Problem

‘Database image is malformed’ errors can occur if the underlying database has been corrupted. This can happen if the drive is somehow shut down during a database operation or if a low level kernel level process is interfering with SQL operations (this has been observed with SpyCatcher by Tenebril).

Solution

On MediaMonkey 5 and newer, first try File > Manage database and select Rebuild database and let it attempt to repair your database.

If you’re on MediaMonkey 4 and older or Rebuild Database didn’t fix the issue, you’ll need to manually delete the corrupt database file (mm5.db/mm.db) so that a new one will be created on MediaMonkey start. This will result in the loss of your MediaMonkey Library (including Playlists and Play History). The MediaMonkey for Windows database is stored as described at: KB: Modifying the MediaMonkey database and settings files / changing the default database location

Prevention

To change the database robustness see: KB: Configure Database Performance / Robustness

MediaMonkey 5 and newer can be set to automatically create backups of the database. This would allow you to revert to an older copy (depending on how far your backups are set to go back) before the database became malformed. For backup of the database see: KB: How to Backup and Recover a MediaMonkey Library

Recovery

If you enabled Backups on MediaMonkey for Windows 5 or newer you can try to see if there is an uncorrupted backup you can recover.

In MediaMonkey for Windows 4, if you don’t have a working backup of the database you can try to use a Third Party Addon like the Restore/Synchronize Database Addon, which may be able to import information from a corrupt database.