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buckeye89 Author

Level 2

329 points

Lost Password to iPhone Backup

Actually, I don't recall ever setting one. Now however, I have a new phone and cannot restore it from the backup, as there it prompts me for a password I don't have! I tried all the ones I've used for my iPhone and pretty much every other one of which I can think, all to no avail. I need the data in the back up. But I can't get to it. I've already tried the keychain route to no avail. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have a MacBook Pro running Mac OSX 10.6.7 and iTunes 10.2.2. The iPhone is an iPhone 4.

iPhone 4

Posted on May 31, 2011 9:28 PM

Top-ranking reply

pshute

Level 1

62 points

Posted on May 3, 2018 4:29 PM

Lawrence Finch wrote:

m-zreik wrote:

I lost backup password. But I dont remember that i put any password . is their any solution to get back my backup??

Start guessing. You entered it, twice, possibly years ago. It never changes. You get unlimited guesses. to speed up the process uncheck "Encrypt Backup" and you will be prompted immediately. If you are like most people you reused a password, probably related to your iPhone or your Apple ID. If you have a company MS Exchange account on your phone it might have been a company email or domain password, and on rare occasion, it was actually entered by your system administrator.

To jog your memory, I have created a list of passwords that users in this thread have discovered when they guessed the right one:

First iTunes account password (40 different users)

Old iTunes account password, but not the oldest one

Password used for almost all accounts (3 different users)

All digit Password created a long time ago

Computer/laptop login password (4 users)

Laptop password (2 users)

Computer password (4 users)

Email password (3 users)

iTunes with no capital letters

Password not used anywhere else

All numeric used in the past

Password for old gaming site

PC password (5 users)

“iphonelogin”

work computer password

Current app store password (2 users)

Paypal account password

iPad unlock passcode

Strongest variation of the base password I have ever used

Old password

Old work password

Macbook password (2 users)

Restriction passcode

Gmail password (2 users)

Current Apple ID password (2 users)

Apple MobileMe password

Apple ID password, but all lower case (8 users)

Apple ID password, first one ever used, but all lower case (2 users)

iPhone passcode when corporate profile was installed

Passcode for a website

iPhone screen unlock passcode (9 users)

iPhone unlock passcode at the time the first backup was made (3 users)

First password for work computer

Old password used over 2 years ago (2 users)

Previous owner’s iTunes password

Current laptop password

Wireless network password

Electric bill and Skype password

icloud password, all lower case

Windows login for very old laptop

iMac password (3 users)

First iPhone 4 digit passcode

iTunes password from last year

4 year old password

iTunes password (current) (3 users)

Old PC password

Password for “Good” application

Password used for everything+1234

1234 (4 users)

12345 (2 users)

0000

Password I use for everything else (2 users)

One of my husband’s passwords

Some old non-Apple product password

Screen passcode of the first iPhone that was backed up (2 users)

Old password with different case on first letter

“password” (2 users)

Windows Administrator password (2 users)

Original Windows Administrator password

Mackbook administrator password

“iphone”+4 digit unlock code

Voicemail password

asd

“herpderp”

“darwin” (first name from credit card account)

First name, all lower case

Ms Exchange account password

Facebook password

Browser password

Network admin password

Nice list, Lawrence! My god, I can't believe this issue is continuing. ITunes needs to warn people about the implications of entering a password for a backup. If it said "This password will be used automatically without prompting for all future backups. Please record it in a safeplace" then people wouldn't continue making the same mistake they've been making since this thread started 7 years ago.

Yes, I've suggested it at Product Feedback - Apple. If all the people here reporting problems did too then it would be fixed.

View in context

1,060 replies

Feb 15, 2013 12:51 AM in response to Rakso

Apple often doesn't think of the simplest things and for the billions of profit they make -

imho -they owe us restitution for solving problems THEY create. Ungrateful is a word

that comes to mind on top of the two usuals, gouging and greed!

happy valentines.....

Feb 15, 2013 5:51 AM in response to Mr. Squires

Right, of course! You forgot your password (or that you entered one), and somehow that's Apple's fault. Have you ever taken responsibility for anything in your life?

peter_br

Level 1

9 points

Feb 15, 2013 7:14 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

I think your missing an important point. The main theme in this discussion thread is that people find out that the backup is created using encryption with a password, without them being asked for the option and as such not aware that the backup is encrypted.

On top of it once an encrypted backup is in place it is almost impossible to delete it and create a new unencrypted backup.

To all: The only way to get Apple attention on this problem is to file bug reports on this topic.

Feb 15, 2013 7:28 AM in response to peter_br

I think you are missing the point. There are only two ways a backup would be encrypted: The user checked the Encrypt Password box in iTunes, or the phone has a corporate Exchange email account on it, and the Exhange administrator assigned a security policy that required the backup to be encrypted.

For either of these the first time the phone is backed up after encryption is selected the user is prompted for a password. The wide variety of passwords that people have discovered when they have cracked theirs shows that in every case it was a password that they knew, so most likely they got a password prompt (as you do on a regular basis when using a computer) and probably entered what they thought the password was for.

In the first case it is possible to remove the password by deleting the backup. In the second case the only way to have an unencrypted backup is to delete the Exchange account and the security provisioning policy, and not get corporate email.

j0390

Level 1

0 points

Feb 16, 2013 7:02 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Lawrence Finch wrote:

it is possible to remove the password by deleting the backup

This doesn't seem to be the case. I've removed my backups and the password is still in place. Factory reset is my only hope, I think.

Feb 16, 2013 9:52 AM in response to leabe18

Thank you leabe18...

leabe18 mentioned trying your Windows admin password for unlocking the backup....

That worked for me...

I nearly thought all was lost...

Thank you for taking the time to post your solution...and to everyone here for sharing their ideas...

Michael!

Feb 17, 2013 6:30 PM in response to buckeye89

My solution was to enter my macbook's admin pw. Worked for me.

Feb 19, 2013 3:19 AM in response to buckeye89

help me... same solution..

but my pc hasnt any password

what can I do? I lost all my contacts 😟

plz...

Many thanks !!!

Feb 19, 2013 5:24 AM in response to Gon Nguyễn

Try every password you know, or that you have used. It's most likely a password you have used in the past, like your Apple ID, your phone unlock code, etc.

Feb 19, 2013 7:30 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Thank you so much... But i tried every password i know.

If this solution was password of my pc , but i never get any password for this pc...

How can i crack or remove???

Feb 20, 2013 4:20 AM in response to buckeye89

use the program iExplorer

Feb 20, 2013 5:48 AM in response to Gon Nguyễn

Whatever the password is, you created it. If you can not remember it, and can not guess it, about all you can do is delete the backup and start over, and probably delete your iTunes library file also. The only other option is a rather expensive but good commercial password cracker that is normally sold to law enforcement authorities. Their web site is http://elcomsoft.com/. I think if you download their free trial it will tell you the first 2 characters of your password; this may be helpful. The full edition is $79 for home use.

There is another one around, but it has gotten very bad reviews.

Feb 22, 2013 7:27 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Hi all,

someone posted here before; you have to connect your phone via USB, it will not work via WiFi connection, I tried it myself and it works.

I wanted to remove the encryption from my backups and iTunes asked for the password (my iPhone 4 was connected via WiFi) Itunes kept rejecting the password.

After reviewing the posts here someone posted that it cannot be done via WiFi only by USB, I tried it it worked....

Good luck....

Janehe

Level 1

0 points

Feb 23, 2013 8:50 PM in response to trenzalore

Thanks, it works for my Ipad!

Feb 27, 2013 1:51 PM in response to buckeye89

If everyone reads this then notice veryones password was DIFFERENT. THEREFORE YOU DID MAKE THE PASSWORD. DO NOT BLAME APPLE FOR YOUR FORGETFULLNESS!!!!!!!. HOWEVER, I did run across this situation as well. I used iExplorer to back up my ipod. reinstall ios and then rebackup from the program iExplorer. THIS IS YOUR BEST SHOT.!! TRUST ME THIS IS YOUR ONLY SHOT IF YOUR PASSWORD HAS SLIPPED THROUGH YOUR FINGERS!!!!

Lost Password to iPhone Backup