buckeye89

Q: 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

Close

Q: Lost Password to iPhone Backup

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 38 of 39 last Next
  • by EobardT,

    EobardT EobardT Aug 8, 2016 10:14 AM in response to buckeye89
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 8, 2016 10:14 AM in response to buckeye89

    Does anyone know of a solution that doesn't involve randomly trying different passwords?  I've tried everything suggested on this thread, including all of my common new and old passwords and nothing works. 

     

    This is such a poorly implemented user experience from Apple - I'm really disappointed.  Why didn't they let me know in advance that they were going to lock my backup and have me confirm or set the password?  I didn't ask for the backup to be encrypted nor was I warned it would be.  Now it's like Apple is holding all of my data hostage and I have no way to get it back.

  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Aug 8, 2016 10:54 AM in response to EobardT
    Level 8 (37,982 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 8, 2016 10:54 AM in response to EobardT

    There are only 2 ways a backup becomes encrypted.

    1. You checked Encrypt Backup at some time in the past, whether you remember doing it or not.
    2. You have a company Email account on your phone and your administrator imposed encryption on your phone.

    IN either case you would have been presented with a dialogue saying that your backup would be encrypted and you would have been prompted for a pass phrase. Twice. That pass phrase will never change unless you change it.

  • by andradf1,

    andradf1 andradf1 Aug 12, 2016 1:37 PM in response to IPhoneMaster12
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 12, 2016 1:37 PM in response to IPhoneMaster12

    Straightforward!

    Done

  • by italianproblemsolver,

    italianproblemsolver italianproblemsolver Aug 13, 2016 6:53 AM in response to buckeye89
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 13, 2016 6:53 AM in response to buckeye89

    Hi, I may have the answer...

     

    I have an iPhone 6 and this problem happened to me also, this morning. Made a back up locally WITH NO PASSWORD, then restored factory settings and when I tried to restore from back up it asked for a password I never gave. Tried 0000, 1234, 12345, my phone unlock password, I tried reconnecting, restarting I phone, itunes, etc... nothing worked, and the same stupid message kept on coming up when attempting to restore.

     

    Then it occurred to me that itunes may set the password (it's a bug all the same) to the Apple password, i.e. your ITunes account password, same password that you use for this forum! and thank ****, it worked.

     

    Good luck, and hope it saves you the hours I lost

  • by M.seacy,

    M.seacy M.seacy Aug 17, 2016 8:36 PM in response to buckeye89
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 17, 2016 8:36 PM in response to buckeye89

    Hello Everyone, I have the solution

     

    I had the same problem and I have tried all passwords that I can remember and tried all the possible solutions posted here but still doesn't work.

     

    I then tried my old iTunes password and it worked. I don't know why it set it up like this but try to use all of your old iTunes passwords.

  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Aug 17, 2016 8:59 PM in response to M.seacy
    Level 8 (37,982 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 17, 2016 8:59 PM in response to M.seacy

    ""It" didn't set it up that way, you did. "It" prompts you for a password the first time you make a backup encrypted (twice) and it uses what you entered, whether you remember doing it or not. And never changes that password unless you explicitly change it.

     

    if you read some of the other messages in this thread you will see that not all of those who have finally guessed their backup password found it to be an iTunes password. In fact, very few did.

  • by Straight-Six,

    Straight-Six Straight-Six Aug 20, 2016 11:00 AM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 20, 2016 11:00 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

    Alright, same happened to me. My iPhone was accidentally reset and I needed my backup from iTunes (I had disabled iCloud for other valid reasons). I did not remember the password. To cut a long story short: Long time ago, on some other iTunes on some other PC, I made a backup and back then I *did* provide a password. That backup was on a different PC. The password was the name of a popular CD, so I know it was some time ago :-). On the current PC, I was *not* asked for a password when I made the backup. HOWEVER, the backup on this new pc was encrypted with - you will by now have guessed it - the password provided long time ago. Luckily I hade made a note back then...

    Hope this might help some of you!

  • by Bullet23,

    Bullet23 Bullet23 Aug 20, 2016 7:34 PM in response to leabe18
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 20, 2016 7:34 PM in response to leabe18

    Administrator password to the machine..  This got me back in...   thank god...  don't know how it got set that way though??

  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Aug 21, 2016 6:31 AM in response to Bullet23
    Level 8 (37,982 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 21, 2016 6:31 AM in response to Bullet23

    Bullet23 wrote:

     

    Administrator password to the machine..  This got me back in...   thank god...  don't know how it got set that way though??

    It got that way because the first time an encrypted backup was required (which may have been years ago) by either checking the box or because an MS Exchange administrator set a security policy on the phone you were prompted for and entered the Administrator password. Twice, because you were prompted for it twice.

  • by fernandofromUN,

    fernandofromUN fernandofromUN Aug 23, 2016 7:47 PM in response to mabual2
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iPod
    Aug 23, 2016 7:47 PM in response to mabual2

    I agree with you Mabual2, it is very frustrating having all of these issues after buying this expensive phone.  I have lost all my data due to this stupid error of iTunes..

  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Aug 24, 2016 6:26 AM in response to fernandofromUN
    Level 8 (37,982 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 24, 2016 6:26 AM in response to fernandofromUN

    It is not a "stupid error of iTunes". It is your error for not remembering or writing down the password that you entered when you created your first encrypted backup.

  • by Straight-Six,

    Straight-Six Straight-Six Aug 24, 2016 9:43 AM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 24, 2016 9:43 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

    The part I did not anticipate was that if you would backup your phone to a newly installed PC with a new iTunes download, the backup would be encrypted with the password used previously at another PC. My password - as mentioned - a popular CD from 2008 (don't worry, I changed it :-)) suggests the password even propagates from an IPhone 4 to a 5. Is that possible? Where is this password (or its hash) stored?

    On the bright side: Because I had a backup, after the accidental erasure of my phone I was able to recover it!

  • by veronicabp,

    veronicabp veronicabp Aug 31, 2016 6:29 PM in response to Favete
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 31, 2016 6:29 PM in response to Favete

    Thank you so much! That did it!  I may actually have set it to the phone's password myself on purpose so I wouldn't forget, but the long typing window in a computer suggests a more convoluted password, so I thought a four-digit PIN wouldn't be it, but it was! 

     

    Thank you so much for the tip!

  • by bagonbagoong,

    bagonbagoong bagonbagoong Sep 9, 2016 9:12 PM in response to miniphtnb
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 9, 2016 9:12 PM in response to miniphtnb

    Thanks miniphtnb.  I added a step 1a - make a cup of coffee.

     

    No worries after that.

  • by Ddhruv,

    Ddhruv Ddhruv Sep 10, 2016 12:20 AM in response to leabe18
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 10, 2016 12:20 AM in response to leabe18

    Wow - thanks this helped !!

first Previous Page 38 of 39 last Next