Encrypt Backup Password Problem

So, I know I ticked the "Encrypted Backup" box, but I am positive I was NEVER prompted with setting a password for my phone, so I was a bit worried when I all my attempts to "remember" it were failing. iTunes account, phone passcode, dev account, etc. None worked, even tried the encrypted backup name strings from the "~/Library/Application\ Support/Mobile\ Sync/Backup/" directory. Nope.

But, eventually I just tried my regular admin passwd like you would whenever sudo'ing, lockscreen, etc.

....and ya, turned out to just be like any other time you get prompted for one outside of iTunes.

Has this not worked for anyone else?

As far as decrypting anyone tried dave (if applicable) or similar? I am not sure what algo the backups are turned under, but perhaps one of the gems in 'openssl' or 'enc' could do the trick. (see 'man enc' from /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app).

It seems that iTunes is taking on a lot more of a role these days, rather than that passive boombox. Like how the new face of the full iPhone section is kinda demonstrative with the new buttons, options and headaches... but we all know that at this point.

System:

OS X Mountain Lion /disk0s2, OS X Snow Leopard /disk0s3, 2009 M.P.B. 3.06 GHz 8GB RAM, admin permissions.

Phone:

iPhone 5 World Unlocked on Sprint iOS 6.0.2

This worked on Snow Leopard, wasn't booted into Mountain Lion at the time. Hope this helps someone?

Everyone who has solved this has discovered that the encryption key was a password that they had used at some time in the past or present, and it was a different type of password for each. Which is strong evidence that they had entered that password when prompted, but didn't notice what they were being asked. If Apple software was assigning a password it would not choose passwords at random.

We share Itunes on our computer and have different apple IDs. You must be signed into the Apple ITunes store under the Apple ID the password was originally setup under. This worked after trying all known passwords for a couple of hours under a different ID. I signed in under my orginal ID and it finally took one of the known passwords. Try this if you share a computer with someone else, or if you have allowed someone to backup under a different Apple ITunes account. Hope this helps. BTW, this is on a PC with Windows Vista.

Message was edited by: SFSCop

I have the same problem. I was sycning some music over to my iPhone, and I saw under "Encrypt iPhone backup" the words: "This will also back up account passwords used on this iPhone." I thought, that would be cool, then the next time I upgrade my phone I won't have to type everything in again. So I clicked on it, and I set the password--the exact same password I use for iTunes. It accepted it. Then, when I tried to click it back off after having second thoughts, it prompted me to enter it. I did--about 10 different times--and it keeps saying the password is incorrect. Just to say it out loud, I DID NOT ENTER IT INCORRECTLY, either when trying to log in with it or when entering it for the first time.

Apple, you'd better get on this! I better not have to restore my phone because of some dang bug!

Dear Lawrence, this is not correct. I was a aware of this bug when I set up my phone including backup and password for the second time. (I had to start from scratch, because the password did not allow me to do a backup. So I knew what the problem was, wrote down the exact password I used. When I later tried to restore with that password, it did not work.

It may be that some people entered one that they dodn't remember, but there is at least one case (me) where the exact password entered did not work.

Now I'm once again living with an "unbackupable" phone, because the password is wrong, even though I wrote it down this time.

I did a google search on this phraze exactly "how to disable encrypted backup password for itunes 11 for ipad3". It brought me here, which I've read through the thread and it seems to be about people who forgot their passwords, which isn't my issue. I know mine but I can not disable the encryption. I see a ton of spam telling me I have to buy Tenorshare's program to do it, which is about $100.00. I don't believe this to be true. If anyone knows how to disable the encryption for iTunes for my iPad3 IOS 6.1, please let me know and I will be forever thankful! johnnymcelroy at woh dot rr dot com. Thank you ever so much.

I kept entering the computer password and iPhone passcode + other passwords previously used.

SOLUTION for me:

(OS X 10.8.2; iTunes 11.0.1)

- I initially turned the passcode off the phone, and couldn't deactivate the Encrypted Backup.

- Turned iPhone passcode back on with same passcode.

- Restarted phone (power + hold until restart)

- did a fresh backup of the phone

- unticked Encrypted Backup

- entered password to the computer (backup automatically started after password was validated)

- profit

Thank you for the post. I did end up finding out the problem. I had to go into my iPad settings under General and delete a profile. For some reason if you have a profile setup, it automatically encrypts the backup. After deleting the profile, I was able to uncheck the Encrypt Backup Password.

Thanks again!

I just ran into this same thing. I've only read 2-3 pages of this post, so maybe someone mentioned this before, but all I had to do to fix it was go to iPhone -> Summary -> Backups and click the "Change Password..." button. I entered my password as the old password, and the same password + confirm as the new password. Then the backup worked. This is iTunes 11.0.2 on Snow Leopard. Good luck.

I too, came accross this problem. If your only choice is to try many passwords, I suggest doing it on the iTunes application, where you uncheck, and therefore 'remove' the encryption setting. The backup section can be found by selecting your device on the left and it will be on the 'Summary' page. If you don't see your device listed on the left of iTunes, start by selecting "View', -> "Show sidebar". If you can't see the menu, in the top right corner of iTunes, there's is a little square icon...click that and select "Show Menu Bar". (I may be stating the obvious, but neither were shown on mine, so trying to find my phone and backups was all the more frustrating during this episode.)
It will prompt you for the correct password. The only advantage to this method is that repeated attempts are quicker than entering passwords when prompted during a restore.

It seems I have entered the correct one bc iTunes started a fresh, unencrypted backup....and since it takes quite a while, I thought I would use that time to pass this on.
Good luck.

Message was edited by: t1n0

Indeed, the forgotten encryption password on iTunes on my computer seems to be the password from my old Apple ID, which I have not entered manually on this computer. iTunes seems to remember the first password used.

This is something that worked for me(I own a MacBook Pro and sync my iPhone to it). I used my computer password for the account that my iTunes is on. So I am saying that the password to login to your computer account is the password I used to unlock the backup for my previous phone that I had saved. And I had not setup a password encrypted backup. I hope this works for you guys 🙂

That's a simple fix if the backup is encrypted by a corporate security policy.

You will keep getting notices every time someone posts to the thread until you go to the top of any page and click "Stop email notifications"

Here is why I respectfully disagree with Lawrence Finch:

1.) I have set no passwords for my device.

2.) I have no passwords that are only four digits, and never have.

3.) This began after a system update.

4.) Mine is a private device.

5.) It happened several months after my most recent sync, which I know because it took several months to raise the cash to fix my computer. (I have not synced it since fixing my computer.)

6.) It is progressive. Initially only iCloud and Messaging were greyed out. Now social media are. I discovered this when an app I use every day that connects with Facebook ceased being able to connect to Facebook.

Software can have many seemingly illogical problems. I worked in complex relational database design years ago and it was astonishing what could happen and what might be required to fix it. Here is one example: At that time, Oracle was developing modules at an insane rate and had so many that it was not practical to test every configuration. With their help, it took months to figure out how to install the modules we had in order to have the. function properly and eliminate problems such as, any postal code (or other numeric data field) that began with 809 would be rejected and the record could not be saved. Like something out of Apollo13, there was a magic order that had to be discovered through trial and error. Oracle didn't know how to do it and we worked down the street from them, so we collaborated. They later used the process WE designed to help other customers.

Your certainty suggests to me a faith in software that is under-informed.

Hi folks just thought I'd add my 2c.

I'm an IT Manager and have been using IPhones for some years now in our enterprise.

We enforce encrypted backups using a policy for all corporate users who need to access their emails.

I just had a user needing to update our enterprise app and when I went to update their Iphone I got the dreaded

Could not set the encrypted password error.

Now we record all of the encrypted backup passwords centrally so that we don't have the inconvenience of having to set up iphones from scratch every 5 minutes when a user forgets their backup password (we do this because we got fed up with it after many many attempts to crack backup passwords).

Anyway this particualar case - the user had oversnapped with the photos and run out of storage on the phone. Hence the backup would not start - it was asking for the password over and over again.

Cleaned out the photos and voila - it works as expected.

Hope this helps.