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.

  • Share:
  • Follow:

We Recommend

← Older Comments
Newer Comments →
  • sami

    hi guyz
    i hv used cydia and installed some application
    when i removed it told me i ll dell ur different application as well as ur os
    but i hv push the button

    now i turn on my iphone 3g,, it shows the boot screen in which apple is displayed after that it turned off (black screen),,, i did with the power button n home screen button ,, but it remain same,,,

    i think OS 3.1.3 crashed and it is not booting,,,
    anyone can help me out what can i do now,,,

    • Dolly

      i have the same problem now, how did u fixed it? =( please send me the instruction @ sd_dolly19@yahoo.com thank you!

  • Spadoinkle

    well deleting the whole damn folder in iFile fixed my issue! though to my lack of common sense, this deleted all of my sources, thus i have to figure out what all of them were, i had a lot so this will be a huuugeee pain. atleast i have cydia back?

  • lolipop

    Great work! Thank you DuDe! ^^

  • srishti

    hey does anyone knows from where can we download ” clear cydia list chache exe zip folder ???
    it is really important … n also an easy way to make your cydia work again …
    plzzzz help :)

  • VoiD

    btw you don’t need to do magick with your buttons to reboot your device
    just type ‘reboot’ in your SSH session

  • Arvind Reuben

    Hi Sebastien,
    I Have an iphone 3g (Jailbroken and unlocked) running os 4.0. It all works fine except that the phone has become extremely slow, can I revertr back to the old OS. If so, How??, you, dear sir, have always solved my problems with the iphone……so looking forward to hearing from you…

    Thanx
    Arvind

  • shad206

    ******** Problem resolved after deleting the files in /var/lib/apt/lists and in var/lib/dpkg/updates and then rebooting like others said above. ***********

    • http://facebook Iphneuzer

      How do u navigate to thAt wT does tht mean

  • Hankey

    Hi, for those who dont find any files, just re-jailbreak your phone (dont reset it, just rejailbreakit using redsnow, it worked perfect for me)

  • http://cdsmovies4u.webs.com Dazahann98

    Hiya thanks for the tutorial but I’m 12 yrs old so I don’t want to do some of this tricky stuff. Oh by the way my cydia actualy stopes working as my touch ran out of power when I was on cydia. Oh and kayleigh you get those folders when you go on my computer/iPODNAME/ I don’t know if yr using iPhone folders to view the folders. If you still have problems download iphonebrowser and view it with that. Btw you can look for a link in other comments above mine. Any help on my comment plz can you help as I’m to ‘scared’ to delete folder and all that.

  • Sascha

    Hi everybody! I jailbroke my 3G a couple of days ago using Spirit as it was recommended. Used to be working fine until today when Cydia would crash upon start. I found this tutorial but it doesn’t help as I don’t see the folders /var/lib/apt/lists and /var/lib/apt/updates… I don’t see any folders except /var/mobile. i-Fun-Box says my iPhone is still jailed. So I re-jailbroke it just a minute ago. Spirit said it completed successfully. Also, I can still see the phone is working with the other carrier I use now. Plus I still have the themes I previously installed. So I presume that the iPhone *IS* jailbroken. How can I fix this? Without the phone being recognized as jailbroken I cannot delete the folders to get Cydia starting again :-(

    Help, please!

    Cheers,
    Sascha

    • Sascha

      As there seemed no other solution I restored and re-jailbroke my iPhone. Took me a couple of hours but now I was wiser and instantaneously installed SSH and a Terminal app. So now I have access to the phone with WinSCP, PuTTY from my PC and with the terminal on the phone.

      And guess what: this morning Cydia started crashing again on loading new data. Accessing it with WinSCP and moving everything from /var/lib/apt/lists to my local computer and restarting Cydia now worked for me. I hope I don’t have to do this on a weekly basis :-/

      “Funny” not on the side: i-FunBox still claims that my iPhone is NOT jailbroken… doh! Any ideas on that (though it’s off-topic)?

      Cheers,
      Sascha

      • Sascha

        GAAAAA! It happened again today >:-( Seems that installing apps is bad for your iPhone, or Cydia respectively. After fixing this yesterday and installing four more apps since then, Cydia now crashed again on startup. I mean, it’s OK to have a solution by deleting the apt lists with WinSCP, but it sucks to do this every few days (the above mentioned weekly basis apparently was too optimistic). Why is this thing so unstable. I can’t believe that this is normal behaviour.

        Sascha

  • kunal

    i accidentally delete partial folder n all files
    nw i dnt have cydia in my iphone and no message icon no safari no phone no ipod no app store…what to do now??pls help…
    on main menu it showing settings n stocks mail and some of cydia apps…
    pls help

  • Richard

    This worked for me I had tried a pushfix for youtube. Cydia would start to open then crash. I went to the var/lib/dpkg/updates and deleted and rebooted. Cydia now works fine. Thank you.

  • Ripp

    Worked for me. thank you very much.

  • MAHAD

    ROCK IS WAY BETTER THAN CYDIA!!IT NEVER CRASHES SO BASICALLY JUST DOWNLOAD

  • SuicidalKurt

    Awesome! thx!

  • http://null Sermft

    It worked just fine. Thanks!!!

  • / dejan

    it works for me 2

  • ken

    Thank the freaking lord……!!!!!! You ROCK..

  • Denis

    people don’t delete everything in list.
    delete the last repository you installled.
    and then try it.
    and ofcourse if repository is in partial delete them also.
    ONLY DELETE THE LAST REPOSITORY YOU INSTALLED
    NOT ALL.

  • Boltz101

    :D – thanks!

  • jennifer

    i am so confused!! where do i find the files i am supposed to delete?! where are the var/lib/dpkg/updates ???? my cydia acts like it is going to start up then crashes! someone PLEASE help me.

  • Sascha

    @Jennifer: Read my comment above, from October, 30th :-)

  • adam

    i did what u said but for some reason it wont let me delete the files. i clicked on edit then selected the files and clicked delete but i would not delete . please help!!!!

  • paul2021

    i delete all files but no luck
    any idea…..

  • Ahmed Bendary

    I’m on 2G iphone and it worked for me thanks a lot man

  • jammy

    Hey Sebastian i used your trick along with elducker’s trick and it worked like charm for me…… Happy that my cydia is up and running again without doing jailbreaking again…. Thanks Sebastian and elducker….

  • Loukaseder

    CRAP.

    ok. i want to fix my problem on my stupid jailbreaked device.

    This is dont work!

    VERY IMPORTANT: my product:
    iPod Touch 2G No-MC 4.2.1

    HELP!!!

    i fellow intruction but…

    no files in var/lib/dpkg/updates
    no files in /var/lib/apt/lists

    i sayed: ok. i will view what partial have…

    what i see? NO FILES!

    and i rejailbreaked…. not WORK
    and i restore and i rejailbreaked… not WORK
    and i rejailbreaked and i restore…. not WORK
    i use a tool for clear cydia cache… not WORK
    i used SHH…. but how i INSTALL SHH IN MY CRASHING CYDIA??
    i used iPhoneExplorer
    and i used… every programms for explore my device…

    i want to install mobile terminal but… HOW INSTALL MOBILE TERMINAL IN MY CRASHING CYDIA??

    HELP

  • Alison

    Hi, I really need some help. I’m having the same problem w/ cydia crashing after I just jailbroke my iphone 3G. I have a mac, so I can’t use most of the methods posted here to delete the files you’re referring to. Does anyone know how I can access the files to delete? I have cyberduck, but I can’t connect to my iphone b/c I don’t have ssh installed on my iphone (or maybe I’m missing how to do this). Any help would be greatly appreciated! I really want my phone to work again :-(

    Thanks! Alison

  • Alison

    For those of you who had the same problem as me (Cydia crashing after jailbreaking w/ pwnage), I followed the iclassified instructions for using redsn0w/ultrasn0w and it now works. Yay!

  • JeeF

    Thx bro, it really works…

  • Sathish

    Hi,

    My cydia is crashing…I followed the instructions as given. But still my cydia keeps crashing. Help me.

    Thanks in advance for the help!!

  • varstash

    I can confirm that deleting all files (except partial) in /var/lib/apt/lists and in var/lib/dpkg/updates and then doing a reboot have brought Cydia back to life. Like flipping a light switch. Also, it seems to load faster and run more stable. It was so fragile that even looking at it the wrong way would break it. Thanks Download Blog. Back to cracking the crap out of Apple’s toy.

  • http://www.haunted360.com/forum H1

    thanks a lot guys!
    got it back up and running after deleting from lists AND updates

  • Meghan

    Thank you sooo much for everything everyone! I got it back up and running after a painstakingly long and unsuccessful look through forums. I agree with varstash. I was so wary with Cydia I thought that any wrong action and I would break the iphone. And yes, i needed to delete from both lists and updates.

    Thank you for everything everyone!

  • Sunisa

    Problem resolved after deleting the files in /var/lib/apt/lists and in var/lib/dpkg/updates and then followed reboot directions My Jilla posted.

    i’ve tried. it works now!!!!

  • chase

    This solution fixed my cydia crashes on iphone 2G running redSnow 0.9.4 jailbreak on ispw 3.1.2

  • Thuan

    Thanks eyeguy it worked.

  • dheeraj

    i have deleted partial folder by mistake plz help me to solve the problem without restore jailbrek

  • dheeraj

    plzhelp

  • setifien

    hi
    I have iphone 3g firmware 3.1.2 apparantly jailbroken with blackra1n…the problem is the cydia crash when loading….and I dont have ifile or ssh or afc2add to run iphone browser or diskaid …what do u recommend please nay suggest will be helpful

  • mad

    Sorry if someone already posted a question like mine, but I need to ask again :) )

    I’m a n00b but fast learner…
    I have a jailbroken iphone, and when I launch cydia, after the proces of updating packages, I get erors mentioning ispazio and repo sources, after that I get refreshing data screen and after couple of minutes cydia crashes. I opet it again, and get loading data screen, crashes after a minute…

    I tried using iphonebrowser, I navigated to var/lib/apt/lists deleted those files and also dpkg updates(but it was already empty) – I read that on some forums. It helped, I could open cydia, but the same proces of updating, refreshing, and loading data was repeated, the same errors, and at the end cydia crashes…

    Can anyone help, thanks in advance

  • Will

    Hi I deleted my partial folder on the iphone by mistake and now cydia wont add sources as the folder is missing what can I do to get the partial folder back onto the iphone and restoring is not an option or I will lose all I have

    Please help

    Thanks

  • Tseo

    thumbs up! it worked except that it has now removed some application under the packages.

  • Brettersson

    there are no files in the /lists/ just /partial/ and that’s empty too, try again. oh and how is someone supposed to use sshloader on their iphone to fix Cydia if they need Cydia to get SSH

  • Brettersson

    hey guessed what happened when I deleted all the files in that empty folder, not a damn thing.

  • john

    hi guys, i just found this article after i reinstalled the cydia using limerain. sigh.
    the problem here is after i reinstalled cydia, ALL the package in the cydia>manage>package is gone. but the package is working fine. can u guys help me please?

  • Sucre

    It work.thank.

  • archie

    it wrkd dude..genius
    deleting the files in /var/lib/apt/lists and in var/lib/dpkg/updates and then rebooting

  • Jd. Raf

    awesome works on my 2g

  • nasman

    /var/lib/apt/lists <<emptied already except for partial folder
    var/lib/dpkg/updates <<updates folder doesn't exist on my ipod 3g ios4.2.1 jailbroken on greenp0ison

    rebooted my device, and still i cant add sources it keeps on crashing when i add source. need help

← Older Comments
Newer Comments →