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How to parse the Manifest.mbdb file in an iOS 4.0 iTunes Backup

Asked 2010-06-21T13:44:35.567
84

In iOS 4.0 Apple has redesigned the backup process.

iTunes used to store a list of filenames associated with backup files in the Manifest.plist file, but in iOS 4.0 it has moved this information to a Manifest.mbdb

You can see an example of this file by making a backup with your iOS 4.0 devices and looking in your ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup folder (Look inside the subfolders with the most recent date)

Here's a screenshot of what the file looks like in a text editor:

alt text
(source: supercrazyawesome.com)

How do I parse this into a Cocoa application so that I can update my (free) iPhone Backup Extractor app (http://supercrazyawesome.com) for iOS 4.0?

iphone ios4 backup extract
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3 Answers

87

Thank you, user374559 and reneD -- that code and description is very helpful.

My stab at some Python to parse and print out the information in a Unix ls-l like format:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys

def getint(data, offset, intsize):
    """Retrieve an integer (big-endian) and new offset from the current offset"""
    value = 0
    while intsize > 0:
        value = (value<<8) + ord(data[offset])
        offset = offset + 1
        intsize = intsize - 1
    return value, offset

def getstring(data, offset):
    """Retrieve a string and new offset from the current offset into the data"""
    if data[offset] == chr(0xFF) and data[offset+1] == chr(0xFF):
        return '', offset+2 # Blank string
    length, offset = getint(data, offset, 2) # 2-byte length
    value = data[offset:offset+length]
    return value, (offset + length)

def process_mbdb_file(filename):
    mbdb = {} # Map offset of info in this file => file info
    data = open(filename).read()
    if data[0:4] != "mbdb": raise Exception("This does not look like an MBDB file")
    offset = 4
    offset = offset + 2 # value x05 x00, not sure what this is
    while offset < len(data):
        fileinfo = {}
        fileinfo['start_offset'] = offset
        fileinfo['domain'], offset = getstring(data, offset)
        fileinfo['filename'], offset = getstring(data, offset)
        fileinfo['linktarget'], offset = getstring(data, offset)
        fileinfo['datahash'], offset = getstring(data, offset)
        fileinfo['unknown1'], offset = getstring(data, offset)
        fileinfo['mode'], offset = getint(data, offset, 2)
        fileinfo['unknown2'], offset = getint(data, offset, 4)
        fileinfo['unknown3'], offset = getint(data, offset, 4)
        fileinfo['userid'], offset = getint(data, offset, 4)
        fileinfo['groupid'], offset = getint(data, offset, 4)
        fileinfo['mtime'], offset = getint(data, offset, 4)
        fileinfo['atime'], offset = getint(data,
answered 2010-06-28T08:05:05.783
8

This python script is awesome.

Here's my Ruby version of it (with minor improvement) and search capabilities. (for iOS 5)

# encoding: utf-8
require 'fileutils'
require 'digest/sha1'

class ManifestParser
  def initialize(mbdb_filename, verbose = false)
    @verbose = verbose
    process_mbdb_file(mbdb_filename)
  end

  # Returns the numbers of records in the Manifest files.
  def record_number
    @mbdb.size
  end

  # Returns a huge string containing the parsing of the Manifest files.
  def to_s
    s = ''
    @mbdb.each do |v|
      s += "#{fileinfo_str(v)}\n"
    end
    s
  end

  def to_file(filename)
    File.open(filename, 'w') do |f|
      @mbdb.each do |v|
        f.puts fileinfo_str(v)
      end
    end
  end

  # Copy the backup files to their real path/name.
  # * domain_match Can be a regexp to restrict the files to copy.
  # * filename_match Can be a regexp to restrict the files to copy.
  def rename_files(domain_match = nil, filename_match = nil)
    @mbdb.each do |v|
      if v[:type] == '-' # Only rename files.
        if (domain_match.nil? or v[:domain] =~ domain_match) and (filename_match.nil? or v[:filename] =~ filename_match)
          dst = "#{v[:domain]}/#{v[:filename]}"
          puts "Creating: #{dst}"
          FileUtils.mkdir_p(File.dirname(dst))
          FileUtils.cp(v[:fileID], dst)
        end
      end
    end
  end

  # Return the filename that math the given regexp.
  def search(regexp)
    result = Array.new
    @mbdb.each do |v|
      if "#{v[:domain]}::#{v[:filename]}" =~ regexp
        result << v
      end
    end
    result
  end

  private
  # Retrieve an integer (big-endian) and new offset from the current offset
  def getint(data, offset, intsize)
    value = 0
    while intsize > 0
      value = (value<<8) + data[offset].ord
      offset += 1
      intsize -= 1
    end
    return value, offset
  end

  # Retrieve a string and new offset from the current offset into the data
  def
answered 2012-02-12T22:09:38.850
4

I liked galloglas's code, and I changed the main function so that it shows a sorted list of total size by application:

verbose = True
if __name__ == '__main__':
    mbdb = process_mbdb_file("Manifest.mbdb")
    mbdx = process_mbdx_file("Manifest.mbdx")
    sizes = {}
    for offset, fileinfo in mbdb.items():
        if offset in mbdx:
            fileinfo['fileID'] = mbdx[offset]
        else:
            fileinfo['fileID'] = "<nofileID>"
            print >> sys.stderr, "No fileID found for %s" % fileinfo_str(fileinfo)
        print fileinfo_str(fileinfo, verbose)
        if (fileinfo['mode'] & 0xE000) == 0x8000:
        sizes[fileinfo['domain']]= sizes.get(fileinfo['domain'],0) + fileinfo['filelen']
    for domain in sorted(sizes, key=sizes.get):
        print "%-60s %11d (%dMB)" % (domain, sizes[domain], int(sizes[domain]/1024/1024))

That way you can figure out what application is eating all that space.

answered 2010-12-06T15:39:20.530

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