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Encrypt Backup Password Problem

I checked the option to encrpyt the back up using a password. Any password I try cannot be used - I've tried my itunes password and a variety of others - I just keep getting a message saying the password cannot be set. It worked fine until a couple of days ago. Any ideas?

Advent PC, Windows Vista

Posted on Jul 25, 2009 11:20 AM

Reply
265 replies

Feb 8, 2017 12:50 PM in response to NRB0121

I, as well, am having major issues here.


iPhone 6+ iOS 10.2.1, backed up on iTunes 12.5.4.42

Encrypted iPhone backup was NOT selected


Went to the Apple Store because my girlfriend & I were having performance issues with our phones (she has iPhone 6). Both our phones were reset, the only difference was her phone wasn't updated with the newest iOS version, and her iTunes was not the newest version, either.


Get back home, we both go to restore our phones. Hers restores no problem. Mine says there's a password, come to find out its encrypted. I NEVER selected encrypted, plus I brought my macbook to the Apple store and the guy was perplexed. He tried telling me it was the profile installed on my computer for work. Well, both our phones had the same work profile installed, and she did not have any issues.


I've literally tried every password I could possibly think of. I looked in to several of the programs mentioned in this thread, but they are not MacOSx compatible. I looked online how to copy the backup to a PC, but then I saw somewhere about photos not being moved when you do that because of Apple's copyright policy (or something like that). The photos are most important, I can download all the apps and do that.


I'm pretty much at a loss. And to make things worse, when I was in the Apple store w/ my Macbook, the guy somehow made the Encrypt iPhone backup option CHECKED permanently since I don't have the password. I have no idea how he did this, nor does he.


If anyone has any other ideas for me, I would loveeeeeeee to hear them!

Apr 13, 2017 3:29 PM in response to NRB0121

It's had this problem after updating iTune, I have never turned on encrypt backup. I uninstalled iTunes and reinstalled it again and yet I still had encrypt backup on. After reading some of the comments I tried the 1234 password listed in the replies and that worked for me, it is just horrible that the encrypt file is auto on now, and they don't even give you the option anymore.

Apr 14, 2017 12:35 PM in response to Crumas

Thank God for you - this is the only answer that helped me. I don't recall ever setting up a password to encrypt my iPhone when backing it up on my mac computer. Your post made me think (after like 40 tries) "hmmm maybe it's my LastPass master password" - YES. That is EXACTLY what worked. So if anyone is reading this - I suggest you try your various "password keepers" program passwords. I don't know if your google chrome or other browser user log ins (if you have set one up in the past) would cause that, but it's worth a try. I'm so thankful it was my current master password for my LastPass and not some old one I'll never remember.
THANK YOU!!!!!

May 6, 2017 10:02 PM in response to NRB0121

So... perhaps Exchange triggered the encrypted backups without my knowledge. If that's company policy, so be it.


The thing is, another one of our company policies is that our Exchange password has to be changed every month. I got my phone over one and a half years ago.


While you may blame me for not having kept track of my 20+ Exchange passwords over this period of time (or rather, all of my Exchange passwords as I was not aware this would kick into effect when I received said phone), the fact of the matter is that the forced encryption without a means of retrieval is a major flaw in this system. The encryption shouldn't involve another password from another application that requires encryption, but rather a password entered when prompting the user directly. Just my two cents.

Oct 18, 2017 8:01 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Hi Lawrence,

I have company iPhone and laptop and I have faced this issue twice. Last time I gave up on my backup and created a new backup and wrote my backup password on a note. I did backup yesterday and it didn't accept my password. I am 100% sure my password is correct. Could it be because of company security settings? Does it mean I can never do backup for work phone on work laptop? iTune suggested the sync and somehow my phone did reset factory.

Aug 2, 2009 8:14 PM in response to NRB0121

I can confirm I am having the same problem, but I am using a Mac. When I attempt to enter a password for the backup, I get a error that

The password you entered to protect your iPhone backup file could not be set.

I suspect the latest version of iTunes introduced a bug, because I don't recall any problems before this.

Aug 13, 2009 11:24 PM in response to pairAdice

Yeah I just noticed I have the same issue. Google and Bing search doesn't help much either but I did land on this Apple Support page:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766

To summarize:

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.

But to be honest, I don't recall even setting a password for any kind of encryption backup. Even if I did, I would know since I use a set of passwords for everything... Was there a bug in iTunes since the new update?

Message was edited by: haotan

Sep 22, 2009 8:58 AM in response to NRB0121

I have the same problem right now, I set a password for my encrypted backup and when I type it in I get an error message saying that the password I entered is incorrect. I tried to contact Apple Support to get some help on this issue but they keep saying that if I forgot the password they won't be able to recover anything from the application. I did not forget my password, I set it right and I am typing it right as well....there is something wrong wit this option and now I have to reset my iPhone and I will loose any unsaved data

Oct 8, 2009 8:01 PM in response to NRB0121

I can also confirm this issue:

iPhone 3GS with 3.1
iTunes 9.0.1 (9)
Snow Leopard Server 10.6.1

"Encrypt iPhone backup" was previously checked. The most recent connection of the iPhone to the computer resulted in this checkbox no longer being checked. Rechecking the box and entering a password results in the following error:

"The password you entered to protect your iPhone backup file could not be set. Please try again."

Oct 22, 2009 9:38 PM in response to NRB0121

i touched this basis with apple tech support and they are looking into the possibility that itunes and the iphone os might somehow be conflicting with each other because none of my problems and others did not start till itunes 9 and iphone 3.1. 3.1.2 was supposed to fix the problems but it has not and if i was in apples place first i would have rolled both back and would be working 24/7 to fix the problem.

Nov 12, 2009 5:16 AM in response to beagleman2009

I can confirm that I have just been hit by this today too. Password had previously been set, but today when I went to sync the phone with iTunes it prompted me for a new password. I gave it one (the same as it was previously set to), but it tells me thart the password cannot be set, and just keeps asking for a new password!

Definitely a bug!!

iPhone 3GS, OS 3.1.2, Windows 7

Encrypt Backup Password Problem

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