Lost Password to iPhone Backup

Even if iTunes "decided" that it wanted to use your login password it couldn't - because your Windows login password is not stored anywhere on your computer. Only the enciphered version of it is stored, using a method that cannot be reversed.

same happens to me. i encrypt my backup to make it safe, turns out its super safe, like even I cant restore it. i tried everything from my name, my birthday and even my email itself, I think there's something wrong with itunes and it ruins everything! i regret backing up my files!!! i really * up my phone. APPLE if youre reading this, fix it up ASAP!

<Edited by Host>

You encrypted it. If you failed to put the passcode in a safe place then that is totally on you. Next time don't encrypt your iTunes backup. If you want an encrypted backup that does not require an encryption passcode, use iCloud.

GB

Connect your device to iTunes. Click on its icon in iTunes. Look at the summary screen In iTunes. Is "encrypt backup" checked? If it is, you checked it and you entered a backup encryption passcode. Twice. Sometime in the past.

LACAllen wrote:

APPLE if youre reading this, fix it up ASAP!!!

Fix what?

You not being able to recall the password you readily admit to setting?

A password is a secret that is yours to keep.

Yes, but iTunes doesn't warn you that if you ever set a password on a backup, it will use that same password on future backups without asking. People do it once when they get a new phone (I'm guessing because they have an encrypted profile on their phone, so iTunes prompts for a backup password), then don't need to know that password till a long time later when they get another new phone. They never knew they would need that password again.

For those of you looking for answers on this still...

I entered the password that I knew was set up, it kept saying it was the wrong one.

I updated both phones, backed it up again, and tried the password for the 1,000th time.. It worked!

Hopefully that'll help someone.

CHILDREN I HAVE THE ANSWER:

THE DEFAULT PASSWORD IS: 12345

I've been at it for HOURS! thinking of every password I've used in life, I even purchased a haking app that didn't work. After scrolling through this trhread I found an answer from 2013 he was the default was changed 1234 to 12345 and it worked!

good luck friends.

Apple you should be ashamed of yourself lol

theprettyartist wrote:

CHILDREN I HAVE THE ANSWER:

THE DEFAULT PASSWORD IS: 12345

Umm, there is no default password. You would know that if you had read even a few of the posts in this 58 page thread. If your password was 12345, it's only because that is what you entered (twice) the first time you made an encrypted backup.

Try every password you have ever used for anything. Try 1111, 1234, 9999 and any other combination that people might mindlessly put into a password field. There is nothing we can do to help you.

If you can't figure out what the password is, then you can back up your device to iCloud, then hook it back up to iTunes and set it up there as a new device so that you can turn Encryption off.

Then, you can go back to iCloud and restore your device to the backup you just made, and then back it up to iTunes.

Best of luck,

GB

Stop being dense, if you have nothing new to add then stop. There are people actually having issues with an itunes backup asking for a password they never created.

If you take the time to read through this thread, you will see you are wrong on this.

Nobody disputes that users are having issues with an encrypted iTunes backup. Its about who "did this" that must be disputed.

It has been proven many times in this very thread, that eventually, users discover the password/encryption key they entered, twice, when they knowingly encrypted their iTunes backup.

That users forget a password or that they even created one it is understandable. That they float conspiracy theories here and rant that "Apple did this to me..." is not.

Anyone who is being asked for a password to access their encrypted iTunes backup put it there or someone did on their behalf. Twice.

I can guarantee you that you don't know every situation that this has come up in. While there are people out there that have encrypted their passwords and have gone on to forget them does happen, probably quite often. My situation though is that we downloaded iTunes TODAY and ran backed up a phone to the computer. The encrypt backup box was not checked so therefore a password was not created. The backup then asks for a password that has not been created

ZDRob12 wrote:

I can guarantee you that you don't know every situation that this has come up in. While there are people out there that have encrypted their passwords and have gone on to forget them does happen, probably quite often. My situation though is that we downloaded iTunes TODAY and ran backed up a phone to the computer. The encrypt backup box was not checked so therefore a password was not created. The backup then asks for a password that has not been created

That is because an encrypted backup was made on a different computer. The fact that backup encryption is enabled is "known" to the iPhone, so the first time you back it up on a new computer it will created an encrypted backup. If it didn't there would be no point in having backup encryption, because anyone (the FBI for example) could just back up the phone to a new computer and bypass the backup encryption.

Do you have something productive to add?

We keep repeating the same answer because that is the only answer, yet people seem to be unable to read the responses already provided on the 59 pages of this thread. If you would take time to read the thread, you would see that the same question keeps getting asked over and over, even though an answer has already been provided.

There are lots of threads like this on this forum. There is one answer, but people don't seem to understand the concept of reading before they post.

So, unless you have another solution, your opinion of what responses are given are irrelevant. Only the Hosts get to decide who should "stop". And if you don't get that the only answer that is available for us to provide is the one we have repeatedly given, then it's not Lawrence Finch that is being dense.

GB

Here's the thing though,

I'm trying to read through and see what other people have done for my very specific issue. If you would like to help me that would be great but telling me (and others) that I am wrong and I entered a password at some point is not helpful.

Having experience with apple and iTunes in the past, I know this. If you encrypt a back up, then you are responsible for remembering the password to the back up and there is no way to access an encrypted back up from any outside sources. However, and to me this didn't even seem possible, iTunes created an encryption on its own. If you create a backup to a computer than the computer is creating a new encryption from scratch. It doesn't collect old encryption passwords from other computers. There is no way for this to transfer from computer to computer since you are not downloading the encryption from apple servers, you are fetching it from the hard drive of the computer.

My employee received his phone last July and never hooked it up to a computer. Today, we downloaded iTunes (for this first time) from a browser and ran a back up to "This Computer" without encrypt check marked. Then once we tried to download the back up to the phone, it was asking for a password. I was present for the whole thing and not once did it prompt me for a password. Is there anyone that has experienced this and can help?

ZDRob12 wrote:

My employee received his phone last July and never hooked it up to a computer. Today, we downloaded iTunes (for this first time) from a browser and ran a back up to "This Computer" without encrypt check marked. Then once we tried to download the back up to the phone, it was asking for a password. I was present for the whole thing and not once did it prompt me for a password. Is there anyone that has experienced this and can help?

Your mentioning "employee" changes things. Presumably there is a security profile on the employee's iPhone through the installation of an MS Exchange account on the phone. The security profile requires that backups be encrypted. Normally the user would be prompted for a backup password the first time it is backed up. However, the password can also be specified by the Exchange administrator. Frequently they choose the user's domain login password, but you should ask your IT department about their policy.