How to Fix Cydia Crashes

By , Aug 14, 2009

A lot of people who recently jailbroke their iPhones are having issues with Cydia crashing when launching it. There is a quick and dirty fix for that and it requires to either SSH into your iPhone or use iPhoneBrowser and delete a few files.

Apparently the problem is caused by some corrupted repositories that make Cydia crash within the first few seconds of loading it.

To fix this, simply navigate to /var/lib/apt/lists and delete all the files in this folder except for the folder called “partial”.

Then reboot your iPhone and launch Cydia. It should load without crashing.

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  • Guy343

    Guys just re-jailbreak with RedSn0w 0.96B6 and check “install Cydia” I fixed thois way after try all this BS. Working as brand new and upload with ALL the sources & Packages!

    • DGTX

      I have a 3GS will this work for me?

    • kim

      how can i re-jailbrek my iphone?can u teach me please?

  • http://gmail.com Elle

    I have done this several times in the past, but now it says that these files cannot be deleted

  • DGTX

    iphone browser then delete the files as instructed and bam!!! back in business

  • drtrash

    iPhone 3Gs @ 4.0.1
    deleted the files in “lists” and “updates” and it doesnt changed anything.
    pls help.

  • Charle

    Hey. Any link for a Blackra1n jailbreaker? Or any Updated jailbreaker? THANKS!

    • charudatta

      use greenpoision to jailbreak…google greenpoision site n u will get the greenpoision its just 600 or 700kb…an its stable threatened for 4.2.1 try it may help u

  • Charle

    Another question, after I restored and Jailbroken again my phone, can I restore from previous backup to get my files from the “before-cydia-crashing-iphone”? Lol. Thanks!

  • http://gmail.com Elle

    Unfortunately, I don’t have SSH or terminal anymore. Not sure what happened to it because I had it before. And the the only files that show up with browsers are media files. None of the VAR files like before. I can view everything in ifile but I cannot create or delete anything.

  • charudatta

    worked like butter good tip dude…my whole cell was unstable because of cydia…even if i change themes it was crashing now its working fine…

    • Suryan

      Dude my cydia is not opening plz help me,,..I have ifile but those files r not deleting

  • Anil

    Do not give wrong advise if you do not have any idea ! I followed your advise completely & now the sources & packages lists on my iphone are empty, forcing me to restore my device !

    • Yoo

      Ofc. None of your paCkages Are there.. The reason why cydia did not open, is maybie because you have corrupted sourches, and packages. What you do is that you delete all the packages and sourches, so you Get a new fresh cydia.

      Ive tried this with ifile but it did not work, you cant delete filer :D but with the IphoneExplorer you can ;)

  • Jason

    In Need of HELP. I installed nocyfresh and now my cydia will not load. Can anyone help me please? Can I fix it through diskaid? Thanks.

  • Josh

    I launched iphonebrowser. I found “var” but unable to find ” lib ” . Can anyone help me out ?

    • http://mortal-beauty.info Pauline

      Same here! :(

      • Just Me

        Really annoying.. Me to! Any help plz..

    • Anast

      me too bro! Did you found a solution ?

    • http://www.poop.com steve

      i also had that problem

  • joe

    can anyone help me .. i deleted the partial folder accidentally

    • khris

      make another partial folder

      • The-L

        How do I make another partial folder??

  • dan

    thank you! this one really worked!

  • Miguel

    worked 4 me but for some phones the root is diferent:
    it goes private/var/lib/apt/list thanks

  • Skywalker0924

    Cydia doesn’t crash on launch, but it only crashes when prompted to reboot or respring (usually after installing a new app or tweak). Is there a way to fix this without losing all my sources/packages?

  • Nicole

    Hello I’ve been trying this for a while if for chance there is a new method can u email it to me. Please :)

  • tynutt

    does this uninstall anything on your itouch? like delete anything you are using?

  • y_h

    after deleting the files its working great
    thanks,

  • Sasha

    I just jailbroke my iPod touch 4.3 device with redsn0w. Every time I try to open cydia, it takes me right back to the home screen. unfortunately, I don’t have (or know how to) SSH; and I wasn’t able to get iFile or any of the other cydia apps that you guys are mentioning because this problem was happening as soon as the jailbreaking was finished. So, is there an easy way to fix this problem? My iPod itself is working, no problem there, it’s just cydia. I’d appreciate it very much if someone were to reply ASAP.

  • Faiz Adotey

    Hi This is Faiz….I also had this same cydia crash shit on my iphone….
    i download ifunbox and i followed all the tutorials from almost all the guys but after i deleted the list files still didnt work…i rejaibreaked twice but still didnt work….i jaibraked again but this time did not restore my files from itunes i just set it up as a new iphone and worked perfectly…
    have a try…

  • rich12345

    Why didn’t the god damned Cydia people test it and fix to make sure it works on a new version of iOS. This is so Microsoft like, instead of fixing the bug, users were forced to hack into the file system.

  • rich12345

    And how the F*** do I SSH the iphone without install OpenSSH from Cydia first?

  • GeorgiaGirl

    dudee, I jailbroke my itouch 2g version 4.2.1. and i tried to install Cydia. it’s a piece of shit. it crashes as soon as it opens, and goes straight back to home. how the hell do you make this work when i have no such thing as an Iphone browser or SHS.?? wtf?

  • Tonya

    I did the iphone browser and deleted the files as instructed, rebooted and cydia still will not load. I have the limerain jailbreak and it is on my phone so i tried reinstalling it and still nothing……am I going to have to restore and rejailbreak…..that is a nightmare!!!!

  • Lauren

    yayy it works (:

  • Masha

    I CAN’T FIND LIB!! :(

  • Tonya

    I have tried all of these suggestions and nothing worked!!! If I delete Cydia will I loose everything I installed from there? Then just reinstall it?

  • savraj chana

    dude does the unlock for iphone go cause i found ultrasn0w on my lists and well i guess that could mess the unlock right so tell me what should i do

    • Suryan

      Hi frnds u better use iPhone explorer realy it works for all go to /> var>lib>Apt>lists> and delet all leaving partial ,:-) try it 1st u can download it from here http://www.macroplant.com/iphoneexplorer/

  • Lucy

    Got iPhone Explorer and followed the instructions but get an error that says it can’t delete that file or directory. I have a 3gs and I did my jailbreak through Redsn0w. I’ve already had to restore and re jailbreak my phone twice in the past week to get Cydia to stop crashing but it only works for like a day before it crashes again. Anyone know what to do?

    • Ro

      Lucy, did you ever figure out how to delete those files in iPhone explorer? Mine also says cant delete

      • Lucy

        Hey Ro, no I wasn’t able to fix that. I redid the whole “boot tethered” thing through Redsn0w again and it seemed to fix my Cydia issue for now BUT now Safari won’t work on my phone! I don’t know if this issue is related to Cydia or not. Ugh.

  • Armando

    How can I SHH my iPhone if i Can’t install the SSH client from Cydia?

    • ramy saad

      tinyumbrella

  • http://LGeek.info X3SED

    Guys… just download iFunbox for PC and delete this files it works great! Thanks for the tip ;)

  • rupz

    I tried everything, ex by deleting some files but didn’t work.. Then i tried turning off the some of the substrate installed in my iphone using SBSetting.. Guess what my cydia didnt crash anymore. IT WORKED…. i Have noticed that one of my cydia application installed on my phone caused cydia to crash…

  • majorero76

    Thank you for the recommendation. I used iphonebrowser on my winxp pc to delete the files in apt/lists. After reboot, Cydia works and even my standard camera works again!! :-)

    Yippie-Ya-Yeah Schweinebacke! (B. Willis)

  • risingcain

    thank you sooo much.. now im able to use cydia once again..

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3MLBHXAZZFASOQKCTD5XFS4PNQ Munib

    Mistake delete file var lib apt list on iphone how to recovery back
    when i open my cydia it give me three error

    List directory /var/lib/apt/lists/partial is missing.

    could not open lock file /var/lib/apt/lists/lock -open (2: no such file or directory)

    Lists directory /var/lib/apt/lists/partial is missing.

    is there any way to fix this problem thx

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002279141820 Skyler Mizokami

    followed instructions and now cydia just crashes

  • Anonymous

    my iphone 3.1.3 was apparently downgraded and jailbraked with cydia,worked for a month and now on constant reeboot.Mean,it’s sort of working but can’t switch it off.Anyone knows solution please?
    Cheers!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Disha-Patel/100001345675180 Disha Patel

    m accidently delete “partial”…?
    dan how to get back…do all protocol..plz help me….
    /var/lib/apt/lists and delete all the files .including partial(accidently)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kevin-Cole/1389520314 Kevin Cole

    Tried all the mentioned fixes. Deleted the files a instructed. Looked for crask log, non found. Tried “boot tethered”. Tried reinstalling cydia. still have the same problem. Icons for Cydia, Winterboard, fontswap all show up. Tap any and and they fail to load. (screen reset, then nothing). The same thing now happens with safari (loads webpage then terminates) and mail (loads and shows nothing, blank page). I have not altered the settings of the last 2 apps. All other cydia packages seem to have failed. Getting to my wits end. Plz help.

  • http://www.facebook.com/omarluces05 Omar Luces

    Yeah! It really works great! Thank you so much! :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/apurvashah.md Apurva Shah

    I cant fins the above mentioned files??

  • khi

    not worked.. :(

  • Jack

    in the apt/lists there is only the partial folder please help

    • http://www.facebook.com/hari4honey Hari Prasad Reddy

      i do have partial folder only, then also it was not working pls help me too

  • vivek

    dude nthng happnd it still crashes..!!!!!

  • hell_ds55

    Mine is simple, so I had a crash and I all done is connect to the computer via usb and open up redsnow. I searched for an IPSW and just boot tethered.

  • ramy saad

    greetings to every one :) i had the same problem with my i pad 2 and i phone4 , and found out it was very easy to fix it , if u have i file (which i only had on my i phone 4 not the i pad ) once you go on there its already on “” so just search for “var” (sould be the last file ) then search for “lib” (should be the tenth file starting from top , then find “apt” (should be first on the list ) then “lists” and there you go , delete all the files in there except for partial . *note “partial is the only blue folder in there and it is on the top the rest are just files with white logo , make sure u dont delete the partial !!” reboot your device and it should work .thats for the i phone 4 version 5.1.1 jailbroken with green poison ,
    for the i pad 2 which is 6.1.2 jailbroken by evasi0n , i didnt have ifile or anyway to access system files , so i just simply went to evasi0n and taped jailbreak again , and it fixed the problem ” i didnt down grade or used my SHSH. i just simply re jailbroke my i pad and it worked ”
    ** just incase plz back up your phone
    thanx :) hope i helped greetings from egypt :)

  • jrod397@hotmail.com

    So i jailbroke my iphone 4 on ios 6 with evasi0n and everything worked ok for a while. I downloaded PDAnet cracked and resprung my device. In the middle of the respring the apple logo showed up and when my phone came back to the lock screen it said IOS 6 as it would when you first buy the iphone. I signed in to wifi then tried to activate my phone but it wouldnt work. I tried multiple times and nothing happened. I have SB settings and it still worked. I opened the drop down menu and hit “more”. It took me to my home screen. Barrel still worked, multiicon mover still worked. And a couple other things worked too. I tried to open cydia but the icon just turned black and went back to normal, not opening at all. The same thing happened with all the other icons. I tried restoring it on iTunes but an error code came up saying my phone couldnt connect. What do I do?

  • Joao

    I Love You!!!! Amazing! Thanks For All man,worked perfectly! I was starting to think i would had to reset my iPad!! Thank you very much!

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