iphone iTunes sync – recover your Library Persistent ID
Usefull for example, if you…
- have formated your pc without backup of your iTunes folder
- want to sync your iphone to an second pc
- don´t have jailbreak on your iphone
Follow this easy steps and you will have your Libarary ID again, and that even if you dont have jailbreak on your phone!
1. Connect your iPhone to your PC with USB and start iTunes
2. Your phone should not appear in your iTunes. Rightclick your device and select “Backup” (yes this will work without deleting your phone contents)
3. After the backup is done, navigate in your explorer/finder to:
Windows: %appdata%\apple computer\mobilesync\backup\<unique string>\
OS X: $HOME/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/<unique string>/
-> Windows: simply copy+paste the above path into the explorer
-> OS X: $HOME is your Homedirectory. Then click through the folders
–> Both: “unique string” is random string that itunes creates. there should only be one directory. If there are more, simply use that one with the latest date string
4. In the folder you will find an Info.plist, that contains the necessary data. But not in an easy readable format. Because of this you can use this tool, to decode it.
That was already all you have to do. If you dont know what to do with the id, I will write another howto later. But for this you can already find many resources via google.
One limit has this thing: The Option for encrypting your iTunes Backup must be turned off!
If it does NOT work:
- Get somehow in contact with me (email, contactform, comments)
- Send me (or upload it somehwere) the Info.plist file. I will of course delete it, after I found the failure
If it works:
- Please leave a short comment that it did 
December 22nd, 2012 - 09:56
For anyone who has iPhone 5 and doesn’t have the old library ID, you can find the info.plist file created with iTunes backup in:
My computer/Username(Your computer name, for example Awesome Girl)/AppData(You should’ve enabled viewing hidden files and folders before)/Roaming/Apple Computer/MobileSync/Backup
December 26th, 2012 - 01:07
If it’s related to the windows version, in Win7 you can find info.plist in:
My computer/Username(Your computer name, for example Awesome Girl)/AppData(You should’ve enabled viewing hidden files and folders before)/Roaming/Apple Computer/MobileSync/Backup
January 29th, 2013 - 19:46
My I-Phone goes through the update but Finder returns no results for the file.
February 9th, 2013 - 21:15
It is still located in the folder, which I pointed out in the articel.
February 24th, 2013 - 02:45
Any ideas on how to find the ID with iTunes 11? Synced the iPhone but can’t find the ID in my Library/App Support/Mobile Sync folder..
Thanks very much
February 24th, 2013 - 15:53
I just had a look with my iTunes 11 Installation. I still have the file located in that place.
Perhaps you only backup to iCloud? If yes force an local backup, and have a look again.
April 10th, 2013 - 03:44
When you try to replace the old Library Persistent ID with the new one, it restore back to the old ID. To fix that (if anyone has a problem), do this:
[Before doing anything, backup iTunes Library Extras, iTunes Library Genius, iTunes Library, and iTunes Music Library.]
-Open iTunes Music Library.xml with notepad and replace the Library Persistent ID.
-Save it.
-Open iTunes Library.itl with notepad. Don’t do anything.
-Save it. That will corrupt it, which will force iTunes to rebuild the iTunes Library.itl with the Library Persistent ID that is stored in the iTunes Music Library.xml.
April 22nd, 2013 - 19:38
So I’ve done exactly what you said but I can’t find a MobileSync folder at all. This is super annoying. I haven’t been able to do anything with my iPhone for almost a year now because of the erase situation and it’s starting to get to the point that I might as well erase it and start over. Is there a way for me to find where the backup went? Cause it wasn’t where you said (and it’s not on icloud cause I forced it to backup on my computer)
April 28th, 2013 - 09:28
What operating system do you use?