How to edit files that are currently in use by Symbian

Notice there's no Bookmarks db

If you scroll down the main page a little, you’ll see I was away from this blog for quite a while, I didn’t even post nothing in May. And so, I wasn’t paying much attention to the comments (sorry guys, just finished replying to them :P). Two comments in my first post about hacking the 5800 were asking how to modify files that are already in use by the system (most databases, font files (when in C: or E:), resource files, etc), I had already said just to “look around”. Well, that’s no good! In this post I’ll make a guide on how.

First, get a file manager that has an option to ask “Are you sure you want to exit?”. I hate UIs that do that, but they’re useful here (lol). My choice would be the manufacturer capabilities enabled ActiveFile (signing/hacking required), the UI is glitchy on 5th edition (supposedly a fix is coming soon), but I prefer ActiveFile over any other manager on 3rd edition. (right now I use Y-Browser for everyday tasks and ActiveFile for stuff like this, on my 5800)

Activate on Settings > General

Now for the part where the magic happens. Ever since 2nd edition (or even first, don’t remember) S60 had this backup function on the memory card app/built-in file browser, it makes a copy of modified files from C:/ to a hidden folder on E:/. It was incredibly useful on 2nd edition for making app backups, it got kinda broken on 3rd because of security (lol), and it’s back in a refreshed form in 5th. But how does it copy files from C: without the OS complaining? That’s right, it lowers (momentarily) the security!

woo

The thing is, this backup function closes every other app open on the phone, and stops the menu from being able to launch apps while the backup is on progress, in order to protect those files. That’s where the “Ask on exit” option comes to play! The backup app can’t close ActiveFile because it can’t answer Yes for the question. (lol)

So switch to ActiveFile using the menu key, answer No to the “Do you want to exit?” and you’re left with an unprotected file system and an open file manager with all files capability. Yay.

Now for a couple tips:

• On the backup contents part, I suggest just selecting Contacts, Calendar and Messages, as selecting all will give you a lot of time to mess with files, but increases the chances of a crash/wrong file to mess up something on your phone.
• Speaking of time, you only have from when it says “Creating backup” to when it says “Backup complete” to modify files. This won’t work while the message reads “Preparing for backup”. Do a backup once and just look at how much time it is.
• If you want to copy something to C:\Private\100012a5, don’t leave the source file in E:\, copy it first so C:\Private, or leave it on the clipboard before starting the backup. Again, for speed reasons.
• Keep in mind that system files are case sensitive, if you’re using this method to copy over the bookmarks files as I showed in that other post, rename the file to have the exact same capitalization. Lol.db isn’t the same as LOL.db.

And there you go, huge wall of text, but I tried to explain every aspect of this trick throughly. If you want a tl;dr version of the post, I’ll add it here:

1. Get ActiveFile 1.42, activate ask on exit.
2. Use the built in file manager to start a backup.
3. While the phone is backuping, switch back to ActiveFile. All files are fair game to copy/delete.

Update: The new ActiveFile V1.43RC1 quits on backuping, breaking this method. Keep a V1.42 sis around to do this.