HOUSEKEEPING, HOUSEKEEPING, HOUSEKEEPING!!!

If this causes some raised eyebrows then so be it!

I have 'played' with three brand new N95s. I have debranded them all, undated them all, installed apps and conducted battery tests (see below).

I believe I know how this little sucker operates and why it sometimes fails. I have spent countless hours on it and the following is my own opinion as a result of my findings and observations.

HOUSEKEEPING, HOUSEKEEPING, HOUSEKEEPING!!!

Clutter causes problems in all walks of life and non more so than with the modern mobile phone.
They accumulate stuff all over the place and mostly where and when you know nothing about it! On the phone memory and the card memory!
It's to be avoided if at all possible.

You get clutter from installed applications, which write files (sometimes hidden) in both locations, from the applications when they run and from the very operating system itself.
These processes can't be avoided (unless you don't install anything at all) but they can be rstricted to the point where they don't cause problems (we all know about crashes, freezes and resets).

Keep it clean!

The main aim of the housekeeping process is to keep as 'clean' a phone as possible! In the process you get great benefits.

So how do we do it and what are the benefits?

Firstly understand that, on your phone,you have two sets of what is called a 'File Allocation Table'. One resides on the memory card and the other in the phone memory itself. These FATs, as they are known, keep the info about applications, where they are installed, what data they need to access and where that can be found. All this needs multiple access requests from the Operating system and as a result there's alot of stuff flying around all the time. These FATs are written and rewritten many times in an attempt to keep up with all the changes you may make to your phones settings and to keep tabs on installation and deletion of applications and data! (there is also the phones registry that keeps an eye on everything you do on the phone and holds your basic settings, but we can't do much about that!)

Get out your tool boxes?

No, you don't need any special tools to 'scrub up' your phone!
You just need to apply a common sense approach!

So let's get started! It's oh so simple!

Begin with a 'vanilla phone' (one where the OS has just been installed and any mem card is newly formatted).
This should all be done without using backup and restore and only syncronised with Nokia PC Suite. In this way you are not going to 'carry over' any settings, data or information from a previous installation. You just re-sync your 'vanilla phone' with PC Suite and that's all.

Now install any applications that you need TO YOUR PHONE MEMORY.

Don't worry there's plenty of memory!
And that's it. I said it was simple!

The Benefits.

You now have a phone that needs fewer access requests.

The phone will be more stable. Your applications will run faster. You will avoid crashes, freezes and resets. Your battery will last longer because you won't be accessing the mem card as much(Memory cards are power hungry little beasts!).

If you are not at the 'vanilla phone' stage, you can copy your needed data (maps, mp3s, vids, photos etc) from your mem card to your PC (unhide files first with an application like x-plore), reformat the card and reinstall any applications that were installed to the mem card, to the phone. The applications will find there required data once you have copied the folders back from you PC to your mem card.
Now only install new applications to your phone!

Give it a try! What have you got to loose.