Nokia Firmware Suite (NFS) - A new software to download Nokia Firmwares As Microsoft has deleted most of the old Nokia firmware repository and changed existing firmware URLs, all firmware download tools like Navifirm, Phoenix, NSRT, NCS, NDPM, Nokia (Ovi) Suite etc have stopped working. I have described a method to download firmwares using Cellomania website in a previous article – however it is a little tricky and lengthy process. Recently I came across a new software called Nokia Firmware Suite (NFS) which allows you to easily download (still available) Nokia firmware files directly from Microsoft servers. Surprisingly Nokia Firmware Suite still has full access to Nokia firmware repository in comparison to official softwares like NSRT (Nokia Software Recovery Tool) and Nokia Care Suite which are not working now. About Nokia Firmware Suite (NFS) NFS is a small, standalone software (no installation required) – just open the application (double click the executable) and start using it.
How to Download Nokia Stock Firmware Files?
After acquiring Nokia in 2012, Microsoft removed most of their online services (like websites, Ovi Store, firmware repository etc) over a period of few years. The big Nokia firmware repo was first shifted to Microsoft servers (files URLs were changed) and then it was cut down to minimal – only Lumia, Symbian^3 (and later firmwares), ASHA and newer feature phones firmwares were left online till 2020. NSRT (Nokia Software Recovery Tool) was the only official software available to download stock firmwares until early 2021. Besides some websites like cellomania.com were also working until April 2021. Finally Microsoft abandoned NSRT as well, as it stopped working in online mode in April 2021. Now what if you still want to download stock firmware for your good old Nokia mobile? Well here is a method I worked out to help you in this matter.
Before jumping into action, please go through following points first –
1. The following method works only for some Nokia phones (not all) which came out with Symbian^3 or later OS (Anna, Belle, Belle Refresh, Belle FP2) like Nokia 500, N8, E7, E6, C6, C7, 603, 700, 701, 808. Microsoft has removed firmware files of all previous versions of Symbian OS like S60v5, S60v3, S60v2 from its servers so the following method is not applicable for Nokia phones running these old Symbian versions. There are a few exceptions to this rule like Nokia C5 which runs S60v3 – its firmware is still available – so basically firmwares of phones launched after 2010 are still there irrespective of what platform/OS they run.
2. Firmwares of some ASHA phones, Lumia phones and some feature phones launched after 2011 can also be downloaded using this method.
3. Only one stock firmware of any product code (the newest or the last one released) is available and can be downloaded using this method.
4. Why you need or may need the firmware files? – Well if you are reading this line of article, I suppose you know the answer of this question. I won’t delve deep in this topic here to cut short this article.
Requirement - The product code of the phone (whose firmware you want to download) is required. All Nokia phones have unique Product codes – a seven character long sequence of numbers and alphabets starting with zero. For example product code of my Nokia N8 is 0599255 – an all number code but other product codes may also consist of alphabets like 056XCB8. Product codes are actually variants of a Nokia phone model (differing according to language, carrier, country, color) – not only product codes differ from one phone model to other, they differ for a single model too. For example Nokia N8 (RM-596) has many different product codes. To know your phone’s product code – you can get it by typing *#0000# at the dialer, besides it is also printed at the sticker/label under phone’s battery or at the retail box.
Process
1. Open Cellomania website in your web browser. Now enter the phone’s product code in the field provided at the website and click OK button.
Website will search the Microsoft servers for available firmware files of the product code and enlist their download links at the next page as shown below –
2. Now the problem is that these download links are wrapped with suspicious/spammy Adfly URLs which are very difficult to get through to get the original download link. So we will use a trick to extract actual download links out of adfly URLs. First click the firmware file link – Adfly website will open – block the “Show Notifications” prompt – look for the “Please wait” text at the upper right corner of the page - wait for the countdown of 5 to get over – a SKIP AD button will appear – Right click at the “SKIP AD” button and copy the Link/URL address.
3. Now open a new tab in web browser and go to urldecoder.org – when the page loads, paste the copied link in the box provided – now look carefully, there will be two “http” in the URL, one at the start and another elsewhere – look for the SECOND “http” and delete EVERYTHING BEFORE it, means we need only the URL starting with the second “http” – the first URL is Adfly’s useless spam Ad which must be deleted.
Now click the “Decode” button present below the box – another page will open with the decoded URL in the second box below the upper one – this is our actual download link - copy this URL from lower box – open a new tab in web browser and paste and go to the copied link – firmware file will start downloading now. You can also watch this tutorial video for further clarification -
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