iTunes asking for backup password???

I just ran into this issue, and all of these crazy forum threads. I just want to turn off that encrypt local backup checkbox -- I don't care about the prior backup. Almost 4 years later and there is no fix to this? I am imagining Apple picks one major bug at random and refuses to not fix it just to maintain an edgy image, and their team building events they get popcorn and read these forum posts. I hope I entertain you, Apple.

PS - Thanks for posting the guide, Gail. 🙂

(At least there is an (inconvenient, data loss) answer in there for me if I really want it, to restore from iCloud.)

There is so much stress in life sometimes -- I figured I would vent and flip out over a checkbox instead of something more important 😝

"That demonstrates that you don't get it ... if I had access to your stuff and wanted to unencrypt your backup, and all I had to do was delete the existing (encrypted) backup and make a new (unencrypted) one from what's on your iPhone,that would completely defeat the purpose of passwords and encryption. Think about what you're proposing and you'll see the flaw in your logic."

In your example here, you have access to my iPhone. In the normal computer world, if you had access to my device, then you should be able to access all the data on it. It would be my responsibility to either encrypt the device to make it inaccessible, or else make sure it doesn't fall into your hands.

The Apple iTunes user interface makes no mention that it is making my device inaccessible when I encrypt a local backup stored on my computer, therefore Apple is clearly in the wrong, UX-wise.

In the normal computer world, if I make a backup of something, and encrypt that backup, that does not lock me out of whatever I encrypted. That would be bizarre. Yet here we are.

rockmyplimsoul wrote:

jared275 wrote:

In the normal computer world, if you had access to my device, then you should be able to access all the data on it.

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

Actually, since iOS 7, there are no tools to hack into an iPhone. Which has the FBI and CIA upset, and some congresscritters want to pass laws making it illegal to sell unhackable devices.

Csound1 wrote:

Your iPhone has not been crippled, can you stay in reasonable proximity to the facts?

My phone (iPad actually) has not been entirely crippled, nor did I claim it was -- I said I have been using it daily for years. However, it has been crippled in regards to the feature I am trying to use (making backups to my local computer), because Apple did not warn me that my device would be crippled in this way if I happened to some day not remember the password of a local computer backup that I no longer needed.

If backup software for servers crippled servers in any way, without telling the owner of the server, especially if it is was something that was not immediately apparent, the users of the software would rightfully raise a bug report.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

I am confident that servers have competent administrators that understand how security should be implemented. That's why there are tests and certifications for server administrators.

Server backup software works as expected: it doesn't cripple your server when you make an encrypted backup. You don't even need to prepare for a test or certification to know that!

I am confident that server & PC & every other backup software have competent UI designers that understand that users should not be locked out of device features without warning by doing something as innocuous as making an encrypted backup. That's why they don't have 20 page forum threads when users discover they are negatively impacted by a hidden "feature".

Unlike Apple, backup software companies are usually too boring to have a cult following. They just fix misleading user interfaces and move on, instead of living in their own "Apple can do no wrong" bubble for 6 years while the outsiders are infuriated. How wrong does Apple have to be before any of you will admit that their user interface is misleading and lacks sufficient warnings?

jared275 wrote:

Lawrence Finch wrote:

I am confident that servers have competent administrators that understand how security should be implemented. That's why there are tests and certifications for server administrators.

Server backup software works as expected: it doesn't cripple your server when you make an encrypted backup. You don't even need to prepare for a test or certification to know that!

Did you need to take a test in order not to understand the need for preserving a password? maybe writing it down?

Did you need to take a test in order not to understand the need for preserving a password? maybe writing it down?

Normally, the only thing that should require a password after encrypting something is when you want to decrypt it. Since I don't want to decrypt what I encrypted (the backup on my local computer), I shouldn't have to enter the encryption password.

As I said in a previous reply to the same problem on a different page: I know all three passwords for apple and itunes. I write them down. I had three; two I had written down. The third I remember because I only recently changed it. The fix for cafarrer doesn't work for me. It's a shame.

I really hate these Apple forum discussions because I'm desperate when I come here, but mostly I get other people with the same problem, not a solution. What a shame.

After 36 years of programming you should know that passwords on a computer are not stored in a way that they can be pulled from a password store without the cooperation of the user. And passwords are not stored in plain text anywhere on your computer; they are stored either encrypted or using an irreversible hash. So what you think happened is simply impossible.

With 36 years of programming, he would have also discovered that programmers, including programmers at Microsoft and Apple are infallible and never make mistakes. (Such as the iTunes programmers who might be referencing stored credentials in the Windows Credential Manager, many of which, due to the infallible wisdom of Microsoft, are stored in an unencrypted (or perhaps decrypted while the user is logged in), insecure way, perhaps referenced by iTunes by an index of an enumeration of credentials, or by a (repeatedly used) username, instead of by an application-unique identifier, and iTunes is either accessing the insecure unencrypted password directly, or else conducting a forward hash against an existing credential's hash in order to unlock the never-encrypted backup from the interface that iTunes locked without the user asking. I don't know exactly how this works, but I don't need to do further research since surely there has never been any security breaches regarding the storage of passwords, ever, in the history of computing, so this is simply impossible.)

Here I am now, looking at Nirsoft Password Recovery tool, seeing a whole bunch of my Windows passwords in clear text, without forward hashing, but since this is impossible, I must also be suffering delusions.

"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." And the truth must therefore be that this support forum should support its people by handing out medication for mass delusion. "Think different," indeed.

FWIW, I'm inclined to stick with Apple for mobile devices, and their stubbornly flawed and (partially) broken iTunes software because they do seem to take security more seriously than Android (or Microsoft, although they improved the credential storage in Windows 8.) However, the quality of support in this forum thread remains hostile to people having legitimate problems, so that doesn't speak well for the community of Apple users.

I think that since Apple can lock down a computer that's halfway across the world using icloud, they could also offer an option to use that technology to give the necessary credentials to unencrypt a local file. Obviously many people are losing data because of the current situation, and whether they mistakenly input a password without realizing it or simply forgot it, there could be a method of resolving it using the icloud platform, if Apple were so inclined.

Hotchili wrote:

I think that since Apple can lock down a computer that's halfway across the world using icloud, they could also offer an option to use that technology to give the necessary credentials to unencrypt a local file. Obviously many people are losing data because of the current situation, and whether they mistakenly input a password without realizing it or simply forgot it, there could be a method of resolving it using the icloud platform, if Apple were so inclined.

iTunes backups are local, nothing to do with the cloud.

The answer is not to forget the password, or if you are incapable of that, don't use one

Hotchili wrote:

I think that since Apple can lock down a computer that's halfway across the world using icloud, they could also offer an option to use that technology to give the necessary credentials to unencrypt a local file. Obviously many people are losing data because of the current situation, and whether they mistakenly input a password without realizing it or simply forgot it, there could be a method of resolving it using the icloud platform, if Apple were so inclined.

Activation Lock does not touch your computer or iOS device. It marks it as locked in THEIR servers. Apple has no access to your computer at all, and the backup passcode is stored only on your computer. That is intentional, so no one can accuse Apple of stealing or accessing your data. And so Apple can legally refuse to unlock your backup for spy agencies or law enforcement, because it is technically impossible. If there were any way for Apple to decrypt your backup, it would just be a matter of time before some hacker figured it out. Be careful what you wish for. This is the whole political argument for "back door" access that the FBI, CIA, NSA, GCHQ some legislators want to mandate.