Nokia Lumia 521 Tips and Tricks

Windows Phone 8
Phone: Nokia Lumia 521
Factory OS: Windows Phone 8

Have you updated your Operating System?
Then view tips for the most recent OS version(s): Windows Phone 8.1
Or view tips for all Windows Phone versions

To soft reset your phone, hold down the power button for a few seconds.

Then wait for 5-10 seconds and hold down the power button again to restart the phone.

If the phone is really frozen, then try holding down the power button for around 10 seconds to turn it off.

To access Voice control, Press and Hold the Windows key. You can say things like ‘Call John’, ‘Use Calendar’, ‘Find nearest restaurant’ and so on

If you’re on a call, you can record the conversation. While speaking, put the phone on Speakerphone. Then hold down the Camera button to record the call.

To move a tile to another location, simply press and hold a tile. Then drag it to another location

Simply find the application in your apps list. Press and Hold on the application and select Uninstall

While in the Music player, you can enable Replay mode. Just open a Song, then press on the Album. A Replay symbol should then appear.

When browsing on your phone you may notice images can be quite blurry or distorted. This is because your network provider is compressing the images before they are downloaded on to your device.

Unfortunately there is no way to override this, but if you have a WiFi connection nearby, then you can turn that on. This will mean that all image downloads come through the WiFi connection, rather than your carrier, and the images should appear normally.

To shuffle your music tracks, then start playing some music.

Then press the Album cover. You can then choose either Repeat or Shuffle

To clear your browsing history so that no one can see which websites you have been browsing, go to Settings – Applications – Search.

Then select Delete History

Warning: This will remove ALL data on the phone.

To hard reset your phone, go to Start – Applications list – Settings. Then scroll to the bottom and choose About. Then press Reset your phone. Then press Yes.

If you can’t do that, then some alternative methods are as follows:

1) First press and hold the Camera + Volume Down + Power buttons simultaneously.
Then release the Power button when the phone vibrates – but continue to hold down Camera and Volume Down.
Then release the camera button and Volume Down when the Format prompt is displayed on screen.
Then press Windows button twice to confirm.

2) Turn the phone off. Then press and hold the power key until it vibrates. Then release.
Press and hold the Volume Down button. If the exclamation mark is displayed, then let go of the button.
Then input the follow sequence of keys: Volume Up – Volume Down – Power – Volume Down.