Sorry if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but my searched in google were in vain.
I've had my N900 for less than a month now and already have nearly 50-60 apps on it. All these were downloaded and installed via the app manager. Now my question is, when/if I format and flash the phone, do I have to download all these apps again?
Or are the .debs stored somewhere else from where I can just install it directly?
I ask this because in most, nay all, of my previous phones, I used to maintain a folder with all the .sis/.sisx or .exe/.cab files required for installing all my favorite apps in case of a format. Not so in my N900.

If you do a backup of your phone, your application list is saved. So if you do a format and restore a backup, the programs will be reinstalled (directly from the app catalog, not from a local store of the deb files). All app settings are also saved (AFAIK) - so the result should be that you end up with the same apps with the same settings after a restore.

Yes, but the problem is
1. I have only limited free net usage pm and this will eat up a significant portion of it, esp with easy debian, other games, etc
2. It will take a long time as I get only around 6kbps max.
So, if it was stored locally somewhere....

i don't remember the name, but there is a program to save allt he debs of the installed packages

at least most of your debs are gone now, you should copy them during or asap after the installation process in order to be sure that you can get them copied and temp directory is not flushed.

So where are they stored temporarily? I was searching through the forum again and somewhere somebody was talking about creating a script that automatically copies .debs from temp folder to safety. Any idea on that, or how it can be implemented?

if I remember correctly.

I checked it and there is pretty much nothing there; just folder 'archive' and some *cache.bin. Anyway, cd'd into archive and this is what i get for ls-
lock
partial
and 2 python related debs (oauth, poster)

I guess my debs are cleared away. Anyway, next time I download something big, I can find it here, eh? Thanks

The debs are in the archives directory if there are any.

Use a filemanager that lets you access those areas or with xterminal use copy eg:

First list the .deb to find out its name:

Depending on where you got it, the location might change:

Ovi Store paid debs: /var/tmp
Other debs: /home/user/MyDocs/.apt-archive-cache
Debs installed through apt-get: /var/cache/apt/archives

Credits to MohammedAG:http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...8&postcount=10

The output would provide eg: Zenbound1.2.deb

Then copy it to wherever you want (this case the root folder in the default file manager)

This is important. I do not know at what point the Application Managers cleans the cache, so it is recommended that you do this during the installation.

To overcome the cache problem you can change this file:
Change the value of "clean-after-install" from '1' to '0'.