Encrypt Backup Password Problem

Hard to say. The backup may be corrupted or you may have chosen the wrong password from the keychain. Normally if a password is on the Keychain iTunes will recall it directly, you won't have to manually enter it.

Have you tried restarting your computer?

as always the best solution is to restart. now it works again. thanks

it was so strange, he does indeed automatically select the password (iphone backup from keychain), and then said it was wrong....

have a good weekend

This exact same thing happened to me, except restarting the computer did not help 😟

I had it saved in keychain and now my keychain password is wrong. I looked through my keychain and I see my ipad password, etc...

Anyway, I think it is a really buggy implementation that the only solution is to reformat your device and lose access to all messages, settings, etc. in order to turn off encrypted backups and set a new password. To the rest of the world, encrypt backups means encrypt the actual backups, not lock your device from ever saving an unencrypted backup again without reformating everything and losing everything first...

It wouldn't have been an issue if "encrypt backup" meant what it does to the rest of the world and computer industry... I would have just unchecked it, lost past backups, and went on my merry way starting over. Now i am faced with losing every text message, setting, and so much without a big PITA to fix this just to change one little flag on the phone from encrypt to don't.

This is a really screwy implementation of the words "encrypt backup". It DOES NOT MEAN lock you from ever creating a useful backup again without reformatting your device and losing every setting or text message you ever saved.

Technically, it's just one little flag on the phone that only j*b*krs can access, and my posts got deleted and I got temporarily banned for even mentioning it...

This is false. You don't know how it happened. Computers and programs make mistakes and have bugs too.

I write everything down religously, and use ikeychain a lot.

All of a sudden my phone backup restore didn't accept the password my mac popped up with, and none of the others saved in my keychain or my password list did either. I am smart enough to go through my own keychains on my phone and mac and try them all...

Something bad happened with Apple's implementation, and because of a screwey implementation of what "encrypt backups mean", it won't even let me uncheck future backups from being encrypted with a false password and now I'm faced with losing everything now without manually going through everything on my phone saved for years I need to manually try to preserve now just to make useful backups again...

Obvously if I can turn off "find my iphone" and undo the lock to reformat, have full access to the unlocked phone and extra security pin, own the computer it's authorized to synch to, etc, I am fully qualified owner of this device. Apple just won't let me change one tiny flag on the phone that only j*b*krs can access to make a useful backup until I wipe out everything completely from a reformat. it's a half**** implemenation of what the words "encrypt backup" mean.

Come on apple. Man up. You're better than this. I'm one of your biggest fans, and I'd hate to explain this to the haters or even my mom I sold on you...

<Edited by Host>

It doesn't work like that. First they have to also own the computer you synch to in order to move the synch to another computer and have to know the itunes password to reformat it, the "alternative solution" anyway...

In real world, if you have the phone unlock code, security pin, password for the computer it synchs to, itunes password, etc., it's your phone.

Please do not make rationalizations for a buggy implemenation of what the words "encyrpt backup" mean. It's beneath you and apple.

I also know I didn't set it to a 4 digit pin which is what my keychain is trying to pull up now, which is obviously incorrect...

do you still have the Elcomsoft Phone Password Breaker if you do can you help me to find my password so i can change it then remove the settings please i need help

I dont know if it will help anyone but I took a suggestion from one of the earlier posts (sorry I cannot point at correct one at the minute) but basically said something along the lines of unhooking your USB cable and trying a to do a backup then reconnecting to iTunes and trying again. I did something slightly different and worked perfectly. I hooked up my iPhone to my macbook pro (tethered) and did a full back up with "encrypt iPhone backup" still selected since I could not deselect it with the supposedly wrong password. Once I was done with the full backup, I closed down iTunes completely. Opened it back up (still tethered), clicked off the "encrypt iPhone backup" and used the password that I know I used for everything and turned off encryption no problem. I think this update issue is related to the most recent iTunes update either 11.2.1 or 11.2.2 (sorry if thats been mentioned before) but it seems it got some info crossed and was trying to pull the wrong password until you tether your iPhone, back it up and make your computer remember its iTunes info correctly. Once I did all the above, everything is back and funcitoning perfectly. Hope this helps someone, worked good for me by trial and error pretty much.

Thanks for posting this. If it happens again I will try this.

I ended up wiping everything out, all my messages and everything not "clouded" just to get backups again 😟

FYI to those saying it's your own fault for forgetting your password I use keychain and something got crossed replacing what I had for a 4 digit PIN, if it was my original I don't remember that, only my current passwords..

I still can't believe this poor implementation where "encrypt backup" also means "lock your phone from ever creating useful backups again" to apple engineers.. Anyway thanks so much for posting this and I will try this before wiping everything out next time!

Don't be surprised if it happened again after 10.9.4. I had mine fixed, turned it off, no problem after doing my last fix. Now it has happened again because for some reason I decided to turn encrypt back on again, now I'm having the same issue. I am currently trying to fix it the same way and if it works perfectly again I will edit this post and let you know.

Process Done: Once again guys, worked perfect. Tether your phone, Full backup with "Encrypt iPhone Backup" still selected. Once done, close down iTunes (completely, don't just minimize). Open iTunes again, go to back up screen, deselect "Encrypt iPhone Backup" and VIOLA! iPhone does what it needs to and encryption is gone!

Thanks guys! Should fix anytime you come into this issue!

Same problem here. Tried everything mentioned here and still not able to deselect encryption.

My solution: avoid ever having to restore my iPad.

My advice: DO NOT select Encrypt Local BackUp.

My hope: that by backing up to iCloud and NOT my local computer will mean if the worst happens, I can restore from there.

Hmmm... odd. No idea what happened but after trying to back up to iCloud, iTunes asked for me to enter my passcode on the iPad so it could complete the task.

This I did. And just for a laugh, I went to deselect the encryption option, tried the first password to enter my head (one of many I'd already tried) and bingo!

It seems to have worked.

Why, I know not.

I can't believe this has been a problem for so long and Apple haven't fixed it!!

I just had this problem.

The password which worked for me was (I think) the first long-form password (i.e. not the four digit passcode) which I ever used on that iPhone. You might be in trouble if you don't keep a record of your old passwords!

Good luck!

I had the same problem. Solved it by changing the password. After I changed the password to something new, the backup worked without prompting for set a new password. 🙂

Make sure your iPhone or iPad is connected via USB before checking "encrypt backup." I was having the same problem until I tried plugging in my iPhone first. Then it worked.