Q: Lost Password to iPhone Backup

Since Apple likes to delete my well thought out and informed posts... I'll keep it short.

Make iTunes require the backup password BEFORE restoring. If it cannot not be entered, allow the user to create a new password for this backup.

I restored my iphone 6 yesterday, and instead of forcing me to enter a password, or at minimum, warning me a password would be required, I now have a useless 15gb backup containing 5 years of photos. With a warning, I could have at least got more iCloud storage to do an iCloud backup.

By the way, thanks Apple for removing my previous reply, too bad you don't actually read them for solutions to make everyone's lives easier.

You are a lifesaver!

This worked like a charm! Simple, elegant, easy!

“riptide30” put it perfectly:

“The fact that these backups are tied to ancient passwords is [completely ridiculous]. Here's an idea... Instead of allowing someone to create a backup while not knowing it will be useless in the future, MAKE THE USER ENTER THE PASSWORD OR CREATE A NEW ONE PRIOR TO EVERY SINGLE BACKUP! … I now have a backup that was just created yesterday that is now useless because iTunes chose to auto assign it an random password I used years ago FOR A DIFFERENT BACKUP.

This is the issue. I should not be allowed to even create a backup until iTunes is sure I know the password for it. iTunes did not ask for a password before backing up. As I rarely ever backup/restore I wasn't aware that one would be required. Had I known I would have taken care of it.”

EXACTLY. Apple needs to fix this process.

Thank you! You are correct! I was using the current 6 digits passcode but when I tried 4 digits passcode that I had set up earlier..it worked!!

password not recognised for backup restore, so I checked encrypt box and entered a new password which I input into backup password box then stopped a further backup and everything OK, back up working now.

Hi

I've just had the most frustrating few hours! If only I realised I needed to know my password for restoring my phone through iTunes, then I wouldn't have had this problem. So, I tried the many passwords I thought it could be, with different variations such as capital letters and numbers. I actually figured it out by accident, just of of depearation tapping my keyboard with a password I thought wouldn't have been associated with my apple products, and voila! So, my advice is to use the passwords you could have used at the start of any apple products you have purchased and make a note of them as you go along (distroying the paper afterewards of course). Also remember that you could have changed it to something whilst upgrading the product - I found mine was a password I started to use more frequently rather than historically. Best of luck

YES this is what worked!!  The "password" is the lock code you used on your very first iPhone from 2007(in my case) or whenever you first had one!  Thanks so much!!!  :-)

I'm very happy that it worked for you, but the only reason it worked for you is because you entered that for the backup password when you made your first encrypted backup 7 years ago. Of the 590 people who posted in this thread, there are hundreds of different passwords that unlocked the backup. For a few it was a screen unlock passcode, but for most it was not. You must have entered it, because your lock code is stored only on the phone, never in iTunes or anywhere else on your computer, and is not included in the backup.