Best practice to recover SQLite database files

Read time 6 minutes

Database corruption has become one of the common scenarios in today’s fast-paced world. It can occur on any platform, device, or file. Just like other platforms, the SQLite database is also prone to corruption and errors that make the database inaccessible. And recovering SQLite database after corruption is a little challenging for every user, as there are not many options available.

In this blog, we will cover all the appropriate methods to recover the SQLite database after corruption. But, before that, it’s crucial to know some essential points about the SQLite database.

Important points to remember about SQLite database

Before jumping into the solutions, it’s great to have an idea about the SQLite database so that you can recover the data carefully.

• SQLite provides a relational database management system, and Lite refers to lightweight in terms of resource requirements, configuration, and database management
• It is one of the widely available services in the world
• Easily incorporated in the SQL database engine without any single server system
• Reads and write data to ordinary disk files that allows you to recover data from backup to maintain business continuity

Reasons behind SQLite database corruption

SQLite database gets corrupt for various reasons, such as application crash, power failure during a transaction, or an operating system crash. However, the most prominent reasons behind its corruption include:

• When one of the files get overwritten by a rogue thread or process
• Using a file descriptor continuously even after closing it
• Swapping journal files between two different databases, overwriting a journal file, or moving a journal file without copying the journal
• Having broken or missing lock implementations in the filesystems
• Using different locking protocols that might be inappropriate for file systems
• Due to disk drive and flash memory failure

How to recover corrupt SQLite database?

The only possible manual method to recover a corrupt SQLite database is using the open-source DB Browser for SQL. DB Browser is an open-source utility that allows you to fix minor errors in the SQLite database files. You can follow the below steps to use the tool:

• Download and install the DB browser on your system and launch the tool for SQL Lite.
• Now, click Execute SQL tab to run the query in your database
• In the given field, type PRAGMA integrity_check and click the Play button
• Go to the File section and click Export and select the Database to SQL file option
• Choose the items that you want to export and click OK to start the process
• The process will take some time to export the database files
• Once you export the data, you import it back from the File section

The above method helps recover data from corrupt SQLite, but it doesn’t always provide accurate results. So, how can you recover your highly damaged SQLite database? Well, there is an automated solution that can fix your problems quickly – Kernel SQLite Database Recovery.

Kernel SQLite Database Recovery

Kernel SQLite Database Recovery is an excellent tool that can help you repair corrupt and inaccessible SQLite server database files. It can recover all the database objects, such as rules, triggers, functions, deleted records, and more. Besides, the tool is designed with advanced algorithms that offer a smooth recovery of even large-sized and ransomware-affected SQLite database files.

Let’s look at the working process of the Kernel SQLite Database Recovery tool.

• Download and configure Kernel SQLite Database recovery on your system.
• Start the tool, and the home screen will appear on the screen.
• Click Open to select the corrupt .db file you want to repair, and click Recover.
• The tool will start retrieving the database information from the file.
• Once the file is scanned, it will display all the data on the screen. You can preview all the data items.
• Now, to save the recovered file to your system, click Save, and the Output Folder pop-up appears on the screen.
• Select the desired location to save the file and click Ok.
• The tool will start saving the file to the desired location.
• Once the database is recovered and saved on your system, a notification will appear on the screen confirming the same.

Thus, you can easily save the repaired SQLite database files to your system with the Kernel SQLite Database Recovery tool in a few simple steps.

Conclusion

Recovering corrupt or damaged SQLite Database files is a little challenging, but it’s necessary to recover your critical data. In this article, we mentioned the unique ways to recover your corrupt SQLite database files. Besides, we also mentioned an automated tool- Kernel SQLite Database Recovery tool that can quickly recover corrupt SQLite database files.