buckeye89

Q: Lost Password to iPhone Backup

Actually, I don't recall ever setting one.  Now however, I have a new phone and cannot restore it from the backup, as there it prompts me for a password I don't have!  I tried all the ones I've used for my iPhone and pretty much every other one of which I can think, all to no avail.  I need the data in the back up.  But I can't get to it.  I've already tried the keychain route to no avail.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  I have a MacBook Pro running Mac OSX 10.6.7 and iTunes 10.2.2.  The iPhone is an iPhone 4.

iPhone 4

Posted on May 31, 2011 9:28 PM

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Q: Lost Password to iPhone Backup

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  • by deconner12,

    deconner12 deconner12 Sep 11, 2016 12:12 AM in response to buckeye89
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 11, 2016 12:12 AM in response to buckeye89

    Ok so this was quite possibly the most frustrating thing to happen to me in the last 11 minutes. Essentially, after sitting here and reading through this thread for about an hour I finally got it to work.

    First, your iPhone has to be unlocked. From there, if you don't know your password (or never set one, like most people here), you just have to type in every password you have ever used for iTunes or any apple account, any password you have ever used as your computer login if you have a mac, and any passcode you have ever used with your phone. I finally got my stupid phone restored after I typed in the password I used for my Apple account about 2 years ago (when I first got this phone).

    So it appears the best solution to this problem is to sit there with your iPhone unlocked and type in literally every single last password/passcode you ever remember using and hope that list is short (though starting with passwords/passcodes you used when you first got the device probably gives you a better shot).

  • by veronicabp,

    veronicabp veronicabp Sep 11, 2016 3:56 PM in response to deconner12
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 11, 2016 3:56 PM in response to deconner12

    I agree with this assessment.  My password turned out to be my phone's code.  I didn't think they'd be the same because "password" to me suggests something different (and longer) than "code," and also because the field to input the password looks like a type-field, rather than a number-pad.  I expected it to be something long and alpha-numeric.

     

    I second deconner12's recommendation, and I would add that the best place to start is the phone's "unlock code."

  • by fotomarc,

    fotomarc fotomarc Sep 12, 2016 1:59 PM in response to buckeye89
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Sep 12, 2016 1:59 PM in response to buckeye89

    I spent all night trying to find my iPhone backup password, which I had forgotten! Everyone does have one, if you have clicked on "Encrypt iPhone backup". The password is NOT your computer password, or your iPhone login password, unless of course you have used the same one! I save my passwords in a locked disk image and did manage to find it the next morning.

     

    Apple Support was less than helpful. They told me to go to AppleId.com and change my password there. This is not your iPhone backup password. Unless you have used the same one! It's your Apple ID password.

     

    When you plug your iPhone in the computer select your iPhone. There is an option there to Encrypt iPhone backup. Make sure you save your password, or use one that is common. You can also change it there, to one that is easy enough to remember.

     

    If you do have an iCloud backup you can restore it from there. It doesn't ask for the iPhone backup password! But not all your Apps you have previously downloaded will load up straight away. You will also loose data from your Apps that you can't get back. iCloud doesn't backup all the Data in the Apps! The only way to get the data back is to restore from your iTunes backup!

     

    I recommend everyone to save their passwords in a locked disk image, or keep them somewhere safe. You can also find your passwords in Keychain access in the utility folder. But I couldn't see any there for my iPhone backup!

     

    If you back up your computer to an Airport utility with TimeMachine, there is also an encryption password. If you forget that, it's also difficult to retrieve, but there is a way to change it. Unlike your iPhone!

     

    Hope this helps someone else!

     

    Screen Shot 2016-09-13 at 6.30.53 AM.png

  • by fotomarc,

    fotomarc fotomarc Sep 12, 2016 3:13 PM in response to fotomarc
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Sep 12, 2016 3:13 PM in response to fotomarc

    There is an option to save this password to your keychain as well. Which makes it a **** of a lot easier to find it later, for people who forget.

    Screen Shot 2016-09-13 at 8.10.31 AM.png

  • by larijer,

    larijer larijer Sep 12, 2016 10:09 PM in response to KiltedTim
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Sep 12, 2016 10:09 PM in response to KiltedTim

    rude

  • by eherb,

    eherb eherb Sep 16, 2016 1:51 PM in response to buckeye89
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 16, 2016 1:51 PM in response to buckeye89

    I have Windows 10 and couldn't restore a back up of a 6 to a new 7 plus. I tried all my Apple passwords and they failed. When I used my Windows 10 password it worked. Thanks for all the help from others.

  • by jakeyfroushan,

    jakeyfroushan jakeyfroushan Sep 16, 2016 4:17 PM in response to buckeye89
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 16, 2016 4:17 PM in response to buckeye89

    So I just figured it out. If you have sensitive data in your phone that will end up getting backed up by iTunes, it won't set a password for the backup just yet. What it does is that it will ask you for your iCloud password, and then it will ask you if you want to Encrypt it or not. If you choose no, then no more password hassle, but it will not restore any account passwords, health, home kit, and other sensitive backed up data. If you choose to encrypt your backup, it will ask you for a new password of your choice. Always remember the password you set because without it, not even with your iCloud password will you be able to access that backup.

  • by anamaria.neagoe,

    anamaria.neagoe anamaria.neagoe Sep 17, 2016 5:07 AM in response to buckeye89
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 17, 2016 5:07 AM in response to buckeye89
    • Go to the "keychain access " app.
    • Under "Keychains" select "Login"
    • Under "Category" select "Passwords"
    • Scroll down and look for "iPhone Backup"
    • Double click and a window opens
    • Check the box that says "Show Password"
    • A window pops up asking for your OS X account password
    • Type in that password and voila!
  • by Dnlyong,

    Dnlyong Dnlyong Sep 17, 2016 5:59 AM in response to buckeye89
    Level 2 (239 points)
    iPhone
    Sep 17, 2016 5:59 AM in response to buckeye89

    If that's an iTunes backup, you might have encrypted your backup when you backed it up.

     

    If you want to set or remove encryption, or if you forgot your encryption password:

    About encrypted backups in iTunes - Apple Support

     

    If that's an iCloud backup, there isn't a password, other than your Apple ID and sometimes a passcode of your previous device.

  • by fotomarc,

    fotomarc fotomarc Sep 17, 2016 6:39 AM in response to anamaria.neagoe
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Sep 17, 2016 6:39 AM in response to anamaria.neagoe

    That only works if you have saved your password in the keychain.

  • by ch4ran,

    ch4ran ch4ran Sep 17, 2016 2:54 PM in response to buckeye89
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Sep 17, 2016 2:54 PM in response to buckeye89

    Hi, I know its an old tread, but I am having this problem. I don't remember putting a password and now i am trying to move my data to a new phone. Is there no way to delete the encrypted back up for my old phone and make a new back up to which I can connect my new phone to?

  • by XorMalice,

    XorMalice XorMalice Sep 19, 2016 7:38 AM in response to ch4ran
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 19, 2016 7:38 AM in response to ch4ran

    > Is there no way to delete the encrypted back up for my old phone and make a new back

     

     

    I'm pretty sure you cannot.  My understanding- not perfect by any means- is that once you set a password, the iPhone will use that password (or something derived from it) to encrypt data from that point forward.  This was not at all obvious to me, and I was surprised when I backed up on a new PC that everything was encrypted.

     

    What worked for me was what worked for others in the thread- trying passwords until one worked.  In my case, I had apparently made a typo on the iPhone backup (the iPad worked fine), and once I guessed that I was good to go.

     

    I know when I first pressed that checkbox in itunes, it was because I wanted the other data backed up.  I assumed that this backup change would by applied by iTunes as it saved the data, and that if I went to a new iTunes (or unclicked the checkbox) that subsequent backups would not be encrypted- at no point did I think it was a setting on the iPhone.  That would be a perfectly reasonable way to handle this- but it is not what is going on.

     

    It sounds like the actual way around this if you have access to your working phone (but really can't remember your password- definitely try all the things you MIGHT have used, such as apple ID, apple ID password, any PIN you may ever have used, any passcode you may ever have used, your email password, your local computer password, your dog's name, whatever).  If you are sure none of them work, then it seems like you can extract as much as you care about (pictures, etc) directly, and then back up to iCloud, and then restore the new phone from the iCloud backup.  I don't know if this allows your new phone to begin making unencrypted backups again.

     

    As someone who deals with encrypted junk pretty often, this is a pretty surprising user experience.  I would normally expect a way to change this setting from the phone itself, unless all the data on the phone is encrypted with this password (which it really can't be, given that you don't ever need the password to turn the phone on, etc.).

     

    There are also probably local iTunes bugs that are brought up in this thread, but no one can reproduce and they sound like the rest of it.  When I went to "change password" on my iPad, and typed in the password, it gave me an error.  When I clicked "unencrypt" by deselecting the checkbox, it started working right away.  Did I type it wrong the first time?  Maybe, or maybe it had a problem with the "change password" option that it didn't have with the "deselect encryption checkbox".  Once I deselected it, it claimed it was working on a backup that would take 8 hours.  I eventually stopped it, and then the checkbox was clear.  I pressed the manual backup button, and that made a manual backup in plaintext.  So, at least something in there was some kind of user interface bug, but who knows if I can ever reproduce it.

     

    Anyway, at least Apple's security model is probably secure.  So there's that.

  • by LauraNoEsta,

    LauraNoEsta LauraNoEsta Sep 21, 2016 9:09 AM in response to John Dorsey
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 21, 2016 9:09 AM in response to John Dorsey

    YES!! I've been working on this for a few hours now and your suggestion is what did it!! Thank you so much for posting this 4 years ago! LOL

  • by IndianJugaad,

    IndianJugaad IndianJugaad Sep 21, 2016 4:22 PM in response to buckeye89
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 21, 2016 4:22 PM in response to buckeye89

    Nothing bigge guys. Put in the password to your computers. Thats what its asking.

  • by hannahfromquezon city,

    hannahfromquezon city hannahfromquezon city Sep 21, 2016 9:46 PM in response to Jessi Hance
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 21, 2016 9:46 PM in response to Jessi Hance

    Super helpful thank you!!

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