iTunes asking for backup password???

if you ever set a password, try that again. in my case, it was the very first password I tried. according to the apple rep i spoke with today, there have been "server issues" that have caused correct passwords to be rejected and passwords to be required when none were set. this kinda' explains why my password worked today but didn't work the past two days....it also explains why some people were prompted for a password once but not on a later attempt.

i know it *****, but try the most likely passwords again. one of them will probably work now, even if it didn't the first, second, third, or twentieth time. it did for me...

again me (previous post) i tried the same freaking password and it finally worked!..... SAME ONE as i was trying 3 hours ago......

Apple screw us big time here.....

i hope your work guys! cheers!

M

I worked the password issue out.... Well this worked for me anyway

The password did turn out to be my usual password. I tried this password MANY times when trying to backup my new 4S from my old 3GS, but it was never accepted.

So I tried to change the encrypted back password within iTunes. It asked me for my old password and to set a new one.

THIS WORKED!!! Old password was accepted as was the new one I entered.

I have now totally backed by my new 4S with my 3GS data!

Though, did you know that XP is not supported with 4S, so your Mail details will not be restored. But all my contacts, messages, apps, phone call dats etc have been totally restored! Phew!

I have this same problem today, for some reason itunes doesnt change the password in the system if you change your own pw, so your very first pw used will be the one no matter how many times you change you itunes password, **** it took me forever to remember a password from 3 yrs ago.

I had the same problem, i tried different passwords that I used for yahoo etc. one of the old password worked for me.......

Same problem after installing ios5 on my iPad1. Prompt with backup password I never set.

What eventually worked for me is an old password from 3 years ago that I never used for Appled ID, 4 digit code, apps, email accounts, etc. I couldn't even have used this password for my iPad since it wasn't even out yet when I was using this password!

I have a feeling somehow iTunes mysteriously took a password used for my iPhone 3G and applied it to my iPad backup. It's been too long to remember exactly, but it is possible I encrypted my 3G backups with this password.

Best of luck to all of you...

I was having the same problem. Could not figure it out. None of the usual passwords worked and I had no iPhone backup in the Keychain. I finally remembered that I had previously synced the phone with a different computer. I logged in to that computer and checked the Keychain Access. Lo and behold, there were two iPhone backup entries and one of them had a password that worked to unlock the backup!

This seems like a bug. I'd be curious to know whether others who have solved this problem also backed up their phones on more than one computer.

Anyway, it's working now. Hope this is helpful to someone.

SAME ISSUE!!!! I have been pulling my hair out for 2 days as I lost all my photos and I was ready to trash my phone ..... I did some further searching on google out of desperation and found an anser - it was my gmail password as gmail is synced to my phone. Backup restore now complete and everything is restored. I now have the option of going in and changing the backup restore password.

I HAVE A SOLOUTION!!!!! iTunes is literally grabbing a password that it think only you would know, as in an email password or a Facebook/Twitter password (in my case it was Facebook 😉) but the key is that IT IS A PASSWORD USED ON YOUR DEVICE. It doesn't grab one that's only on your computer, but it must also be on your device. Let's say you have Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo all on your device; it will be one of these passwords. . .

OR

My friend's was actually her VERY FIRST password she ever used on her 2nd gen iTouch. It worked for her brilliantly, even though NEITHER OF US SET A PASSWORD.

It must be a bug that Apple has with iTunes, but its actually quite fantastic. It makes you use your brain and firgure out what password is most likely to work.

FACEBOOK password worked for me as well!!!! 😀

Same problem here, never set a password and iTunes keep asking for it to restore the iPhone.

Tried using it on another computer, but it keep asking for the password.

Also there a lots of threads about this, should be merged and a solution given.

Greets.

What worked for me was actually one of my newer passwords- BUT I DON'T REMEMBER EVER USING IT FOR ITUNES, MY IPHONE, OR ANYTHING!!!

I really just wanted to second you on how Apple really screwed up with this one. Those three points you made are key, and I HOPE THE APPLE TEAM ACTUALLY READS THIS SO THEY KNOW HOW THEY SCREWED UP!!!

clean XP and clean download iTunes 10.5 install, not set any backup/restore password,

then backup iPhone while upgrade to IOS 5.0,

meet the same problem.

try every password above method no effect...

Apple Please HELP !!!!

I experienced this problem but have resolved it now (at least it seems to be progressing fine now).

I had previously set my backups to be encrypted. No idea when/how long ago. Fortunately I had the password in my passwords file. When I entered the password into the screen, itunes said the password was wrong, which is a bug!

I called apple support and they helped me out. Here are some things to try to solve you problem:

1. unplug all usb crapola except for the iphone from your computer

2. do not use a USB hub

3. try picking some other backup from the dropdown, hopefully one that is not encrypted

4. check in itunes > edit > prefs > backups and note if the available backups have a padlock icon (indicates which ones are encrypted or not)

5. try unplugging your iphone and restarting your itunes and then restart the restore process

So what they helped you was to restore from a UN-encrypted back up?

That's not helping at all.

I have a few un-encrypted back up but the one right before updating to iso 5 has the most updated data and was encrypted (by Apple with a mysterious password). So I lost all my new data which is a lot.

For those who said "Well, you should backup for data more often", that's not a point here.

The point is, Apple screwed us (some of us) with that auto encrypted backup right before updating to ios 5.

Having use Apple products for a few years now and very happy with them but this time is really really horrible.

Frustrating user.