely no data loss!! I don’t think the hard reset can cause data loss. Perhaps there were other events that caused the phone to freeze in the first place that caused the data loss.

  • Scott Travis

    Definitely try the “press and hold the power switch until it buzzes 3 times in quick succession” first – it takes about 6 seconds before it works, but doing this, I successfully switched my frozen N8 off. Powered back on – all ok! :-)

  • Daniel Garcia

    TBH is a bit stupid buy a cellphone when you can’t take battery out, don’t do it next time and spread the word so companies stop doing that idiotic thing. This trick worked on a bad frozen cell from a friend, thanks.

  • gonjol

    thanks all….

  • Baba Swamy

    wow…it was a great help,thanx a lot…phil barker…i got my bloody nokia N8 restarted…i think it all started after i downloaded amoled moon…hats off to you !!!

  • JohnTrav

    My Nokia N8 is not charging through adapter and mini USB port. Its not starting also. God help me.

  • Ruth

    I love you thanks a million xxxxxxxxxx

  • Yanek92

    Briliant ! you’re a life saver mate :) All the best from Australia!

  • Ericsaviodsouza

    Love u mate

  • maryamoazzam

    wow thanx aloot man…..u saved my day……still out of caution i took the backup….incase i loose all ..but thanx god its all there

  • analachesmorethanhurts

    cheers worked on my e7 i thought i would have to wait for battery to run out!

  • leon

    After 14 months without any problems, it froze while I was charging it. The phone started to ring and I could do NOTHING. It just kept on ringing, driving me NUTS! Luckily, after 20 minutes of torture, I found this site. Many thanks!

  • Tm Rutherford

    OMG thank you so much, It worked straight away :-)

  • Kevin!

    I FREAKING LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

  • Harish

    Thanks a Lot , can u guide me for some games for E7

  • Harish

    Thanks a Lot , can u guide me for some games for E7

  • Careal_dragovich

    the new one is belle

  • elizabeth

    FAB! Reset worked, thank you all for the comments, I use my N8 for work and it froze this morning :(