backing up files

Some things will get backed up properly, and if the moon is shining just right, they get restored ok too. For me it's always been hit and miss. I tend to just copy the files off manually, and restore them the same way after the update.

Applications can't be backed up and restored, they have to be reinstalled from scratch. I did see an application somewhere that can do this automatically.

One thing to avoid is the checkbox to save your 'settings' - after the update, trying to restore the old settings tend to mess up your menus and can cause problems with a few applications.

I keep banging on about this!
When you backup your current firmware based files all the required info regarding that firmware is saved.
When you restore this info after an upgrade you are copying back certain settings regarding the way the previus firmware was setup and had been imprinted on your phone.
The problem is after an upgrade you are starting with what is refered to as a 'vanilla' phone (ie basically a clean sheet) and then imposing upon it settings that were relevant to the previous setup and not necessarily the appropriate ones for your new one.
New firmware will have different and supposedly upgraded parameters and if used with a previous setting set can cause problems. This will be revealed if apps have been installed to the mem card or if apps have been removed and icons left behind because of an incomplete removal.
To aviod these problems a sync of your important phone data with PC Suite, and then copy of your needed files from mem card a then a format of the card and copy back will give the best chance of a stable phone. Reinstall all your apps to the phone will complete the process.
Think of it this way. If you upgrade your PC operating system you wouldn't want to do a restore of settings from a previous OS. But, you could retain your data and files on a secondary drive or partition, seperate drive or external mass storage device.

I'm not sure if you are irritated or happy with banging on about the issue 😊 Either way, people don't search, they don't read manuals, and they don't generally go out of their way to educate themselves about much of anything new.

You mentioned upgrading a computers operating system. I've upgraded about 5 different linux distro's for spans covering several years now. It's a rare occurrence that things go bad, though when they do it's always VI to the rescue for me. I've never had to reinstall after an OS upgrade. Short of hardware failure or user stupidity, there just is no reason at all to waste time starting from scratch.

I wish Symbian would figure out how to make this happen with their OS too.

dchky wrote: I've upgraded about 5 different linux distro's for spans covering several years now. It's a rare occurrence that things go bad

I think his example was more Windows based though. Linux is well written

I believe windows is well written as well. It's just there are more third party add ons for windows than there is linux therefore there is more room for screw up.

Also, Windows vista would be a really great and secure operating system if MS didn't make changes to allow typical users to use vista, they had to really dumb it down and make it more 'windows xp'ish.

Trying to set up a network card on linux in some situations is harder than pulling teeth, especially on a laptop. And to make matters worse, when I was in college, they wouldn't let us use the GUI, we had to remember everything for linux and unix command lines. Sure I know it and I know dos very well, I still prefer the GUI.

after you upgrade firmware do all of the applications usually still work after you reinstall them or do some not work on the newer firmwares?