Encrypt Backup Password Problem

Thanks alot Mick_n, I have a corporate laptop and iphone, i backup my phone daily and latest ios 7.1 screw up everything on my phone so when i tried to restore was asking me for the password. I spent all day trying passwords, nothing work. I lost all my contacts, mails, calendars .....

I tried 1234 and now its restoring. This is suck a BS. No way to recover your password but 1234 works.

BRAVO APPLE. We just bought 30k iphones from u, what a waste of money.

Which means that "1234" was the password. As you scan back through this tread you will see dozens of DIFFERENT passwords that worked, all of them known to the phone owner. Either you entered it or your Exchange Admin created it. Apple provided strong protection for your (and your company's) data. Protection comes with responsibility.

I did not check the encryption option.

As I said, i bacup my iphone before upgrading to 7.1. 1234 works but now it doesnt want to restore my corporate settings, only apple standard ios and apps.

Basically everything that is custom made for us , it wont restore from backup. Looks like im not the only one with the same problem, thank you apple. FML.

That has nothing to do with Apple. That was a decision of your IT department when they configured the profile plugin.

Like most other contributors I've been hit by this password request on an i-phone4 back-up. I resorted to trial-and-error, and the password that worked was one of my original passwords, nothing to do with the 4 digit phone lock password. In common with many on here, I didn't keep a written record. I can't vouch for whether the password was my original Apple i-d password, but it could well have been. It certainly is NOT the current one.

Yes, the itunes password worked for me.

This is so annoying! I restored a backup not that long ago and managed input the correct password but now it's not working. I've restored an old backup and the password works but when trying the most recent one I am shut out again. I have defitiely not changed the password.

true, I just entered 4 digits number instead of password and it works. Even there were no need to unplug and restart my iPhone. iTunes somehow does not accept passwords, only 4 digits

So much for that company that makes everything simple. They screwed up something that could be so simple.

I have only 2 appled IDs, none of them worked, my 4 digit pass code didn't work either. The stupid thing won't even let you do a fresh back up without the encryption. It's hard to believe that after all these years, Apple still hasn't simplified this thing. Very frustrating.

Izurico wrote:

So much for that company that makes everything simple. They screwed up something that could be so simple.

I have only 2 appled IDs, none of them worked, my 4 digit pass code didn't work either. The stupid thing won't even let you do a fresh back up without the encryption.

You haven't thought this through. Someone steals your phone. It's secure, because you have a passcode lock. So they turn off backup encryption, back it up to their computer, and suddenly all of your supposedly private information is now in the hands of the thief.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

Izurico wrote:

So much for that company that makes everything simple. They screwed up something that could be so simple.

I have only 2 appled IDs, none of them worked, my 4 digit pass code didn't work either. The stupid thing won't even let you do a fresh back up without the encryption.

You haven't thought this through. Someone steals your phone. It's secure, because you have a passcode lock. So they turn off backup encryption, back it up to their computer, and suddenly all of your supposedly private information is now in the hands of the thief.

Oh yes, I thought it through. Perhaps, you didn't understand me. If someone knows the passcode and Apple ID of a particlular phone, chances are that the person is not a thief. Just saying. Furthermore, If an apple ID is good enough to be used for purchases and whatnot, why can't it be used to access backup?

I didn't create an encryption password, but it's asking me to provide one. I've checked all my apple ids and passcode, no luck. This thing is a hot mess.

There are only 2 ways an encryption password can be created:

1. You created it. Perhaps accidentally.
2. If you have a corporate MS Exchange email account on the phone your account administrator installed a security profile on your phone that required the backup to be encrypted.

In either case a backup password had to be entered the first time the phone was backed up after enabling encryption. It actually has to be entered twice for confirmation. After that, even 5 years later, you will not be asked for it again until you want to restore the backup.

The backup password is not your Apple ID password, unless that's the password you entered. And it doesn't have to be a password that you have ever used anywhere else (although most people use a familiar password) or that you use currently. It could be one that you used 5 years ago.

It's also ludicrous to suggest that iTunes "chose" one of your other passwords. That's not how password protection works on a computer. If you enter a password into an app ONLY that app knows the password. I'm including Windows or OS X as an app, BTW. Most apps that have passwords, and all operating systems, do not store the password anywhere. They encypher it using an irreversible process and store the encyphered version. So no other program, even malware, can retrieve it. And certainly not iTunes.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

There are only 2 ways an encryption password can be created:

1. You created it. Perhaps accidentally.
2. If you have a corporate MS Exchange email account on the phone your account administrator installed a security profile on your phone that required the backup to be encrypted.

In either case a backup password had to be entered the first time the phone was backed up after enabling encryption. It actually has to be entered twice for confirmation. After that, even 5 years later, you will not be asked for it again until you want to restore the backup.

The backup password is not your Apple ID password, unless that's the password you entered. And it doesn't have to be a password that you have ever used anywhere else (although most people use a familiar password) or that you use currently. It could be one that you used 5 years ago.

It's also ludicrous to suggest that iTunes "chose" one of your other passwords. That's not how password protection works on a computer. If you enter a password into an app ONLY that app knows the password. I'm including Windows or OS X as an app, BTW. Most apps that have passwords, and all operating systems, do not store the password anywhere. They encypher it using an irreversible process and store the encyphered version. So no other program, even malware, can retrieve it. And certainly not iTunes.

You are missing point. It makes no sense to require a seperate password for something that most people would probably not use for years. I, like a lot of folks on here, don't even remember setting the password let alone remembering what the actual passward is. Why require a seperate password when we (the users) already have Apple ordained credentials that we constantly use in the company's ecosystem. Wouldn't that belie the simplicity of form and use that apple so ostensibly aspire to? This is my first time attempting to restore a phone in nearly 4 years and it's a very disappointing experience. I'm so annoyed. I'd have ordered an android phone yesterday if I wasn't so terrified of having google anywhere near my family's personal information.

Izurico wrote:

You are missing point. It makes no sense to require a seperate password for something that most people would probably not use for years. I, like a lot of folks on here, don't even remember setting the password let alone remembering what the actual passward is. Why require a seperate password when we (the users) already have Apple ordained credentials that we constantly use in the company's ecosystem. Wouldn't that belie the simplicity of form and use that apple so ostensibly aspire to? This is my first time attempting to restore a phone in nearly 4 years and it's a very disappointing experience. I'm so annoyed. I'd have ordered an android phone yesterday if I wasn't so terrified of having google anywhere near my family's personal information.

I'm not missing the point. The backup password is an encryption key, not just a password. If it used your Apple ID password at the time the encrypted backup was created and you changed your Apple ID password a month later the new Apple ID password would not work to decrypt your backup. So you would be stuck with the same problem.

The other factor is that iTunes DOESN'T KNOW your Apple ID password to use it to encrypt the backup. It is only stored in its encyphered form on Apple's servers. When iTunes asks for your Apple ID password it doesn't validate it; iTunes sends it to Apple's servers for validation.

hi,

i created a password to encrypt the backup. Also i stored the password in my keychain.

When i look it up and copy the password, itunes STILL gives me the sign that the password is wrong!!!!

REALLY FRUSTRATING

what happened here?