Q: Lost Password to iPhone Backup

Perhaps it was for YOU, but if you bother to read the rest of the thread you posted to you will learn that it is a different password for each user who found their backup password.

Just trying to be helpful...Apparently I didn't help after all, despite reading most of the messages here (No, I did not read them ALL). But YOU, Sir, are not a very nice person.

pshute wrote:

 

By coincidence, I've just had to restore a backup of my iPad because the iOS8.1 upgrade failed. I had noticed that when it did the backup before the upgrade, the password box was ticked, but was greyed out so it couldn't be unticked. It didn't ask me for a password, but required one to restore from the backup.

 

I tried my iCloud password (among others) when it prompted for the password when I tried to restore, and was surprised to see that it worked.

 

Now, several months later, I need to do a backup of my iPhone 5 to restore to a new iPhone 6. Again the password box is ticked and greyed out. But this time the password is not my iCloud password. I haven't ever changed my iCloud password.

So what now? I can't make usable backups because the apparently automatically set password is different now, and I have no idea what it could be.

A work colleague is also upgrading, and did a backup and found it was prompting for a password to restore. I told him my experience, and he discovered that his iCloud password worked.

I found this in the Enterprise_Deployment_guide.pdf, page 60:

"If the device being backed up has any encrypted profiles installed, iTunes

requires the user to enable backup encryption."

My phone has some profiles installed, and they're probably encrypted, so I assume this is my problem. But how do I find out what that password is?

I tried removing all the profiles, and this has changed the behaviour of iTunes slightly. I can now untick the "Encrypt iPhone backup" box, but as soon as I do, it asks for a password! It appears to be asking for the same password as before, rather than a new one to use on backups, because it tells me I've entered the wrong one.

Although your issue is probably non existent - for people who still have the issue you should try your computer password (try as is or with all lowercase) - if not try the itunes password (all lowercase). One of the other usually has worked for most people. This is if you feel like you never set a password.

Hello everyone

I had the same problem like everyone else.. I have tried my "current" apple password, computer account password and of course did not work.

the only thing that worked for me it the VERY FIRST APPLE ID PASSWORD  that I  used when I first starting using iTunes and I phone

I hope this will work for you as well

good luck

THANKS!!! This worked perfectly!!!

4numbers

nice  worked

I've been hearing from a lot more people lately that they never remember setting a backup password, but here it is set anyhow. A common thread I noticed to this story is some mention of being asked (by a person at their carrier store, or by software) if they want to add a backup password. Eventually, we realized that the backup password was set to a blank password in these cases, which should not be doable in the iTunes interface. My suspicion is that a third party tool for making backups either has a poor interface (setting the backup password to an empty password, instead of not setting a password) or the password was set in a much earlier version of iTunes that accidentally allowed empty passwords.

At any rate, I wrote up some instructions for using the Symbols/Special Characters interface in OSX to try an empty password in iTunes.

https://deciphertools.com/blog/forgotten-itunes-backup-password/

As always, I also recommend trying old passcodes, Apple id passwords, old passwords, etc as well. And remember, if it is a phone setup by your work, you may not have set the backup password, IT might have

Hi Guys!

I hope this will help some of you! I have spent the afternoon in tears thinking I had lost all of my photos, messages etc. Some were of great importance to me and the thought of losing them all was more than I could bear.

I read many, MANY forum and support posts about trying all of your APPLE passwords and APPLE ID stuff along with all of your APPLE passkeys/passcodes...

The reason I'm putting APPLE in caps is that in total desperation I entered a password THAT I HAVE NEVER USED AS AN APPLE PASSWORD/PASSCODE EVER and my phone is now restored.

Please, please, please just try any, ANY password you can to unlock your backup's.

sianieg0810 wrote:

 

 

Please, please, please just try any, ANY password you can to unlock your backup's.

 

 

That really goes without saying, doesn't it? Now that you've worked out your password, can you please tell me what happens if you now try to do another backup?

If you try to backup your (same) phone, is the "Encrypt backup" box already ticked? If so, what happens if you try to untick it?

If my suspicion is correct, you now need to remember this password for all future backups you make.

I don't think it does go without saying!!! the password that let me in has had nothing to do with Apple or Windows (my laptop isn't password protected, so can't be anything to with a Windows or system administrator password) so I found it very random that this was the password itunes chose to accept!

First thing I did was back up the phone, correctly, without encryption. The box wasn't "greyed" out and as I had just entered the correct password, I could choose to encrypt or not. After running an unencrypted backup, I did notice that it automatically switched to attempting to run an encrytped back up straight away. I stopped this, it did ask for a password to stop, but as I now have the password this isn't a problem.

The current backup saved on my computer is a non-encrypted copy of my backup, no password needed.

once you have the password, you really are free to do what you want with your backups.

sianieg0810 wrote:

 

 

The current backup saved on my computer is a non-encrypted copy of my backup, no password needed.

 

 

once you have the password, you really are free to do what you want with your backups.

True. But the backup will also not include health app data, keychain or passwords for apps and WiFi.

I too was locked out of recovery by a password that I never remember setting up that wasn't my Apple ID password or PIN and this reply triggered me to try the Exchange password I used at my last job where I used this iPhone for work. It worked!

If you've ever had your phone connected to your work or school's exchange try that password first.

sianieg0810 wrote:

 

First thing I did was back up the phone, correctly, without encryption. The box wasn't "greyed" out and as I had just entered the correct password, I could choose to encrypt or not. After running an unencrypted backup, I did notice that it automatically switched to attempting to run an encrytped back up straight away. I stopped this, it did ask for a password to stop, but as I now have the password this isn't a problem.

 

The current backup saved on my computer is a non-encrypted copy of my backup, no password needed.

 

 

So you're saying that after discovering the password to an old backup, it let you back up the phone once without a password? But then the second attempt to do a backup required you to know the password in order not to put a password on the backup?

Have you verified that the first backup can be restored without knowing the password?