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Itunes cannot read contents of the iphone

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Dear all ,


please help me with this,

try to connect my Iphone 4 today but the above messege came out.

the same messege also appear when i connect my IPad 2.

it ask to restore my devices.


Did not do anything on my ipad and iphone or the itunes ( 10.7),

it work on my last sync 4 days ago.


please advice how to resolve this.

iPhone 4, iOS 5.0.1

Posted on Oct 29, 2012 5:14 AM

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Posted on Oct 29, 2012 5:20 AM

I would tend to state that this error is not because of your devices. So there is no need to restore them.

I would go ahead and re-install iTunes as there might be some services broken or not running to properly access your devices.

81 replies

Jan 19, 2013 1:36 PM in response to Kogiu

I wanted to share this for others who might come across this post with the same problem.


This fix will work for ipods/iphones/etc.


What has happened is an itunes control or preferences file has somehow gotten corrupted on your device. Why Apple hasnt built the option to do this into itunes is beyond me. In effect you may lose your music library on the device but all contacts/notes/apps/etc will be untouched and fine. Apparently Apple thinks wiping the whole thing is a better option?


Anyhoo:


First try to delete one song from your playlist, and turn off/on your device. This will hopefully overwrite the corrupt database file. Try connecting to itunes again and see if that does it.


If the above doesnt work:


1) Download/Install "i-FunBox" which gives you control of the iPhone’s file system from your computer.


2) Open i-FunBox and search for iTunesDB or iTunesCDB. They should show up in a folder, ie; /var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control/iTunes


3) Personally, I had to rename "iTunesCDB" "iTunesContol" and "iTunesPrefs" on my iphone 4 before mine sync'd to itunes again. Its always a better idea just to rename these files incase you need to go back or restore them. If for any reason you cannot rename them, then delete them as a last resort.


DO NOT delete or rename anything other than these 3 files!!!

Keep in mind you WILL LOSE YOUR MUSIC LIBRARY. Everything else will be OK though. (contacts/notes/apps/etc)


4) Open itunes again and reconnect your device. Voila!


Alternately, if youre jailbroken, open ifile and navigate to: /var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control/iTunes


Cheers!

Jan 23, 2013 9:19 AM in response to SlimWithATiltedGrin

Thank you very much as your suggestion did in fact allow iTunes to recognize my iPhone 4 again, thus allowing me to backup the phone today. I downloaded and installed i-funbox and renamed the three files as you suggested. I restarted iTunes and voila, my phone is recognized again (yeah!).


However, when I tried to sync, iTunes is telling me I don't have enough available space on my phone. I suspect it is trying to rewrite my music database (which I have verified still resides on my phone, and is 10.6GB in size; I have 10GB free, and iTunes tells me I need 530MB of more space than I have available... thus why I suspect the rewrite...).


Any ideas how to overcome this problem?


Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide!

Jan 29, 2013 9:51 PM in response to SlimWithATiltedGrin

Hey, just want to say thanks for the post. I came across this problem on my i-phone5. Apples answer: Restore to factory settings thereby permenanltly erasing music, photos and my phonebook - the best way to cure a migraine is to cut off your own head, right?

I took your suggestion and deleted one song from my playlist, opened itunes and... whatddaya know? It was that simple. Hope one day troubleshoots like this might actually appear in itunes. Thanks for your help.

Feb 26, 2013 4:09 PM in response to pseudotechnical

It looks like you need to delete all the music files on your phone manually as well.


It's unfortunate, because deleting the database files allowed me to sync my phone again and keep the songs (and more importantly my playlists) on my phone, but of course, now iTunes thinks I have no music on my phone so that will cause a whole new slew of problems.

Jul 27, 2013 8:34 PM in response to dougw246

Hi there, I got the same problem with my itunes, i.e. it can't read the contents of my iphone and suggests the restore to factory settings.

My problem:

after finding the 3 files on i-FunBox, I can neither rename nor delete them. Is there any trick how to do that, am I missing something?

Thanks for any advise.

Itunes cannot read contents of the iphone

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