Q: Lost Password to iPhone Backup

OMG!! Thank you so much. I spent almost half an hour trying to put in my password, not knowing why it was saying 'incorrect password' (still don't know really) but after googling why it might be happening yours was the first answer I came across... fixed the problem straight away. Very grateful!!

It is definitely an old password!!! THINK HARD!

My solution and Bec the Tech: Go to Keychain Access and type in: Back up or backup

You will see iPhone Backup Password thats stored! Mine was from 2015 in my old laptop.

But go to all keychain accesses and find it! Good Luck!

What can I say? You are a genious!!!! Thank you so much for your tip. It worked :-)

For Mac users, you can try the password stored in key chain. For simple password, it only takes a few minutes to find the correct one. However, for complex ones, it would take hours even days to get the right password.

<Edited by Host>

hi whats the solution i tried all password since i was in school and yet no access

The solution has been posted dozens of times in this thread. Just read the thread. The ONLY solution is to remember the password or keep trying passwords until you find the password you set.

I used my Apple account password and that worked. I use a different password on my account today then when i created my first backup of my iphone.

So it has to be the account password to use. The problem most be the actual text that tells you what password it wants.  

Best answer!  I did a reset to my iPhone 6 to see if it would fix a problem I'm having.  I had never set a restore password and had tried all the ones I use.  I just unplugged and plugged it back in and it looked like it was syncing, but instead of backing up, it started copying everything back from the backup I had taken just before the restore.  Saved my day!!!

I finally figure this out and one or two other posters here hinted at the same thing.

A bit of history first:

I've had my iTunes account for a long time, going back 15 years. I've changed the password only three or four times. About four years ago, I changed the password to something I liked and then, for some reason, changed to to a different one. Then, I decided I wanted the old one back and was told I could not use a previously used password, which was a real pain in the butt so I had to stick with the undesirable password. Earlier this year, I was on a tech call with Apple and they told me that enough time had passed that I could reset my password to my old, desirable one and, lo and behold, it worked!

Now, to the encryption password thing: last year, when I was still using my old, undesirable password with iTunes and iCloud (same one), I decided "What the ****? I'll just check the Encryption option. It sounds like a good idea," and it required a password, so I used that old, undesirable password (which was current at the time), saved my settings and forgot about the whole thing. I was under the impression that the Encryption password was linked to my iTunes/iCloud password but it was NOT. Fast-forward to today, when I tried to use TouchCopy to copy an SMS message to my PC, it asked for that Encryption password. I used my current iTunes/iCloud password, the one I like, and it wouldn't work. I researched TouchCopy tips for the problem and they said to unlock the Encryption in iTunes. I tried to and, again, my current iTunes/iCloud password did not work. BUT I remembered that when I set up the Encryption last year, I had probably used the old, undesirable password, so I tried it and voila! It worked.

I told my wife about all this and she, being the technical expert in our household, said "Never use the Encryption option! It's an unnecessary nightmare if you ever have to turn it off and forgot your password." So, I am NOT going to use the Encryption option ever again.

Best of luck!

If you don't use the Encryption option sensitive information will not be included in the backup, such as the keychain, stored passwords, WiFi passwords and health data.

Dustin Hansen wrote:

 

After reading through 36 pages of replies... I'm still stuck and very frustrated.  I made a backup today. I was not asked for a password when creating the backup. So presumably iTunes is using some password set previously. (When I first got the phone?...) I have no idea what that password might be and do not recall every setting one.  There is nothing in Keychain Access.  I have tried every password I can think of. Apple ID, Mac login password, every 4-digit unlock code I've used for my phone, ... Nada.  Might have to use option "Set up as new iPhone" instead.  This encryption thing seems like a good idea. But given all the problems with this -- very obvious from all the people in this thread -- seems undeniable that this was poorly implemented.

To keep it simple: The backup password is the password that was entered the first time you made a backup after checked Encrypt Backup. Or that your corporate IT department set a security requirement that backups be encrypted. In either case you entered a backup password. It may have been 8 years ago if you had an iPhone then. But unless you consciously change it by clicking Change Password in iTunes, the backup password never changes. I've used the word "password" loosely; it is not actually a password, it is an encryption key. Passwords can be recovered or changed, encryption keys by their nature cannot. Even the Change Password function requires the old password to decrypt the backup, then encrypts it using the new password as the encryption key.

This is true for any encrypted media; for example, if you enable FileVault whole disk encryption on your Mac you had better remember the key, or you will never have access to your data again. Likewise for any 3rd party disk encryption products such as TrueCrypt. The whole point of encryption is to keep data safe, and if there is any back door or other means to defeat it your data is no longer safe.

There are techniques to try to find the passphrase. Start by unchecking "Encrypt Backup" and you will be prompted immediately; this can shorten the time it takes between guesses. You DO get unlimited guesses, BTW. Also, Elcomsoft makes a password cracker for iPhone backups. It uses an "educated brute force" approach, so it won't work if you are in the habit of using strong passwords, but it will find most 6 to 8 character passcodes. It is for the law enforcement market, and is priced accordingly. But they do have a trial version that will give you the first two characters of the passcode if it can crack it.

Hey Hey Hey, I Had A Same Problem I Erased My Iphone6s Then When I Plugged In Cable To Restore The Backup I Was Asked For A Password And I Didn't Know. I Tried My Iphone's Lock Code Then Apple ID Password, Default Password But It Didn't Work. Then After Few Mins I Remembered That I Changed My Apple ID's Password Once So I Tried With The Earlier Password And It Worked. I Hope It Works For You All Too. 

I'm very happy that something that has been suggested dozens of times in this thread worked for you!

Thank you. I love you