Lost Password to iPhone Backup

I guess I will have to setup phone as new and lose everything. I can't believe that is the only viable option. How hard would it be for Apple to add a password recovery tool to iTunes? Seriously.

Swamprat72 wrote:

I guess I will have to setup phone as new and lose everything. I can't believe that is the only viable option. How hard would it be for Apple to add a password recovery tool to iTunes? Seriously.

The FBI would love that! It cost them over $1 million to hack the last phone they needed to. One reason Apple can't is the way the password is used. It is the encryption key. It isn't stored anywhere that it can be recovered from. And it's very strong encryption.

This discussion has been philosophical so far. There are practical ways to recover an encrypted backup. The easiest way is guessing. You get unlimited guesses, and you can speed it up by unchecking "Encrypt backup" - you will be prompted immediately. If you are like most people you reuse passwords. So just try passwords that you have used in the past, especially around the time you made the first backup. A lot of people have had success with their computer login, their domain login, their iTunes password, their iPhone screen unlock passcode, "0000", "1234", the same passwords as above but all lower case, etc.

The next step is a password cracking tool. The only one that actually works is from Elcomsoft, and it is made for law enforcement and is priced accordingly. But they have a trial version that will return the first two characters of the password. It isn't magic, and it won't work if you are in the habit of using strong passwords, but it does an intelligent search of all possibilities starting with a list of passwords that you have used in the past. If your passcodes are generally 8 characters or less it will usually be successful.

I have tried all the password combinations that I use or have used in the past. They are very similar so I should have guessed it by now. I have also tried several password cracking software programs, the longest I let one run was 10 days. I have another one running now and I am on day 2. My problem is that my password is 11-12 characters so all the research I have done has said that cracking that password using all 94 characters as a possibility for each one would take approx 10 years. So good luck with that. I am only running the software programs because I am an optimist.

I have the same problem . I read all your advices and I still need my Password to unlock my Iphone packup. I tried to unlug an plug back again the USB and it did't works. I also don't remember set a backup password. Also I try every password like passcode , icloud password ID password and everything else ... What else can I do.. I really need my information 😟

trenzalore's solution worked for me.

I had this same problem, I NEVER used password for a back up but ended up needing a password anyways. After almost seven years of recorded history of this problem you would think apple would care enough about it's customers to fix this. I NEVER entered or agreed to have or use an encryption password nor did I supply a password. After a few days of freaking out, spending over 10hours reading online blogs and almost buying password recovery software I finally decided to try one more last ditch attempt. BEFORE you give up try this.

STEP 1 RESET COOKIES, CACHE AND WEB HISTORY IN SAFARI SINCE FOREVER

STEP 2 THEN CLOSE SAFARI AND DO NOT RESTART

STEP 3 CHANGE ITUNES BACKUP ENCRYPTION PASSWORD ( if not active, active it and set a password DO NOT let it make a new back up ), APPLE ID PASSWORD , AND ADD TO PASSKEY AUTO SAVE DIRECTORY

STEP 4 CLOSE/QUITE ITUNES, UNPLUG iDEVICE, TURN OFF AND RESTART COMPUTER AND DEVICE ( BY HOLDING HOME AND POWER FOR 15 SECONDS, OR UNTIL RESTART)

STEP 5 RESTART LAPTOP/COMPUTER WITH DEVICE ALREADY PLUGGED IN

STEP 6 START ITUNES RIGHT AWAY AND GO TO RESTORE FROM BACK UP

STEP 7 RESTORE FROM BACK UP AND ENTER NEW PASSWORD, THIS SHOULD WORK

STEP 8 MAKE NEW BACK UP, MAKE A NEW FOLDER WITH YOUR PASSWORD AND SAVE THE BACK-UP INSIDE IT, UPDATED AS NEEDED.

@leabe18 tried EVERYTHING ELSE on this thread and nothing worked. You have the true solution!

Do you see an option that says, "Skip this step?"

you would think apple would care enough about it's customers to fix this

but... it's not broken. It works *exactly* as designed.

What if this thread was about how easy it is to crack Apples supposedly "secure" encrypted iTunes backup password.

Secure has no degrees. A process is either secure or not. There is no try, as Yoda would say.

I would suggest this alternative...

STEP 1 = Don't knowingly enable a feature you don't respect or understand.

STEP 2 = There is no STEP 2.

As if nobody ever forgets a password. Anyway. I got through it. Do you know how to break into an encrypted system?

Nope.

Yes, people forget passwords. And doing so often has consequences.

Users who enable encryption without understanding the consequences have nobody to blame but themselves.

Apple has always been upfront about the down side of forgetting *this* password.

About encrypted backups in iTunes - Apple Support

It doesn't matter. I broke into it. So there And get a life.

How long was your password? Mine is usually 11 characters and all the research I have done estimates that it will take a software program 10 years to crack mine. I used one such software program and it ran for 10 days without cracking it.

It was 10 long, but I knew what the first seven characters. The software I used was designed to actually limit the the full length of password. So if one knows its 8, 11, or 14 characters long then it won't start trying to seek 20 character long ones. I had a password place. It's called LastPass, which last I heard late summer 2015 is vulnerable. But I still used it. I didn't have it backed up online(LastPass) and the original phone went bye-bye(lost).