iPad Backup Encryption Password Nightmare

Then how can we REMOVE the outdated/forgotten password? It's VERY POOR design to LOCK you into a 5 year old password. What if my password were stolen 4 years ago and now whoever stole has access to that password and I can't change it. This is BAD DESIGN. Seriously, EVERY OTHER piece of software out there has reset capabilities EXCEPT this one. FLAWED FLAWED FLAWED. Apple dropped the ball and now I cannot backup and restore.

NOTE - more than 1 computer involved.

MAIN PC/laptop - I performed unencrypted FULL backup prior to an IOS upgrade earlier this year (2014) I had issues my iPad after the upgrade & tried several times to restore from backup/roll back the upgrade w/ no success. After a call to Apple Support I learned that restore will NOT roll back the operating system. After several suggestions from Support, upgrade was successful & iPad working correctly. I deleted the unencrypted backup as EVERYTHING on my iPad is on this laptop &/or my home network drive. More recent iOS upgrade created the encrypted backup that none of my passwords worked for - deleted this newer backup as worthless.

IOS update prompt appeared again this last week. Main machine was in case for work, so I plugged into an older laptop. Found that I had an unencrypted backup from Jan-2013, but the check box for encrypted was ticked. Once again I tried all my passwords & this time my windows password worked to get that ticked box unchecked. Upgrade completed.

Back to my main laptop several days later, figuring that I will either need to do a full restore of my iPad to remove the password or use the older machine for this purpose until it dies. To my delight, the encrypted backup box is no longer checked!

Very surprised after trying all of the fixes, the one that worked was disconnecting my Ipad, closing itunes, reconnecting my Ipad, setting encrypt local backup (never done in the past), setting a password. Trying to restore via that password (I got the restore could not be completed error). Wait 4 minutes looking through the forums... Ipad started restoring all of my synced apps and files. No words for how poor a feature this is. Would try this since it worked for me nothing else did. Used my apple ID password for the encrypt password.

I have actually had this same exact problem! Basically all you need to do is call Apple Support from there they can reset your password or whaterver else you need.

Hope this helped!

The password is the original itunes password entered when new.

If you change your itunes store password, it does not update the original encryption password used for backup

Also, in case anyone finds this thread, VPN apps, for example, ADD 'Profiles' to the ipad. these are encrypted, so, in order to backup, you either need to uninstall apps/profiles that were added (settings/general/profiles), OR, encrypt the backup using the password for the app which the profile was created by.

i had the same problem today. tried millions of times the only password ive been using in all my accounts, but still coming up as incorrect.

what i did is to try change the password, but of course i couldnt do that because i cant remember my old password. At first the change password icon cannot be clicked, but i just waited and eventually it did. I left the OLD PASSWORD BLANK or u can input what u thought ur passwords was, then input NEW PASSWORD then clicked the change password button, it worked. i was able to restore my backup using the new one.

I called the apple support and been told they cannot do anything

i understand the rationale for encrypting backups, but not rationale that prevents turning off '*future*encrypted backups.

i have the device and it t is protected by a complex passcode. Once I enter the passcode, I have full control over the device. the fact that I don't know the password to my old encrypted backups is meaningless except for one thing... New backups. Likewise, a thief that knows my passcode and has my device has all the access they could ever want to ruin my day... why would they even want to restore my iPad if they already have complete access?

in any event, suppose I could create an unencrypted backup and restore from that one: all passwords would be gone, but I wouldnt lose documents, books, PDFs and the like.

for the record, I use mSecure and have over a hundred unique passwords. I have no recollection of creating/stating encrypted backups and am pretty ****** surprise that I would do so without saving same to my keychain or mSecure.

what I really need to know is what I'm about to lose so that I can manually export/ save those documents i presently have access to.

Same problem. First with the iPad (and I had to wipe entirely and reinstall everything), and now with the iPhone. I suspected something was wrong right away when I plugged my iPhone in. It showed up in iTunes under a generic name and not the custom one I assigned. And the "encrypt password" box was checked (backing up to iCloud), which I NEVER checked in the first place.

Yes, turns out I cannot uncheck the encryption box without getting prompted for a password that was never set in the first place.

The only possible connection could be that I changed my iTunes/Apple ID password recently. And believe me, I tried entering that as well—in addition to the previous password—with no success. Mine has caps, special characters and numbers and I tried all the combinations of no caps, no special characters, no numbers. None of them worked.

do you use windows or MAC? i have this same problem and am having trouble figuring out this elmscomsoft software!

I'm on a Mac. And as far as I know Elcomsoft is PC-only...

There was another odd glitch. I encrypted one backup but also saved it in the keychain. I tried accessing that backup, using the password I moments before just assigned. Didn't take. I went to the keychain, saw that it was indeed the password I chose. Tried it again. Again, didn't work. Check caps lock, retyped it a few more time. All failed.

I figured I was screwed and had to yet again wipe my iPad. Then I updated iTunes and the encrypted password (as saved in the keychain) worked fine.

Thank you ..It is working 🙂

Okay (so now I am among the many screwed by this)....so please explain why there isn't a password hint?