User Data Preservation (UDP) lets users upgrade their firmware without losing data (such as contacts, settings or installed applications). Previously you had to backup your phone and restore it after the firmware update happened.

The backup is still advisable, but you can save the long process of restoring your data, personalizing your device again (as the backup does not store everything) and reinstalling your 3rd party applications (as most of them break during the backup-restore process).

As Nokia is getting quite good with frequent firmware updates, you are losing a lot, if you are not upgrading your firmware. Yet, without UDP, it is just plain scary to wipe out your phone with the update. My last phone without the UDP feature will be the 5800 -  after that I’ll simply refuse to buy a Nokia phone not having UDP. You should do the same. :-)

The feature, which is common on the iPhone and newly developed phones from other manufacturers is slowly making its way to Nokia S60 phones also. For the list of phones having this feature, see my post on the latest E and N-series phones.

Recommended reading:

• N82 UDP update; Darla’s experience
• When things go wrong with the update; Nokia Conversations
• How to recover contact groups after firmware update; Dotsisx at Symbian-Guru
• Autinstaller to reinstall all apps after update; s60blog

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Related posts:

• Firmware Over The Air (FOTA)
• Which Nokia phone to choose? (Fanboys’ guide 2008)
• Micro USB – with charging
• Xenon flash
• FM Transmitter