Encrypt Backup Password Problem

Problem: Had the same problem.

Resolution:
Unplug USB cable from iPhone.
Hold down the center button for about 25 seconds or until the phone went blank.
Plug the USB cable in.
Go to iTunes.
Right click on your device(iphone nick name) and select Restore from backup.
Use 4 DIGITS number key NOT iTunes password. Go through all your number and one will work. Yes I know, is confusing, Apple says password but it is actually a passkey(4 digit number)!

If all the above don't work, create a new iphone object and restore from previous backup.

Hope this will help.
Apple need to change its wording!

Yep same problem here. I have my password - stored in keychain - iTunes says it's incorrect. I've tried loading pw manually, same results. What good's a backup if you can't get access to it?

i have the same problem too!! this problem seemed to exist way back, why isn't it fix now? i did not know i have this problem until i realise i can no longer backup my sms via tansee after setting the encrypt 😟

it cd be my own problem. i decided to be very patient today and allow iTunes to do a complete (and successful) backup, backing up takes a lot more time after enabling encrypt, and this time it recognises my password!

Me too. Forgot password for encryption on iPhone.

iPhone SW 3.1.3

Can't figure out how to turn off encrypt checkbox, even after deleting backups. Stumped.

The iphone backup has a bug, I can say this because I have days trying to access the backup of my iphone and every time it ask me for a password, because I don't remember typing a password I try a lot of different passwords and they don't work, because the file is over 1.2GB of size I have to wait more than 20 minutes between asking another time for the correct password, I found a great utility to speed things and to try a lot of passwords in seconds without waiting minutes for the correct one. The utility I try was this one only works with windows: ( Elcomsoft iPhone Password Breaker ) http://www.elcomsoft.com/eppb.html

With this nice utility you can try all the passwords you have and write them in a txt file and avoid waiting minutes for the correct password.

I tested this utility with another iphone encrypted backup and it worked correctly, but with my iphone backup no password worked, after reading a lot of pages about this I got today to this discussion and find the message that Namib Stan The Man wrote: He says that you have to unplug your iphone then hold down the center button for about 25 seconds until the phone went blank, and after doing this things I never got asked for a password on the backup file of my iphone.

There is a bug on the iphone backup that sometimes ask you for a password even you have never typed one, I hope that Apple finds a solution because I am sure that a lot of iphone users have this problem and they never find a solution.

If you are sure that you have type a password and you can't remember try the utility I placed, if not try what Namib Stan The Man wrotes, in my case this worked because I have never been asked for the password of the encrypted backup file of the iphone.

* Other great utility that help me on this nightmare was this one: http://www.iphone-explorer.com/ with this utility I was able to restore from a backup file every time itunes don't show that option, the only thing that you need to to to be asked to restore from a backup file is to delete this directory using iphone explorer: iTunes_Control

What I have write on the post above is not 100% true, I have found that the encrypted backup that don't require the password was another one that was created on the same date.

I am trying to find more information about this issue, but what I can say at this moment is that there is no bug releated to the password of itunes.

I will keep you posted when I found a solution to the Encrypt Backup Password problem.

SUCCESS I FOUND THE PASSWORD OF THE ENCRYPTED IPHONE BACKUP. I use this utility Elcomsoft iPhone Password Breaker ) http://www.elcomsoft.com/eppb.html

Without that utility there could be impossible to find the correct password because I don't remember the exact one and if I try it directly using itunes I have to wait over 20 minutes per try, with elcomsoft utility I can try any password in seconds.

If you don't find your password try the utility from elcomsoft, type in a txt file all the passwords you can imagine you have choose for the encrypted backup and you will have success.

THANKS Elcomsoft for building this nice utility a lot of times you use utilities like this for finding your own password and not other users passwords.

THANKS TO ALL FOR WRITING ON THIS POST AND SORRY FOR SAYING THAT THE ENCRYPTED PASSWORD FILE HAS A BUG.

Anyone ever work out the answer? 😟

Hi All! I have been experiencing the same problem, and the answer is simple. The password to use is your "iTunes" account password. Not your password for the phone. Hope this works for you all. Let me know.

iTunes password doesn't work for me.

I have a documented list of the passwords I use. None of them work.

I need a way to get an unencrypted backup of my phone so that I can extract my txt messages for a legal issue I am having. Whenever I try to turn encrypt iphone backup off it asks for a password that I never set. I don't know what it is! This means I can never restore and never create a usable backup!

Can anyone help with this?

WARNING: If you encrypt an iPhone backup in iTunes and then forget your password, you will not be
able to restore from backup and your data will be unrecoverable. If you forget the password you can
continue to do backups and use the device, however you will not be able to restore the encrypted
backup to any device without the password.

If you cannot remember the password and want to start again, you will have to do a full software
restore of the device, erasing all data.

you can fix this if you want to temporarily jailbreak your phone. be forewarned: this procedure is not for the uninitiated phone user.

all your passwords are stored in a keychain database on your iPhone. if you jailbreak and install the OpenSSH package, you can open a secure shell window from your mac that allows you to run commands on your iPhone. once you've opened an SSH session with the phone, change directory to "/var/Keychains". in that folder will be a file named "keychain-2.db". remove that file but be sure you have written down all of your passwords for email accounts and secure wireless networks and voice mail because they will be gone along with the unwanted backup encryption password. reboot your phone and it will create a new empty keychain. now re-enter your other passwords for email, etc.

run iTunes without connecting your phone and delete your old encrypted backups. then connect your phone to iTunes and do a backup. you will notice that the "encrypt backup" box is no longer checked. now you need to un-jailbreak your phone by either reinstalling the current OS or upgrading to iPhone OS 4. this will wipe out the jailbreak changes. then restore your phone from the unencrypted backup.

I'm not sure if this is the answer, but I used the original password from when I set up my Itunes account. I think I've changed that at least a 100 times since then.

{quote:title=vick57 wrote:}

you can fix this if you want to temporarily jailbreak your phone. be forewarned: this procedure is not for the uninitiated phone user.

all your passwords are stored in a keychain database on your iPhone. if you jailbreak and install the OpenSSH package, you can open a secure shell window from your mac that allows you to run commands on your iPhone. once you've opened an SSH session with the phone, change directory to "/var/Keychains". in that folder will be a file named "keychain-2.db". remove that file but be sure you have written down all of your passwords for email accounts and secure wireless networks and voice mail because they will be gone along with the unwanted backup encryption password. reboot your phone and it will create a new empty keychain. now re-enter your other passwords for email, etc.

run iTunes without connecting your phone and delete your old encrypted backups. then connect your phone to iTunes and do a backup. you will notice that the "encrypt backup" box is no longer checked. now you need to un-jailbreak your phone by either reinstalling the current OS or upgrading to iPhone OS 4. this will wipe out the jailbreak changes. then restore your phone from the unencrypted backup.

{quote}


Hey there vick57 -

Thanks so much for your suggestion, I've actually just jailbroken my phone using redsn0w and have installed the openSSH package, opened terminal, found and accessed /var/keychains directory via terminal as you said- but I realised that I don't have the foggiest idea how to access the "keychain-2.db" file, let alone open or remove it. Would you (or anyone) mind posting more detailed instructions?

My story so far - I wanted to un-jailbreak my jailbroken (3.0) iphone 3G, and update to 4.0.2 - Everything went without a problem, until it was time to restore from backup and I had the same issue as everyone else here. I encrypted it, looked in Keychain, used the password and have repeatedly been told it's wrong. Other topics and forums say that *it's a FOUR DIGIT code*; and that Apple's wording faux-pas has confused many. However, I've tried the usual four digits and it would seem they too are wrong.

I have trawled many forums and threads, and tried just about everything under the sun.

I'm pretty resigned to the fact that all my contacts, calendars, emails, sms messages etc are gone, but given that this is no small loss, I have re-jailbroken my phone and am determined to go out of my depth and even tackle Terminal... but I can't find any step-by-step instructions on how to use Terminal to do what you've suggested...

Any help would be massively and humbly appreciated.




P.S. +What I don't understand, is how Apple could let something like this happen without offering solutions?+

I had exactly the same issue and after tearing my hair out for a few hours putting in the password I knew it should be, it turns out that it was a different one!!

I was trying my apple store password, the one you use every time you download a new app or update, I tried my 4 digit code, I then went through every other password I ever had.

One of them finally worked, it turns out that originally my apple store and restore passwords had been the same, but I changed my apple store password a long time ago as I couldn't be bothered with such a complex password!!!

So keep trying, one of them will work.

If apple hadn't messed up a simple OS update, I would have never had this issue in the first place. It's now restoring, I'll have to see what I've lost inbetween backups!!!