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Trying to restore my backup from yesterday to my new iphone. I keep getting an error message that the password is incorrect. Can't get around it. Any suggestions? I've been at it all afternoon even with Apple on the phone.

Trying to restore my backup from yesterday to my new iphone. I keep getting an error message that the password is incorrect. Can't get around it. Any suggestions? I've been at it all afternoon even with Apple on the phone.

iPhone 11 Pro Max, iOS 13

Posted on Jan 4, 2020 3:00 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 4, 2020 3:35 PM

Might you be attempting to restore an encrypted backup from iTunes (or from Finder from a Mac running MacOS Catalina)?

About encrypted backups on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

9 replies

Jan 4, 2020 4:31 PM in response to bernice914

There are only 2 ways to create an encrypted backup:

  1. You checked encrypt backup at some time in the past.
  2. You have a company email on your phone and the company requires backups to be encrypted.


In either case you were prompted for a backup password — twice. That password never changes, so the first time your backed up after Encrypt Backup was checked the password you entered is still the backup password. The good news is that you get unlimited guesses. And, if you have a Mac, you had the opportunity to save it to your Keychain. So check the keychain (if available), then start guessing. If you are like most people it is a password that you reused, and is probably related to iTunes or to your phone. To speed up the guessing, click Change Password and you will be prompted immediately.

Jan 4, 2020 4:07 PM in response to sberman

I just found out through Itunes, preferences and devices that my back up is encrypted. A Lock icon appears next to my backup. I'm guessing you can't "un-encrypt" once it's encrypted. Don't know how that happened!


I'm getting most of my data thru icloud from my ipad but a lot of my Camera pics did not download from the cloud.


Thanks again for your suggestions. I really appreciate it.

Jan 4, 2020 4:10 PM in response to bernice914

bernice914 wrote:

I'm guessing you can't "un-encrypt" once it's encrypted.

That is correct. If you could "un-encrypt", then encryption would be useless.


If you don't know that encryption password, then you won't be able to access the backup. Refer to the "If you can't remember the password ..." section of the above article.

Jan 4, 2020 4:16 PM in response to bernice914

I'm getting most of my data thru icloud from my ipad but a lot of my Camera pics did not download from the cloud.

So your photos will "either'" be synced with iCloud "or" backed up to iTunes. They won't be both.


If you are seeing any of your photos after signing in to iCloud, I will suggest there aren't any in that encrypted iTunes backup.


If you sign in to iCloud on a Mac/PC, do you see "all" of your photos? If yes, you need to simply wait for them to sync to your phone.

Trying to restore my backup from yesterday to my new iphone. I keep getting an error message that the password is incorrect. Can't get around it. Any suggestions? I've been at it all afternoon even with Apple on the phone.

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