N85 Photos application broken

Question

Seem to have posted this in the wrong forum, so here is the original post again:
-- BEGIN
Not sure whether it was fully working beforehand, but I can't remember having had any issues prior. Ok, what did I do? I transferred an entire library to my N85, like 1000+ pictures with extensive tagging. I then browsed my picture library and realized that the application seemed to start not hanging, but first, not displaying the pictures properly anymore (remained in the initial blurry state), and then only displayed the broken image logo (if you don't know what it is, I don't know how to better explain it) [Retrospective Note: I was deleting certain images while browsing, so I didn't just browse]. Trying to switch the phone off and back on didn't solve the issue, and most operations resulted in a "General: System Error"! Thinking I've added too many images to my phone, I've deleted the entire library again, and only added a few selected images, like 19 to be exact. But, the problem persists. I can't even look at these few images anymore. Sooner or later, I'll get the same symptoms. And operations on these images, like tagging, result in a "General: System Error"! What I've also realized, is that my phone memory, all of a sudden, is only like 24MB. Even though before it was like 58MB. And I have definitely not added anything to my phone memory. So, does anyone have any idea as to what has happened here, and how to fix it?
And yes, the rest of my phone seems to be working fine still, I can even select a slide-show as my wallpaper, select a few of these images, and these display all fine in the wallpaper.
One other thing to add (and I hope I'm not being too verbose, but I may add anything I've noticed just in case it may help with the diagnosis): After I had deleted my library again, the tags remained in the phone, and even though there were no more images on the phone, not all of the tags showed 0 images, some of the tags still showed images, though when clicking on the tag, no images were shown. So, did something maybe not clean up properly?
Any help with this would be much appreciated!!
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I've tried a lot of things, inclusive of re-formatting the memory card, but all solutions seem to be only temporary. Here's one solution I've found that indeed temporarily fixes the problem:
1) Attach N85 with USB cable to computer in Mass storage mode.
2) Delete the following folder on the memory card: /private/101ffc31
That folder contains the file glxmdstn, which seems to be the thumbnail cache for the Photos application. Once this folder is removed, and the Photos application is started, it'll create all the thumbnails again from scratch, and then the Photos application seems to work in all its glory.
For a certain amount of time that is. I'm not sure what action exactly breaks it, for some time, I thought it was deleting an image, as I was able to actually reproduce it twice.
I've deleted the cache, played with it for quite some time, no drama, deleted an image, and within a short amount of time, the issue arose again. I've done the same thing again, and the exact same thing happened. Though that wasn't it. As I've then encountered the same problem, looking at images with particular tags.
Removed the cache again, even added another hundred pictures, and it's been working. Deleted a couple of images again, same problem. Deleted the cache again, now working. Have browsed images over and over, even from within the tag menu, and no drama so far, so I wasn't able to reproduce the issue by browsing by tags. Only deleting images seems to be a sure way to reproduce the issue so far (unless even that's a fluke). But something seems to be corrupting the thumbnail cache, somehow. And once corrupted, the photo application then doesn't seem to be able to deal with it anymore. Deleting the thumbnail cache works every time though. I'm trying to use it now without deleting any images, to see how long I can go without running into the same issue again.
If anyone has any ideas, I'd be glad to hear them. And no, I have no idea why half my available phone memory has suddenly disappeared on me, but the last time I remember it being 50+MB was before I moved my photo library over, but that may be completely unrelated at the end, unless tagging and album management is somehow stored on the phone? And yes, I've read about resetting the phone to factory defaults, though I'd rather not, and I'm currently not even sure it would fix anything, given removing the thumbnail cache seems to do the trick.
Thanks!
Message Edited by profg on 14-Mar-2009 10:48 AM
Message Edited by profg on 14-Mar-2009 10:52 AM
Model: N85, Type: RM-333, Software version: 11.047, date: 19-11-2008, Custom version: 11.047.246.2, date: 15-01-09

Answer 1

"What im trying to say is as long as you have all the activation codes for your Nokia Maps, N Gage games and any 3rd party apps re setting a handset is not so hard and does not take that much time."
That's right, it didn't take all that much time. What will take a lot of time though, as it seems, is to get all my N-Gage scores back. All my hard earned status and all that poker money --> GONE. My millions and millions of Asphat 4 dollars --> GONE. Even my pickup point score, as it seems --> GONE. What's more, my phone thought it would be clever to overwrite my profile settings in the arena with the empty default it had in my phone. That Photos app is better going to work from now on without any drama. If it turns out I did all that for nothing, I won't be happy, not the least bit, and I'll start cursing at Nokia just as some other people here seem to be doing.
In retrospect, a re-format of the phone memory is not a resolution anyone should have to resort to in the first place. But I guess I've learned something today.
Cheers!
Model: N85, Type: RM-333, Software version: 11.047, date: 19-11-2008, Custom version: 11.047.246.2, date: 15-01-09