sqlite file is encrypted or is not a database iPhone sms.db

Question

I have the sms.db sqlite database that i acquired from an iphone(it was not encrypted). I m trying to use the sqlite command line tool(version 3.7.12) to get look at what is inside the database.

For that I do

sqlite3 sms.db

Which takes me to the sqlite prompt after which I try to look at the tables(or execute any other command on the db) by doing

.tables 

On doing this I get this error

Error: file is encrypted or is not a database

I m pretty sure its not encrypted and that it is a db file. Am I doing something wrong? Please help!

Answer 1

If you have the error sqlite file is encrypted or is not a database, and you know that the file is not encrypted, chances are that your version of SQL Library Database is out of date. See http://www.matt.elementfx.com/forensics/index.php#manip

Answer 2

I see this is an old question, still i will answer, because I recently also had to find out how to retrieve data from a sqlite sms database. To successfully retrieve sms info in the command line tool follow these steps >

1.sqlite3 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28
2..tables
3..header on
4.select * from message

Hope this helps the developers who were also puzzled at first.

Answer 3

Ok, I ve figured the reason out. And the main issue that I was facing while opening the .db file was that in an iPhone(>3gs) while the directory structure and the metadata are not encrypted, individual files are encrypted.

So I could look at the name of the file, and its respective metadata.

I couldnt however find the data inside the file, because I hadnt decrypted the OS.