How to Fix: Notes App Does Not Save My Note After iPhone Jailbreak

by Simon Ng on November 15, 2009



note-fix-after-jailbreakIn normal case, your iPhone should work properly after jailbreak. However, in some rare cases, you may encounter some unexpected problems. Other than the YouTube issue after blackra1n jailbreak, here is another problem reported by one of the readers:

“I get to fix the youTube problem. but the Notes app is not working. Everytime I write a new note and click done, the app closes without saving my note. Is there a patch to fix this?”

Yes, there is a fix for that.

If you experience this problem after jailbreak, the database of the Notes application is probably crashed or corrupted. To repair the Notes database, follow the below procedures to fix it:

1. Go to Cydia and install “MobileTerminal”

mobileterminal-cydia

2. After installation, go back to iPhone home screen and launch “Terminal” app.

3. In the Terminal, key in “cd /private/var/mobile/Library/Notes” and hit “Return”. Then type in “rm notes.db” and hit “Return” to delete the corrupted database.

notes-fix-terminal

4. Click Home button to go back to home screen and restart your iPhone (i.e. Power it off and Turn it on again)

After reboot, iPhone will automatically generate a new database file (i.e. notes.db) for the Notes app. Now, launch the Notes app again and write a new note. This time, you should be able to save your note.

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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }

1 POKEKAT November 15, 2009 at 7:50 pm

Another way is to connect to your iPhone via Cyberduck and delete the file:
notes.db
It is located inside a folder here: private/var/mobile/Library/Notes

Reply

2 Simon Ng November 15, 2009 at 10:32 pm

@POKEKAT, thanks for your tip. I just think using mobile terminal is an easier way for those who do not know SSH.

Reply

3 helen November 16, 2009 at 7:45 pm

I had the same kind of problem with my iphone, but with text messages – when i receive them, i can only look at them when they appear as new on the main screen, when i open the message, it’s gone. And also whenever i send new text messages, they disappear after sending. Can i repair that in some similar way?

Reply

4 Simon Ng November 16, 2009 at 10:20 pm

@helen, you can do the same for SMS. But the path is /private/var/mobile/Library/SMS. You can then delete the “sms.db”.

Reply

5 frankazoid November 25, 2009 at 10:05 am

now notes can not be started at all ((

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Reply

7 yosi avron December 4, 2009 at 1:20 am

It worked for me.Thanks a million.

Reply

8 Alex December 21, 2009 at 2:18 pm

Dear Simon,

When I type in rm notes.db it asks “do you want to remove write protected notes.db” I gave y and pressed return.

I then says “cannot remove notes.db permission denied’

What should I do?

Alex

Reply

9 tyler March 8, 2010 at 12:40 pm

hey alex dont put “y” put “yes” it worked fine for me

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10 gohan March 11, 2010 at 6:30 pm

thanx dude it worked

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11 gohan March 11, 2010 at 6:31 pm

ur are the best it worked…

and if any 1 is having problems with writing so make sure u r using CAPSLOCK in some word…

Reply

12 Don May 15, 2010 at 12:58 am

I have tried the steps as above, but the notes does not regenerate a new notes,db. Instead i can’t open open it now. Pls help

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13 Victor Caballero May 31, 2010 at 9:54 pm

What if your phone is not jailbroken?

Reply

14 Alaa June 8, 2010 at 1:00 am

I did the steps and still not working I removes the notes.db but the notes is not working any more any help please , I don’t want to restore my iPhone again.
I have 32 3gs iPhone 3.1.3

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15 Tom June 20, 2010 at 4:25 am

just use ifile its a lot easier than terminal

Reply

16 oren July 3, 2010 at 5:13 pm

for me its not work :(
i try everything
just not work!!!!
:(

its give me all the time –
cannot remove notes.db permission denied
and yes –
i try “y”
ot
“yes”

still not work for me :(

Reply

17 venky July 21, 2010 at 10:04 pm

Once I restored my backup on my new 3gs iphone, I cannot open, save, create new , delete any existing notes.. it will crash and put me back onto the springboard..

I just had a similar problem and the fixes all over the internet fail to resolve the issue. Such as delete /User/Library/Notes/notes.db then restart the iPhone.

After doing this notes will not even start.

The issue is that if you manually backed up your notes.db file and then uploaded it back up using iPhoneExplorer, DiskAid or via SSH the permissions of the notes.db and or Notes directory are owned by root.

The solution is is SSH into the iPhone and then type the following as root
cd /User/Library/
chown -R mobile Notes

This will fix the issue and allow the notes program to write to the notes database. The same problem can also occur with the SMS database at /User/Library/SMS

Reply

18 terry July 28, 2010 at 12:52 pm

i have had this problem increasingly within the past week, since upgrading to 4.0 then 4.0.1.
…except my phone is not jailbroken

Reply

19 TheToke July 28, 2010 at 10:43 pm

I just upgraded my wife’s 1st gen iTouch to 3.1.3 (from 1.1.3) and after the upgrade, I am experiencing the same behaviour. The challenge is that there was one particular note on there that my wife was using to track all my daughter’s “firsts” and now I can’t read it and my wife is not happy…

Does anyone know of a way to read/restore the corrupted notes.db file?

I haven’t jailbroken the iTouch yet, but it seems like I will have to in order to fix the problem.

Reply

20 TheToke July 30, 2010 at 1:30 am

UPDATE: I found a program called iPhone Backup Extractor (http://www.reincubate.com/labs/iphone-backup-extractor-how-extract-files-iphone-backup-windows) that allows you to read the various backup files from your iTouch/iPhone and then extract the different components. The registered version allows you to dump things into CSV format, but I was able to use the free version just to read the notes.db with WordPad and though it’s somewhat cryptic, I was able to grab the text from the notes and email that to my wife. Crisis averted!

Now I just need to figure out how to wipe out the existing notes.db from her iTouch so she can use Notes again…I’d prefer not to jailbreak it unless I have to…

Reply

21 Alex August 23, 2010 at 2:01 pm

Hi Simon,

I have an iphone 2G running OS 3.0. I dropped my phone yesterday and after that the Sleep/Power button (on the top right) is not working. Can you tell me what I should do to power off my phone now? Is there an app that does it? I can’t put the phone to sleep and cannot reboot the phone too. Do help me out.

Reply

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