iPad Backup Fails; NAND failure?
I'm unable to get a back-up image of an older ipad that my son uses as iTunes complains that "there is not enough free space on this computer to save the backup," but I believe this is red-herring. There is plenty of space to support the back-up of the iPad:
Device Information:
iPad Wi-Fi + 4G (LTE/GSM); iPad3,3
56.35 GB (18.26 GB available)
iOS: 8.4.1 (12H321)
(Warning tech deep-ish dive ahead) I work as a software engineer, and while I haven't done any recent or low-level development on the iPad, I am familiar with the underlying OS, the environment, and some of the hardware abstraction. To that end, I fired up XCode to watch the logging on the iPad as it was attempting to do the back-up with iTunes. When the failure happens the following pops up in the log:
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad kernel[0] <Notice>: [NAND] s_verify_meta:45 sftl: uECC flag in meta; lba:0x1f8a00, meta:0x1f8a00
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad kernel[0] <Notice>: disk0s1s2: media error.
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad BackupAgent2[2297] <Warning>: WARNING: No code for POSIX error: Device not configured (6)
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad BackupAgent2[2297] <Warning>: ERROR: Error reading SQLite file: Device not configured (6) at path "/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/0ED3C5D9-935B-48B5-A89B-7696190AA6EC/D ocuments/wofData/item21292 profile.plist" (MBErrorDomain/100)
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad kernel[0] <Notice>: [NAND] s_verify_meta:45 sftl: uECC flag in meta; lba:0x1f8a01, meta:0x1f8a01
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad kernel[0] <Notice>: disk0s1s2: media error.
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad BackupAgent2[2297] <Warning>: WARNING: No code for POSIX error: Device not configured (6)
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad BackupAgent2[2297] <Warning>: ERROR: Error reading SQLite file: Device not configured (6) at path "/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/0ED3C5D9-935B-48B5-A89B-7696190AA6EC/D ocuments/wofData/item21290 profile.plist" (MBErrorDomain/100)
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad kernel[0] <Notice>: [NAND] s_verify_meta:45 sftl: uECC flag in meta; lba:0x1f8980, meta:0x1f8980
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad kernel[0] <Notice>: disk0s1s2: media error.
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad BackupAgent2[2297] <Warning>: WARNING: No code for POSIX error: Device not configured (6)
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad BackupAgent2[2297] <Warning>: ERROR: read error: Device not configured (6) (MBErrorDomain/100)
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad kernel[0] <Notice>: [NAND] s_verify_meta:45 sftl: uECC flag in meta; lba:0x1faa1d, meta:0x1faa1d
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad kernel[0] <Notice>: disk0s1s2: media error.
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad BackupAgent2[2297] <Warning>: WARNING: No code for POSIX error: Device not configured (6)
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad BackupAgent2[2297] <Warning>: ERROR: read error: Device not configured (6) (MBErrorDomain/100)
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad BackupAgent2[2297] <Warning>: ERROR: Error uploading "/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/8D09F0C6-B566-4081-AE57-380653EE6018/D ocuments/Fingerprint.cache/321B11EE-DD0B-4642-BE22-69A96C86E15C/catalog/game-dat a.js" to "4493be7ed0404b9cc2b0e32784e8c43cfa14370d/Snapshot/a98b9a757d6397d4ff9fdc654fbc fa9d628bfe75": Input/output error (5) (MBErrorDomain/100)
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad BackupAgent2[2297] <Warning>: ERROR: Error uploading "/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/0ED3C5D9-935B-48B5-A89B-7696190AA6EC/D ocuments/wofData/item21292 profile.plist" to "4493be7ed0404b9cc2b0e32784e8c43cfa14370d/Snapshot/6d0d007afc10a3b3c35fdac5f22d fbca97814f22": Input/output error (5) (MBErrorDomain/100)
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad BackupAgent2[2297] <Warning>: ERROR: Error uploading "/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/0ED3C5D9-935B-48B5-A89B-7696190AA6EC/D ocuments/wofData/item21290 profile.plist" to "4493be7ed0404b9cc2b0e32784e8c43cfa14370d/Snapshot/0ab994072c0003fe4a5506523e9f f21d3a61b888": Input/output error (5) (MBErrorDomain/100)
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad BackupAgent2[2297] <Warning>: ERROR: Error uploading "/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/0ED3C5D9-935B-48B5-A89B-7696190AA6EC/D ocuments/wofData/list-of-items.plist" to "4493be7ed0404b9cc2b0e32784e8c43cfa14370d/Snapshot/e9e2c3b030542ba70a11ffe07a63 c405f7c25e23": Input/output error (5) (MBErrorDomain/100)
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad BackupAgent2[2297] <Warning>: ERROR: Backup error - Multiple errors uploading files (MBErrorDomain/104)
To me, this looks like there is a read failure (ECC failed?) from the iPad disk (the solid state storage) for some of the files it is attempting to back up. And, it appears to bail on the back-up given those failures. Specifically the messages like this are the "troubling" messages that indicate a potential hardware issue to me:
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad kernel[0] <Notice>: [NAND] s_verify_meta:45 sftl: uECC flag in meta; lba:0x1f8a00, meta:0x1f8a00
Jan 29 12:34:25 Christophers-iPad kernel[0] <Notice>: disk0s1s2: media error.
It is unclear to me if this issue is resolvable such that we can continue to use and trust this iPad's hardware. What I'd like to at least do though, is get a back-up of everything I can from the iPad.
Is there a way to work around this issue of the iTune back-up failing and get a back-up image of the iPad?
One idea I had was to simply "lose" the items that have the disk errors by deleting them from the iPad UI. That would likely be okay; the data loss would be minimal. The issue I have is that I have no way to convert the GUID in the directories in the errors back to the apps whose data is corrupted/un-readable. Anyone know how I can do this?
Do the Apple Geniuses have any tools to allow for the dump of the iPad contents?
Thanks,
Darin
P.S. I'm assuming that the iPad is pretty much toast at this point if this is a solid-state disk failure. Or is it?
iPad, iOS 8.4.1