How To Reset the Nokia E6 and Re-install the OS

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1. Settings > Phone 2. Settings > Phone > Phone management 3. Settings > Phone > Phone management > Factory settings

4. Restore (Soft reset) and Delete and restore (Hard reset) 5. Soft Reset Confirmation Screen 6. Hard Reset Confirmation Screen

To my horror the Nokia E6 review unit that WOMWorldNokia sent me seems to have developed a fault and has been spontaneously rebooting every ten minutes or so since yesterday morning.  I really like the phone and hoped to get a few more days use out of it before I have to send it back.  I’ve been successful in the past at fixing misbehaving Symbian phones with a soft or hard reset so I set about trying to reset the phone to see if that would help.

A Google search for “Nokia E6 reset” brought up a lot of confusing and contradictory information. Much of it was clearly wrong with multiple blog posts referring to the E6’s non-existent “camera key”. I decided to experiment a bit and publish a tested guide to all the posible ways to reset the E6. They are listed below in order from the least to most destructive of data.

  • Battery pull – Take the battery out for at least 20 seconds. This insures that all background prrocesses are terminated and RAM is completely cleared.  Holding down the power button for about 20 seconds until the phone vibrates three times simulates a battery pull on the E6 just like it does on the N8 and E7, which have non-removable batteries
  • Soft reset – re-installs some initializtion files. Home screen widgets, profiles and themes are restored to their defaults. Contacts, calendar and user installed apps, music ringtones, themes, photos, files, etc not touched.  There are two ways to soft-reset an E6.
    • Press Home > Menu > Settings > Phone > Phone management > Factory settings > Restore. The first four images above show the reset steps. On the confirmation screen (5th image, above), press “Yes“
    • Or enter *#7780# in the dialer
  • Reinstall the device software.  Nokia Software Updater (NSU) from Nokia Beta Labs has an option to re-install the phone’s OS (image below). On recent Nokias like the E6 this process is non-destructive thanks to Nokia’s User Data Preservation (UDP) feature which means that  your apps, ringtones, contacts, etc will be intact after the update, although a backup is still recommended just in case. NSU comes in versions for Windows XP, Vista or 7, and for Mac OS X Snow Leopard or newer. Updating requires the phone to be connected by a USB cable. The process is very easy, install NSU, connect your phone, wait for NSU to detect the phone and choosethe option to re-install the device software.  The first time you run it NSU has to download the firmware which takes about  15 minutes on a broadband connection. The actual reinstall takes less than 5 minutes.
  • Hard reset. This is the most destructive reset. The internal C: and E: drives are reformatted and the OS is reinstalled from a copy that is stored in the phone’s firmware.  A hard reset will delete everything on the phone including contacts, calendar and user installed apps, music ringtones, themes, photos and files, including anything stored on the internal E: flash drive. Be sure to backup everything on the phone that you want to keep. There are at least two ways to do a hard reset.
    • Press Home > Menu > Settings > Phone > Phone management > Factory settings > Delete data and restore The first four images above show the reset steps. On the hard reset confirmation screen (6th image, above), press “Yes“.
    • Or type *#7370# in the dialer and press “Yes” on the confirmation screen.
  • Three finger salute – every other Nokia Symbian phone I’ve ever used can also be hard reset using a “three finger salute” that involves turning on the phone while holding down three specific keys and keeping the keys pressed until Nokia boot logo appears.   Because the “three finger salute” works when the phone is shut off, it’s a life saver if the phone wont boot up or is so unstable that it doesn’t stay up long enough to enter a code or get into the Phone management menu. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find the correct key combination for the E6. The usual Symbian^3 combo of Menu key, Camera key and Volume down won’t work because the E6 doesn’t have a Camera key or a Menu key. Other three finger salute combos include:
    • Shift, Space and Backspace – N97, N97 Mini.
    • Green call key, Red hang up key, Camera key – Pure touch Symbian 5th ed phones like the 5800, 5230 Nuron, etc.
    • Green call key, * key plus 3 key– Most older Symbian phones with a 12 key dial pad.

    I tried the Shift, Space and Backspace  and  Green call key, * key plus 3 key combos on the E6 but they didn’t do anything.  I’m sure that there is a three finger salute for the E6 but I don’t know what it is.  If you do kindly let me know in a comment so I can update this post.

    Update: According to comments from a couple of readers, powering on the E6 while holding down the Shift, Space and Backspace keys does work to hard reset the phone. If it’s not working for you try removing the SIM and taking the battery out for at least 20 seconds.

So was I able to fix my E6? Unfortunately not. I restored the OS twice and hard reset several times but even with nothing on the phone other than the pre-installed apps and with no apps running the phone periodically reboots even when sitting idle.

A small percentage of all complex electronic gadgets of all brands do fail, usually due to a single bad component out of the thousands that make up a phone. Fortunately, these failures are most likely to happen within the first few weeks of the devices life when the device is under warranty.

In spite of this particular E6 going south on me I do not hesitate to recommend the phone. It’s a great replacement for an E71, E72 or E73 with a much higher resolution screen and a better camera and keyboard than any of those phones. Plus it has a touch screen which adds a lot of flexibility and ease of use to most apps. I’m a huge fan of Nokia’s E Series QWERTY bar phones like the E72 and think the E6 is the best Symbian phone I’ve ever used and one of my favorite smartphones of all time. Up until it failed the E6 had been totally reliable.

Update: I discovered that if I remove the SIM from the E6 it’s stable again even using WiFi and Bluetooth. But with any SIM (I tried both active and inactive ones from three different operators) inserted it starts crashing again. I suspect there is something wrong with the radio hardware.

128 thoughts on “How To Reset the Nokia E6 and Re-install the OS”

  1. My browser is working fine with Wi-Fi but ithers apps like whats app, you tube are not working in nokia e6. Plz help

    • Unless you made a backup of your contacts they are gone.
      If you backed them up with the Files app on your phone you can restore them with the Files app
      If you ever connected your phone to a PC that has Nokia Suite installed, Nokia Suite may have automatically backed up your contacts. You can restore them using Nokia Suite.

  4. my phone was flash by another peson an and now i can update or upgrade my phone again

  5. please I dont know what happened to my E6i bluetooth is not working it’s on able to on again. Pls need ur help

  6. my nokia e 6 got autolocked due to the misuse of my sister i cant even open the phn [please help to reset that

    • Power on the E6 while holding down Shift, Space and Backspace to hard reset the phone. If it’s not working for you try removing the SIM and taking the battery out for at least 20 seconds.”

  7. When i turn on my phone its need security code but i try to put so many times it s refuse to open what shoul i do to open my phone nokia E6

  8. my E6 has the following faults:camera fault,mass memory fault,radio fault bluetooth fault. So i want to know what the problem is

  9. my nokia e6 flash is always on. The red flash is always on even when you switch off the phone. Once you remove the battery, it goes off but once you insert the battery, ut turns on immediately, what is the problem?

  10. Dear Sir,

    i am using Nokia E6 . my phone not working properly so i have reset my phone but unfortunately everything erase so now i want to reinstall play store in my phone but i can’t understand ,i need your help .can you told me how can i install play store in my phone

  11. My E6 sometimes freezes or the tapping screen doesn’t work. When it happens, I use the side lock slider to lock and unlock the phone 1-2 times and after it works again. For 5 secs or 5 mins. Once in the soon past was okay for almost a day. I cant reinstall the os with suite because after it starts, my laptop’s os win 8.1 crashes every time when I try. Never other times just trying to reinstall the phone. Do you have an idea, sir?

  12. Pls, i need urgent answer cause i have Wfi network at work that i can use to browse.

    • Most workplaces block personal devices from using the company network. Ask your IT department if they can make an exception for you.

      You can test that your E6’s WFi works using a public hotspot like at Starbucks or a public library.

    • @Dennis, i’d the password set on my phone and my company’s Network is connected, i even checked the Connection manager which indicate it is connected. But then, i can’t use it to browse, others who put the password after me can use their phones to browse. Try giving it to an engineer of phones, but the same problem. i so much like the phone cux of the flexibility of the screen and the capacity. Don’t know if you can profer another solution for me.

  13. Hi,
    I am finding it difficult to browse with my Nokia E6-00 Wifi, what can i do, try setting it but it fails to browse.

    • I think a hard reset will clear the code. Power on the E6 while holding down the Shift, Space and Backspace keys to hard reset the phone.

      You will lose all the apps, contacts pictures etc on the phone doing a hard reset.

      If that doesn’t work that are other methods using specialized software, a PC and cable. A good repair shop should be able to fix your phone or if you want try doing it yourself Google “recover lost Nokia security code” and you will find several tutorials.

  15. I have Nokia E6
    when I calling the mobile screen gone
    and black light
    i dont knw what is problem
    and i does’nt see who’s calling all so dial pad missing

    • If a factory reset doesn’t fix it the proximity sensor has gone bad. You can get it fixed at a phone repair shop or just use the unlock slider to turn the screen back on when you need to use the dial pad.

  16. on my E6 as i was updating store and the software then the updates was cancelled after then when i press unlock key on the screen the screen becomes dark and i cant use the phone since i can’t put the password please help me on this issue if anyone knows.

  17. My nokia e6 it cant display menu, when I try restore it.It ask me to end active calls and connection pls help.

  18. Dear All,

    I am M Sohail From Pakistan. I am using Nokia E-6 Bella The Problem i am facing is that in Pakistan we have 05 Mobile Networks 03(Zong”4g”, Telenor”3g” and Mobilink”3g) of them are working perfectly with 3g support but 02 (Warid”4g” and Ufone”3g”) not working at all on this phone

  20. after hard reset my phone asked me securiy code. i try 12345 and 00000 result code error.
    thank’s

    • If it’s asking for a code after the hard reset has finished it’s probably the SIM PIN which should be printed on the card your SIM came in. If not you can probably get it from operator or use a different SIM.

  21. I have Nokia E6
    when I calling the mobile screen gone
    and black light
    i dont knw what is problem
    and i does’nt see who’s calling

    • With touchscreen phones It’s normal for the screen to turn off when you hold the phone near your ear during calls. That’s to prevent your face from accidentally pressing the end call button, etc.

      The screen should turn back on when you move the phone away from your face. If it doesn’t the cause is either a software problem or a broken or blocked proximity sensor.

      If you have a case on the phone it could be blocking the sensor, try removing the case. If that doesn’t help do a hard reset and if that doesn’t fix it there’s a hardware problem.

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