Somehow my Nokia 5165 wasn’t recognizing my security code. It didn’t prevent me from using the phone, but apparently you have to use the security code to clear out all of the messages in your inbox at once.

Here’s the thing though…I never changed that security code, and the default (12345) was apparantly not the right one!

So I did some research and found a secret programming menu on the phone!

If you’ve got a 5165 or any similar Nokia phone, go to the main screen and press *3001#12345#. That’ll get you into the secret NAM programming area. Scroll down to ‘security’ and you can view (and change) the current code.

Strangely enough, it showed my code as being ‘12345’. I reset it to be ‘12345’ anyway, and now it works.

I never have to use that security code for anything, so I’m guessing the EEPROM must have got scrambled up somehow over the past few months.