Nokia E5 Hard Reset Instructions (Factory Software)

The Nokia E5 is a lightweight, low-cost smartphone announced in April 2010. It uses the Symbian v9.3 operating system and relies totally on the QWERTY keyboard- no touch screen here. If you own this phone and notice that it’s beginning to act strangely, by producing error messages or occasionally refusing to respond to commands, it could mean that you need to perform a hard reset on the phone. The factory reset is a procedure that erases all of your personal data and reinstalls the operating system from scratch, often removing the corrupted files that are causing you problems in the process.

With a QWERTY keyboard and simple LCD screen, this phone is designed to accommodate unsophisticated needs, and its competitive price reflects that. One thing in which the phone beats the competition is battery life, as the lack of complicated  features allows the Li-Ion 1200 mAh battery deliver the kind of results you just don’t see on more complex devices. The Nokie E5 includes up to 32GB of extra storage through a MicroSD card slot which, if you continue in performing the hard reset procedure, should be removed before continuing.

How to Hard Reset the Nokia E5

There are three methods of doing this. Each of these three serve different purposes but all produce the same results. Your personal data will be erased from the phone, along with your contacts, messages, applications, and anything that was not installed on the phone when it came out of the factory. You’ll need to make a backup of this data if you plan on continuing to use the Nokia E5 after the hard reset is complete.

The first method that this article will cover is through the software menu available from the home screen:

1. Enter the Menu and from here go to Control Panel.
2. Now browse to Settings & General folder, then choose Factory Settings.
3. The phone will prompt you for a secret key, the default key is 12345.
4. Your Nokia E5 will reset, wiped clean of all data and with a fresh install of the OS onboard.

If you cannot access your phone’s menu, the next method will use a key combination in order to reset the phone through its firmware:

1. From the home screen, press and hold the * button, the 3 button and the Call button for several seconds.
2. When the phone turns off, release the buttons and wait for the reset to finish.

The third method uses a calling code to reset the phone. This will be useful if, for any reason, the other methods do not work:

1. From the home screen, dial *#7370# and call.
2. When your Nokia E5 asks for a security code, type in 12345 and enter.
3. Wait while the phone resets, restore your data and enjoy your like-new phone.