Level 1

28 points

iTunes asking for backup password???

I am upgrading my iphone 4 to iOS 5. I backed up my phone (via iTunes 10.5) and downloaded and installed iOS 5. I am now going through the setup process and it is at the "Restore from iTunes Backup" step. I connect to iTunes and iTunes is prompting me for a password to "unlock your iPhone backup file." No I did not encrypt the iPhone backup, nor is it or was it checked in iTunes. I have tried my iTunes password, my 4 digit unlock code for the iPhone, and several other passwords. When I did the backup an hour ago I was not asked for a password. I am at a loss as to what it is.

iPhone 4

Posted on Oct 12, 2011 1:11 PM

Top-ranking reply

Fredgallagher

Level 1

0 points

Posted on Jul 24, 2012 10:46 AM

Guys, here is our experience with this bug (and yes Apple this is a bad bug not a bad memory) and here is how we got around it.

My wife recently attempted to upgrade her iPhone to 5.1.1 and iTunes advised her that she would need to do a complete backup and restore process on her iPhone which she agreed to and let it start. So it did the backup, upgraded her iPhone and then when it attempted to restore the backup it halted and asked her for the password for her encrypted backup. As other folks have indicated, she hadn't requested this backup or any other backup in the past to be encrypted, but regardless we could not proceed beyond this point. We tried every combination of password she or I had ever used with no avail. We also spent hours with the Genius Bar folks and the online Apple support folks and received plenty of empathy but no results. You really are left with the impression that this is your fault and that somewhere in your dark past you or someone in your family encrypted a backup with a password.

So we went the Elcomsoft password breaker route which some folks here have used with success. i would like to share my experiences here because I feel I owe this forum a favour and also to make sure you know how to get this software to best work for you ,because even though its very powerful, its not totally intuitive.

First Attempt - We downloaded the Elcomsoft free trial version of the software, told it to run, asked it to go against our iPhone backup file, selected the most recent iPhone backup (btw this wasn't that days but instead was one from 2 weeks ago - another bug Apple) and told it to start. When it starts, it will tell you how long it expects to take and in this case it said 4 hours. As the Elcomsoft software is running it says what its "attack rate" is of approximately 700 password attempts per second and it displays its current attempt every second so you can see it work through the possibilities. In this case, under their "task" I had accepted the default "english dic - no mutations" So with this default it just attacked with standard unicase dictionary words and after about 2 hours it finished with no success.

Next Attempt - I wasn't suprised and decided to look deeper. If you double click on "english-dic" it will open a box showing your selection and displaying the mutations options "disabled". if you click that, you can see that you also have the options of minimal, average or maximal mutations. I chose "maximal" and it in turn advised me that it could take up to 4 days to run this attack! So I quickly backed off from that and chose "minimal" and it in turn advised me that it would take up to 30 hours to run this attack. I chose this solution, but before running it on my wife's backup, I ran it on my iPad's backup on a separate computer where I intentionally protected it with a password of "1234". Off it went, and you could see it apply different combinations of numbers, letters and special characters. In was kind of fun to see and in less than 2 minutes, it found the password and came back showing 12**. If you want to see the ** characters, you then need to buy the application at around $80 and get a registration key.

Successful attempt - So with that little success under my belt, I started the "minimal" attack on my wife's computer and her iPhone backup. And 25.5 hours (it said it took 91,871 seconds) later it was successful and showed the result as Pr*****. So at this stage, you could try variations of Pr and 5 characters, but since we had never encrypted our backup and also never used a password beginning with Pr, and because Elcomsoft was going to save us a lot of grief if we had to leave the iPhone at factory settings, we elected to register the software and proceed with payment. Success!! Her phone is now on 5.1.1, all her application data is in place and we have a happy household and I am a hero!

Learnings - #1 - Encrypt your iPhone/ iPad backup intentionally with a password you selected vs. letting some bug somewhere select it for you. #2 - Make sure all your important passwords such as your PC or MAC signon and your online banking software are secure and complex, because this type of software is very powerful and there are a lot of bad guys out there that will use it for the wrong reason. Elcomsoft has provisions to protect it from being used for the wrong purpose, but others might not. During those 25.5 hours, I estimate it attempted over 64 million attacks! #3 Elcomsoft is in Russia! So it will take a few hours to process your payment since they don't seem to work 24/7. So kinda of scary, but it worked.

Thanks

Fred

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423 replies

Jun 27, 2012 3:16 PM in response to romangrey

Oh, alternatively, we've synced to the same computer with different accounts, so if you've also synced more than one phone or had more than one iTunes account logged into iTunes on your computer, it's possible that the password to one of those accounts is the culprit.

Try that if my earlier suggestion doesn't work.

GOOD LUCK!

Jul 1, 2012 7:24 AM in response to wsucoug95

i finally found out my password for backup!

okay i was reading your question then the answers, i DID try my apple ID password but it didn't work. Tip for other people is.. what is the password you ALWAYS use?

i used mine for 5 years and going..(!)

i ESPECIALLY do not remember setting up a backup password. I was soo unsure what to do when upgrading like you did to iOS5 so whenever i was bothered, i would go on iTunes and click backup 4x and transfer purcheses 4x.. i was so curious. i DID tick the backup thingy box, being my curious self.. but the tip is to find out a password you ALWAYS use. I always write down my passwords in a book or computer or my other apple devices. Writing something down helps you remember it, that's why teachers order you to write 'I shall not...' 100 times on the board or paper.

I hope i helped. x

Sep 24, 2012 8:38 AM in response to wsucoug95

ive just recieved my iphone 5 and tried a number of passwords with no luck also..

my itunes password is a number, 4 capital letters, a number then 5 lower case letters ..

I just tried my password with all lowercase letters and now the restore is in progress... yippee

Oct 22, 2012 12:43 PM in response to wsucoug95

Disconect your USB cable from the computer to your Iphone
Sign out of your I Tunes account in your computer
Connect your USB again back to your computer
Sign in again with your I tunes password

That did it for me.

Dec 26, 2012 1:05 PM in response to wsucoug95

it really is time that APPLE, yes the company responsible for all this , actually reads their own message boards, talks to its customers, stops lying and fixes its own problems it burdens us with.

I have had this problem for 2 hours now, finally fixed, it was an old password i used to use, not that id set it on my backups,,except it was in CAPITOLS , so if any of you are trying old passwords, give it a try with your CAPS LOCK on.

SO Pi55ed off with apple lately, it really is high time that their shortcomings are more heard by the rest of the public.

After being an UBER LOYAL apple fan for over 12 years, and having spent thousands and thousands on hardware and software.. i am seriously thinking about changing to Linux and Android.

btw, check out in the news how apple treated their best ios programmer, Scott Forstall, Shame on you apple.

Scott you will be missed.

Jan 11, 2013 6:54 AM in response to wsucoug95

It is your actual Apple computer login password, so when you log in to puter it is that password/ the one you also use to install new software that is all that worked for me. with caps as well.

FORGIT to add I could not access the original, so I started from new, as I had all on my computer, so the default is the computer password.

I might add though I do not recall adding a backup password so not happy I could not re install.

drchady

Level 1

0 points

Feb 8, 2013 10:58 PM in response to wsucoug95

I too was completely bewildered at first, when the restore asked me for a password. But then I remembered that I enabled encrypted iCloud backup at some point, and set it with a different password than the Apple ID one. Everything checks out 🙂

Aug 25, 2015 1:50 PM in response to jared275

jared275 wrote:

I just want to turn off that encrypt local backup checkbox ...

You can, but you need the password to do so (it would be pointless to have a password if it wasn't needed to access your backup).

jared275 wrote:

I don't care about the prior backup.

In that case, restore your iPhone and don't try to load the (encrypted) backup. Or without having to restore, change your process to backup to iCloud instead of your computer.

May 13, 2016 1:25 PM in response to geta

Once you select an Encrypted backup method, it remains an Encrypted backup method until you turn it off by unchecking the box and supplying the password that was used to begin the Encryption process.

There is nothing to explain to the Call Center staff, and the responses are not dogmatic and self-righteous, just the facts:

About encrypted backups in iTunes - Apple Support

No one is mad. Just emphasizing that Encrypted backups do not set themselves up....

Cheers,

Jun 27, 2016 12:41 AM in response to typewriter_on_LSD

GUYS......Please try to remember all the passwords used in your life with all combinations.

As this is a Itunes bug which automatically encrypts the file even if you didn't setup the password.

This bug encrypted my data from the jobsite password which I used in the past. Luckly I save everything in my Notes (Iphone) and eventually sync to Gmail account.

Try this helpful step.

I recovered my Files after 2 days of fight.

Cheers.........🙂

Oct 12, 2011 11:36 PM in response to wsucoug95

i used 0000 and somehow this worked, im pretty sure ive never used this password for my i phone.... go figure! Good Luck all

Oct 13, 2011 12:04 PM in response to wsucoug95

Guys I had the same problem. I've put the pass 12345 and voilà, it worked...

If this is the new Apple Era we are doomed.

iTommyT

Level 1

0 points

Oct 14, 2011 8:22 AM in response to Jordan811

Finally after 12 hours, what worked for me was my first iTunes password.

Oct 14, 2011 12:25 PM in response to tp1224

Very first password ever used on the device is the one that seemed to work for me.

Dec 27, 2011 10:20 AM in response to wsucoug95

Just ran into the same issue. Found that i was my itunes account pasword without the numbers. Hope that helps someone.

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iTunes asking for backup password???