MySQL Error – 'No more room in index file' and its Repair!


Databases are collection of tables that store data’s and so as MySQL tables which is very critical component and store valuable data’s. But many times the information stored in the tables becomes unreadable indicating that table is corrupted.


There are many ways by which the tables in the MySQL gets corrupted and among them the tables primarily gets corrupted due to improper locking of tables while executing the queries, file system issues, application bugs, disk errors etc. These issues can make the file systems un-mountable and data’s inaccessible.


In order to resolve this issue user need to restore the data from the recent MySQL backup which will effectively resolve the errors. But if the backup is damaged, inconsistent, non-existent or incomplete then MySQL Repair is the perfect solution for complete database restoration and repair.


Consider a scenario in which user tries to open and access the MySQL database tables and it fails to open it, in addition an error message will be received –

"No more room in the index file"

Soon after the error will be flashed, the data stored in the table becomes inaccessible, and the same error message will be flashed again and again. This error message clearly indicates that the table user is looking for is corrupted and damaged. To resolve this problem first user need to check the consistency and corruption level of the database and for that use either of the following commands –


  • CHECK TABLE tablename.
  • myisamchk *.MYI.
  • mysqlcheck *.MYI.

If the following commands report corruption and damage in the table then use ‘repair’ command with valid option to repair the corruption – ‘Repair Table tablename’. But if the corruption issues are received continuously then the only way to get over this problem is to use any third party software. Delete the damaged and corrupted tables and use the latest backup. But if the backup is inconsistent, unavailable and incomplete then try to recover MySQL database using proper recovery solution. This will effectively keep your database intact and will avoid data loss.