Comments on: Recovering a corrupt iTunes DB on an iPhone

By: janna

janna — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 07:15:22 +0000

Can I delete the iTunes_control file?? Because the music I previously had will not show up on my ipod or in itunes but it's taking up space on my phone.

By: Regis

Regis — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:10:19 +0000

Another way : just download the free version of MediaMonkey. It will find again your music and then will repair automatically the database. After that, the sync with itunes is possible again. Not an easier method ! Found this method on the web. But can't remember where. Thanks anyway to the author!

By: Harold B

Harold B — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:47:54 +0000

Found and easier way! download and install, ifunbox at http://i-funbox.com. then find the file “iTunesDB” and delete it, after that open iTunes in Windows/Mac connect the device and WALA! you are back to syncing.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 04:42:09 +0000

Hi. This is my situation due to my own stupidity and tiredness

Ipod touch 32g 2gen
Ubuntu Netbook remix 9.10
No itunes program. Travelling.

This is the bad bit. i don't have any backups. Unforgiveable. Anyway

No itunesDB in var/mobile/Media/itunes_control/itunes on ipod
No music folders in /music on ipod

I connect via fuse to ipod and it is seen on /media/ipod
Access is denied when i try to enter folder.

i tried your above method and now i cannot access itunes on the ipod. It does not load.

I will give more details if requested.

Where do i go from here?

Stuart

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:34:39 +0000

Running 3.1 on an iPhone 3G, I'm abroad (away from my Mac with all of my music) and downloading new podcast episodes on an unreliable WiFi point corrupted my music database so it says no music and none of my audio books show up. I've never had this happen in all the years I've had an iPhone (jailbroken or not). Is there anyway to rebuild the database on the phone?? I can't survive 10 hour bus rides in Central America with my audiobooks. At least the podcasts still show up. I've read two other identical incidents googling around but no one has a solution yet. I have terminal access to the phone and am willing to try about anything at this point.
Please help! I need my music back. Thanks,
Matt

By: Slono

Slono — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:08:47 +0000

Hi,

I had the following problem which is not exactly the same as the described above, but it is close enough: I updated from 8.x to 9.0.x today and all my music was lost, some 2 GB, all gone to "Others"

I did solve it as follows:
- delete all music, podcast, downloads, videos, recordings from ipod that is still recognisable under the /var/mobile/Media and /var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control directories, if any (I used openssh)
- move iTunes_control to iTunes_control-bad or similar (move NOT copy) — to make a backup, just in case
- delete all contents inside F00–F13 (in my case just 13 folders) in the Music folder inside iTunes control. This was the "Others" content
- sync

Voilà! "Others" should disappear

Cheers,
Slono

By: Corey

Corey — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:49:35 +0000

/var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control/Music is owned by mobile:mobile and set to 700.
It's filled with F## directories that are mobile:mobile and set to 755.
The F## directories contain files that are mobile:mobile/644.

The process I outlined here isn't meant to help you recover your music, it's meant to help you avoid having to restore your iPhone from a backup because the iTunes DB is corrupt. Restore using the blank iTunes DB, and then sync your music/movies back from iTunes.

By: Waylander

Waylander — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:14:05 +0000

I attempted the "Recovery of a corrupt Itunes DB on Iphone" posted by Corey Gilmore, I did eventually get my apps, and contacts back, but no iTunes music, whilst apps and other stuff syncs, music will not, iTunes simply hangs.

I think I might have made some mistakes with permissions, can anyone tell me what the default permissions are for the "Music" folder and files in it, and for the "tmp" folder.

Please help !!!

By: Super_Dave

Super_Dave — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:28:11 +0000

Writing this from my fixed iPhone. Playing music and loving it thanks to this thread. I used the trial version of ifile which I'm now inclined to purchase. My db was corrupted by sharepod deleting an album. I used ifile to locate the directory. In the dolder that says itdb Inside that folder is a iTunes db backup. I copied the backup to the main folder and itdb. Voilà. Music playing.

By: fulldeto

fulldeto — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:17:51 +0000

Hey man, you saved me the neck…

Thanks a lot.

By: CR

CR — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:21:25 +0000

I found this and it solved my problem. However, I just SSH'd into my iPhone and deleted the iTunesDB file all together. It seemed to do the trick, but this post led me in the right direction.

By: Raj Swami

Raj Swami — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:47:43 +0000

After rename the itune database , connect to itunes and create a new database. After that you can delete the older database. Else the space with old corrupted database will not be available for use.

This works.
Thanks in Advance,
Raj Swami.

By: Raj Swami

Raj Swami — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:45:56 +0000

I agree with what Fadi Says.

He became my personal hero too.. I am from India and have jail borken iphone and I got same error. I eventually come to this blog and … yes Yes YES YES YES. I got the solution.

Its great. Thanks to you all and also the i-FunBox team.

Thanks and regards,
Raj Swami.

By: wilbert

wilbert — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:37:02 +0000

Help is appreciated.

Imtoo ipod transfer messed up my database. transfered some videos but nothing shows up. yet it consumes the available space.

Thanks in advance
my email add is schwanella_chong@yahoo.com

By: Aarif

Aarif — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:30:17 +0000

i have same issue as mentioned by GUY, I too cant sync my iphone with itunes.
i have done these steps earlier but i dont why its not working now
only difference is that i have iphone 2g
with firmware 2.2

Any sugestions from your end would be helpfull

Thanks

By: gerbaux

gerbaux — Sun, 17 May 2009 08:51:23 +0000

thanks a lot for your solutions!!!! now i can back up my contacts before restore!!!

By: Guy

Guy — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:57:53 +0000

Hi,

I have another weird problem. i have a 3G iphone, which worked fine until its database got corrupted. i did exactly what you mentioned here and chose setup a new iphone (instead of restore which i don't want to do) and the problem was almost fixed. By almost i mean that Itunes recognize my iphone but does not let me transfer any mp3s to it claiming mp3 is not supported format by my iphone. on top of that my applications and video folders under my iphone device (when you click on the triangle left of the device name) are gone and i can't sync neither applications nor video. so now I am stuck with the inability to sync anything. please help

By: kk

kk — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:02:26 +0000

really great solution. hats off to you dude.

By: Stef

Stef — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:11:33 +0000

Thank you so much!! ImTOO completely messed up the iTunes database on my iPhone… I was afraid I would have to restore it again. Instead I just renamed the iTunesDB file and it worked again! iTunes now recognizes my iPhone as before :-)

By: totolita

totolita — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 06:27:10 +0000

You are my personal hero!!!!!!!!! Thank you very much for this, I had your exact problem and it works like a charm now!!!!!!!