MuntashirAkon/AppManager · error · BackupException

Could not retrieve metadata from backup.

Error message

Could not retrieve metadata from backup.

What it means

In deleteBackup(), after resolving each BackupItem, its metadata is read via backupItem.getMetadata(); an IOException is rethrown as BackupException('Could not retrieve metadata from backup.', e). This means the backup directory exists but its metadata file (e.g. the .backup-metadata or versioned metadata file) is missing or unreadable.

Source

Thrown at app/src/main/java/io/github/muntashirakon/AppManager/backup/BackupManager.java:156

                    throw new BackupException("Could not get backup files.", e);
                }
            } else backupItemList = Collections.emptyList();
        } else {
            backupItemList = new ArrayList<>(options.relativeDirs.length);
            for (String relativeDir : options.relativeDirs) {
                try {
                    backupItemList.add(BackupItems.findBackupItem(relativeDir));
                } catch (IOException e) {
                    throw new BackupException("Could not get backup files.", e);
                }
            }
        }
        for (BackupItems.BackupItem backupItem : backupItemList) {
            BackupMetadataV5 metadata;
            try {
                metadata = backupItem.getMetadata();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                throw new BackupException("Could not retrieve metadata from backup.", e);
            }
            if (!backupItem.isFrozen() && !backupItem.delete()) {
                throw new BackupException("Could not delete the selected backups");
            }
            BackupUtils.deleteBackupToDbAndBroadcast(ContextUtils.getContext(), metadata);
        }
    }

    public void verify(@NonNull String relativeDir) throws BackupException {
        BackupItems.BackupItem backupItem;
        try {
            backupItem = BackupItems.findBackupItem(relativeDir);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new BackupException("Could not get backup files.", e);
        }
        try (VerifyOp restoreOp = new VerifyOp(backupItem)) {
            restoreOp.verify();
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to 0152f468fc)

Solutions

1. Inspect the backup directory for the metadata file and restore it from a full copy of the backup.
2. If metadata is unrecoverable, delete the directory manually (file manager/root) instead of via deleteBackup(), then prune the DB entry.
3. Re-run the backup to regenerate a valid directory, then delete it cleanly.
4. Catch BackupException and check getCause() to identify the corrupt path.

Example fix

// before
metadata = backupItem.getMetadata(); // throws if metadata file missing
// after
try {
    metadata = backupItem.getMetadata();
} catch (IOException e) {
    // fall back to manual removal
    new File(backupRoot, relativeDir).deleteRecursively();
    return;
}

File meta = new File(backupRoot, relDir, ".backup-metadata"); // version-appropriate name
if (!meta.exists()) {
    throw new IllegalStateException("Metadata missing for " + relDir);
}

boolean hasMetadata(String relDir) {
    File d = new File(backupRoot, relDir);
    return d.isDirectory() && Objects.requireNonNull(d.list()).length > 1;
}

try {
    manager.deleteBackup(options);
} catch (BackupException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().contains("metadata")) {
        // metadata corrupt: remove dir manually + prune DB
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: deleteBackup() on a backup directory whose metadata file is absent, corrupted, or on unreadable storage — thrown from the getMetadata() call in the delete loop.

Common situations: Partial/aborted backup leaves a directory without metadata; cleaner apps deleted the metadata file; corrupted external storage; manually copied backup dirs that lost hidden/metadata files.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to read file", EACCES, ENOENT and "could not read <path>" errors: when a program can't read a file from disk — this error's family across 49 libraries.

Related errors

• Failed to write metadata.
• Failed to write metadata.
• Could not get backup files.
• Could not delete the selected backups
• Failed to setup metadata.

AI-assisted analysis of MuntashirAkon/AppManager@0152f468fc (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/627b8d4c5aff23ae. Report an issue: GitHub.