iTunes asking for backup password???

With all due respect, Llenooo_xx you are wrong and lucky. If you would read the hundreds of responses to this thread, you will see that each and everyone of us tried the password we always use. 99%'of the time the correct password turned out to be one we DON'T always use. That's the problem. In my case it was a password that belonged to my middle daughter's Facebook account and my oldest daughter was syncing on a computer that the middle daughter never touched. This is why this. Bug is so ugly, it takes some random password that you may have on,y used once and some times one you have never used with iTunes or your device. Which boggles the mind that apple has not addressed this yet.

Hi

The latest version of itunes has an option where you can set the password for backup. If you check that option, it asks for a password. You can set a password, and then it will encryp the subsequent backups with that password, and you dont have to go through the pain that a lot of people had to go through.

I just updated my wife's iphone 4 from iOS 4.4.3 to iOS 6. Before the update, I updated the version of itunes to the latest. Before installing the new iOS 6.0 on the phone, I set the option to password protect the backups. I think it is on the "general" settings page when you connect your iPhone. It is a little low on the page so you might have to scroll down.

Good Luck.

And I am 100% sure that I tried this one for a hundred times yesterday!

Hi. Sorry to be blunt but you didn't. Not only did you set that password all that time ago but you, 100% sure, didn't input it correctly any of the times you tried yesterday (which I'm willing to bet weren't a hundred times, but it's not important any way).

Everyone in this thread must understand this:

You or someone in your computer set the password you insist you didn't.

You didn't type it correctly any time you think you did, when you tried before and it didn't work.

Apple not only doesn't know your "other" passwords to be able to use it here, but it doesn't even know your Apple passwords. Encryption doesn't work like that and even if it did, encrypting local backups has no realtionship to what apple does remotely.

As I said, I'm sorry, but this thread was already sad before people started insinuating upgrading is a bad idea due to security. This is ridiculous.

If I had your device there's no way I'm getting any information out of it without your passcode or finger. Sure there are tools out there to hack into the device, but not available to the average dirtbag. Without your passcode or fingerprint, no one's getting in. However, your computer may or may not have the same level of access restriction, hence the option to encrypt the computer's copy of your backup.

"However, your computer may or may not have the same level of access restriction" - If you elaborated on this it might lead somewhere.

I thought I had and I wish I had the option to encrypt the computer's copy of the backup. That's what I thought I turned on. However, this option apparently also locks out my ability to create unencrypted backups in the future. The option does more than one thing, and it doesn't tell me that it is doing the 2nd thing, and it permanently locks me out without giving me any warning.

Apple doesn't need to mention anything because it is quite evident that applying encryption requires you to remember the password (hence the requirement to verify the password you chose when you set it).

I agree that it is quite evident that applying encryption requires me to remember the password, in order to decrypt whatever I encrypted. In this case, I was encrypting a local backup on my computer. I forgot the password and I fully accept that I cannot decrypt the backup (if I still had it).

You seem to be confused ... encrypting your backup does not make your device inaccessible or locked out for normal use.

I am fully aware that I have not been locked out for normal daily use, as I have been using the device daily for years. I would think that making unencrypted backups is also normal use, and I should not be denied that normal use simply because once upon a time I encrypted a backup on some computer that I might not have anymore.

Your computer analogy does not apply to this scenario at all ... name a situation "in the normal computer world" where if you password-protect some information that you still have the ability to access the same (protected) information without the password. In some computer situations there are password recovery options, but not in situations where you, the user, assign and administer the password yourself.

This isn't that complicated. If I have a server and I create a backup of the server on my local computer, and I encrypt that backup with a password, then my server is not encrypted; only the backup on my local computer is encrypted. Of course I can't access the backup without the password. However, my backup software would not encrypt (or cripple) my server without asking me to. That would be insane.

The only way to get a encrypted backup is to know the password. If you don't know the encrypted password then you can not get the backup. If you want to take it off you have to restore the phone to factory settings. WRITE DOWN YOUR PASSWORDS not just the passwords but what is capital and what is lower case

This was super helpful! I tried every password I could think of that I had used on Apple (therefore would have upper and lower case) but not necessarily, try any passwords used for any account and hopefully one will work! Seems everyone is right and Apple have just grabbed passwords from anywhere (a bit scary!!)

I have just finished Sync. Had to define it as new IPhone on the phone itself, but all the apps and contacts and music is there, except the folders- I have to rearrange, also Favorites has gone

Just enter the name of Iphone recognized by the itune.

It worked for me

still happening with ios 8 4.5 years after this thread was started with ios 5.

had this happen to my mom. the password was one she *only* uses for work webmail.

Well, I guess if you're ready to forget all your settings and start fresh, you can always delete the backup. Disconnect the phone from your PC, reconnect it and, when iTunes comes up with the "...interrupted while restoring..." message, use the "Delete Backup" button. I haven't tried it but I guess it will do the trick.

Personnally, still working on the password thing... and hoping for Divine intervention 🙂

Thanks Gremlin 13 for telling your "adventure" with support.

I still hope that a future version of itunes will solve it, although it is an older problem, there are messages explaining this since last year, like :

password for my backup

But most (and there are more than 100 threads, most of then short-lived) are from the last weeks, after ios5.

I have tried using an utility to search for the password of a itunes backup, but, as has happened to other people, it says it is unencrypted, so this seems to be a very big/bad/ugly bug.

Also there is an utility to look at backups that seems to have help some people :

http://download.cnet.com/iBackupBot/3000-18551_4-75532275.html?tag=contentMain;c ontentBody;2d

Not really useful to me, as I did a sync, and that seemed to produce a new backup that overwrite the old one (without asking, of course).

But when connecting the iphone it keeps asking for a password to continue the restore...

I have put a new password on my new backup, but that doesn´t works, itunes keeps asking for the password.

I have also tried all passwords on the keychain, and some out of the keychain, but none works.

Good luck to all.

No, it isn't the user login password of the machine that you last synced your iPhone on, at least for me!

I've founded that it was the password of the computer that I synced for the first time (I don't have that computer anymore and I have never synced this device to that computer!!).

I've used my old iPhone 3g on that computer and then with the backup I've synced all the data on my new iPhone 4 white.

I really don't know how it takes the password automatically, maybe I think that at this point the Apple support can provide a clear answer to this problem.

Neither 0000 nor 1234 worked for me. I got so scared. Then I tried 'littlemonster' or 'ladygaga' (passwords I put on vague websites) That also didn't work.

Finally, I tried my name in small letters, and IT WORKED LIKE MAGIC!

So I'm just *guessing* the password can be your *Apple ID(iTunes) password* without numbers and special characters. Might be. 🙂

This undocumented scenario is just unfathomable. The amount of grief, lost time, and great stress is something to be held against Apple. This is a deep black eye for them.

Yes, I ran into the same problem doing an upgrade to 5.n. Never asked or gave a pw, but required it to restore. What the...

After reading this thread I figured out that the pw was my original pw on the phone. But since that does not seem to always work for everybody, I am thinking it is the pw on your phone at the time you do your first logon to istore, or the first time you sync or something like that.

Good luck to everybody.

It happened this morning. I updated my iOS to 5.1 and it made a backup as usual. I never EVER provided a password for all my backups of iOS - Devices - this is the first backup on my MacBook Pro which all after sudden is encrypted and I DID NOT provide a password and I DID NOT check the encrypt my backup - box.

I tried to restore my backup for 4 hours and I finally gave up. I used my Apple-ID password, my Mac - Password, my iPhone-Unlock-Screen digits - I used 0000 , 12345, password , Facebook - Password , Email-Password, Banking-Password .... NOTHING worked.

This bug seems so random it is unbelieveable - so I keep the encrypted backup and hope that APPLE comes up with a solution - this is unbelieveable - I've lost my pictures and some other data. I've read here that some guy punched in his iTunes-Password for 4 hours and suddenly it worked - what the f.... is that ?

Apple has to come up with a solution and be upfront about this Bug - this is unbelieveable. The responsible manager and developer have to be fired right on the spot.

I'm a Software Engineer too - but not to test such a important feature is a absolut NO GO.