iPhone and iPad problems after restoring a backup: Storage setting crashes, no Spotify and no Backup possible

I had a very strange issue with a new iPhone, after restoring this new iPhone with the backup of the ‘old’ iPhone I had some very weird problems:

• Settings – General – iPhone Storage: resulted in a crash of the Settings
• A Backup could not be made anymore: Backup Up Now in Settings resulted in a crash of the Settings
• Spotify wouldn’t start anymore
• Also, the restore process didn’t complete, it seemed it was stuck at 98%

So after a lot of troubleshooting:

1. Restore process stopped
2. Reset All Settings
3. A hard flush of Memory
4. Reboot iPhone
5. Several Apps deleted
6. Because this issue wasn’t resolved in a day we had some iPhone updates (IOS 12)
7. Chatted with Apple
8. Went to the Apple Store (they couldn’t help me, I had to call a number)

None of this options resulted in a solution, so on a rainy Sunday morning I got angry (again) and told my self to fix it the same morning, and so I did 🙂

Step 1:

So, the first step was to find a tool where I could browse the real storage of the iPhone. I used a tool called iMazing (https://imazing.com). There are a lot of tools available, but after trying a couple I found iMazing the most stable, serious, and non-bogus tool available.

Step 2:

The iMazing tool has an option called the Advanced device info and diagnostics. Here I saw some errors on the iPhone regarding a crash of medialibraryd and some columns missing in this database. After Googling, I found a lot of issues regarding the medialibraryd in relation to the iTunes Media Library and the restore process of an iPhone or iPad.

Step 3:

Next thing was to open the File System of the iPhone. I saw a lot of folders starting with an F and a number, in the Media – iTunes_Control – iTunes folder. See the picture below, where I show the iMazing interface.

Step 4:

Ok, so I thought: well just let me move the F folders and the MediaLibrary.sqllitedb file to my local PC and see what happens. This action directly resulted in the following error message: Unable to open database connection to path /var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control/iTunes/MediaLibrary.sqlitedb. database disk image is malformed. The MediaLibrary.sqllitedb file was created automatically.

Step 5:

Now I just restarted the iPhone and voila! I could enter the Settings – General – iPhone Storage without any problems!! Cool, so now let’s try one of the most important apps: Spotify, cool it’s working again! Even the backup is working again!

So that’s is it, for now, I really hope this will help you if you run into this issue!

Daniel Nikolic

Daniel Nikolic

Is interested in everything connected to technology. Has a passion for cloud, virtualization and software development. Always finds appropriate IT solutions for customers that match their needs strategically, technically and financially.

Core qualities
Quick thinker, result driven, ambitious, customer-friendly, enthusiastic

Hobbies
Running, listening to music, good food and doing fun things with family

Job description
CTO PepperByte, LoadGen, and BlueParq