How to Flash Nokia N8 [Video Demo]

This tutorial is about to tell you how can you flash your Nokia N8. I want to inform you that this tutorial is for education purpose only. If you think you understand well what you are doing and you are well enough to troubleshoot in any consequence then you can try it with your devices. I’ll not be responsible for any loss. If you are not a geek or tech user and are having any difficulties or software faults in your device then I’ll advise you to visit your local Nokia Care instead of flashing your device on your own. But at the same time I’ll tell you that it’s not that hard to perform this job. It’s easy.

UPDATE: Click here to see How to upgrade Nokia N8 with Symbian Belle [step-by-step guide] [video demo]

In this video demonstration, I used the stock official firmware (unmodified) to flash Nokia N8. So that it should not be supposed to hack your Nokia N8. The version of the firmware we used in this demo is 011.012, PR1.0.
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Why you will want to flash your Nokia Device (N8 in this blog post)?

1. You are having problems with your Nokia device and not able to fix them with any other way.
2. Resetting/Hard Resetting your Nokia device is not helping you to fix the issue as well due to User Data Preservation feature in later Nokia devices.
3. You want to hack your Nokia Device. This post will not tell you about this in any detail.
4. Last but not the least; You are a geek or tech user and just want to have fun with it.

What will you need?

1. Phoenix Software to perform flashing. I am not linking you to the source links of installation of the software but you can search Google to find it.
2. Firmware files to flash with.
3. Standard Micro USB Cable to connect your device with your computer. I used the Stock Micro USB cable which came with my device.

Files Needed to Flash Nokia N8

(Use Navifirm software utility to download firmware files. Downloading process is shown in the video below. Download Navifirm)

Information and Signature files

• RM596_0599396_011.012_004_signature.bin (Product Code Specific)
• RM596_0599396_011.012_004.vpl (Product Code Specific)
• RM596_0599396_011.012_004.dcp (Product Code Specific)
• 040-093490_P4067_006.xml
• 093490v1.pcx

Firmware Files

• RM-596_011.012_79.92_prd.core.fpsx (Device Specific)
• RM-596_011.012_14.01_MEA_C_79.92_prd.rofs2.fpsx (Product Code Specific)
• RM-596_011.012_C06.01_MEA_3_79.92_prd.rofs3.fpsx (Product Code Specific)
• RM-596_011.012_U03.01_79.92_prd.uda.fpsx (Region Specific – The UDA package)

Make sure you can only exchange the UDA package with any other from any other product code or region. But you will find only a few variations. As for Nokia N8, two variations were on the web mostly discussed.

• RM-596_011.012_U03.01_79.92_prd.uda.fpsx
• RM-596_011.012_U01.01_79.92_prd.uda.fpsx

I used the U03.01 variant as it has been bundled with a bit more content e.g. Qt framework. I am not sure about U01.01 variant but it gave me a few things missing after flashing with it e.g. Ovi Store. Any ways, we’ll use U03.01 variant in this demo.

You might also see the variations in the version of Information and Signature files e.g. xxxx.vpl, xxx.bin etc. It’s not bad to choose the later versions. We will use xxx_004.vpl and others

Things to take care of?

1. Flashing can be performed without resetting/hard resetting/formatting Nokia N8, and this doesn’t effect your Mass Memory content in any way. But sure some of the apps sharing system files on phone memory might not work after flashing. So you will need to re-install those apps.
2. As you can reset/hard reset your Nokia N8 in several ways as explained here. If you are facing issues on Nokia N8 with some apps, you can try as Point 1 and if it won’t fix any thing then you must reset/hard reset your Nokia N8 prior to Flash it.
3. You are always advised to take full backup of your Nokia N8 before resetting/hard resetting or any firmware updating. Be sured that Hard Resetting/Formating your Nokia N8 will remove content from Mass Memory as well as from phone Memory.

I hope this is now enough for you to flash your Nokia N8 on your own.