Xcode/iPhone error 0xE8000001: problem and fix

As you all probably know, I’ve written a word game for the iPhone called Word Up!

<shameless-plug>
reacquainted - 288 points
</shameless-plug>

Tonight, I started getting an error while trying to run my app from Xcode on my device (provisioned for development). The error was:

Your mobile device has encountered an unexpected error (0xE8000001)
during the install phase: Copying file.
Try disconnecting and powering off the device; then power the device
on and reconnect it.

I tried resetting the device a number of times and rebooting my MBP as well to no avail. It was beginning to look like I was going to have to do the dreaded restore and then lose all the cool jailbreak stuff that I’ve become so accustomed to. And then that made me remember that because my device is jailbroken, I can ssh to it and poke around. I wondered if a previous failed copy left some garbage on the device that was causing subsequent copies to fail.

iPhone:/ root# find . -name 'Word Up*'
./private/var/mobile/Media/PublicStaging/Word Up!.app
iPhone:/ root# cd /var/mobile/Media/PublicStaging/
iPhone:/var/mobile/Media/PublicStaging root# rm -rf Word\ Up\!.app/

Bingo. That fixed it. So if you hit this problem and you happen to have access to the filesystem of the device, give it a shot.

15 thoughts on “Xcode/iPhone error 0xE8000001: problem and fix

  1. Thanks! )

    It’s worth to check if the app is not visible among installed apps in XCode’s Organizer and remove/uninstall it from there before deleting it first. But I only found after I deleted it manually 😉

  2. eh, I tried that and I went from receiving error 0xE8000001 to receiving error 0xE800002E

  3. Just hit the same thing. I had rebooted the phone after a different 0xE8 error and discovered the app was still on the phone. I deleted it through the usual means (the X button) and while I was doing that the phone crashed. When it came back up I couldn’t run anymore and was getting the 0xE8000001 Copying file error. This fixed it! Thanks!

  4. is it working on 3g 3.0 os cause im getting the same error and im not able to install any apps with itunes 8.2

  5. Marc, Your comments seem to be the only practical approach to this error code that I have read. However I am a newby and not an IT guru so implementing your fix is foreign. So not sure how to begin fixing – do I copy past your commands into the CMD prompt or via explorer.

    Kind regards Kevin

  6. Powering off worked. I have been searching the knowledge base for “I TUNES CANNOT READ IPHONE” but this sol worked.

  7. i am a new user of iphone ..
    i have done shh but after that i cant understand what to do plzz help !!!

  8. i’ve done same shutoff but again its showing same error and also its not taking charge from AC . direct power plug.
    pls help me
    Thanks
    Bharat

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