password to unlock your iphone backup file

I wouldn't be so skeptical and judgmental of the people who feel something funny is going on here... I just restored my iphone from backup twice in two days (because I'm playing around with jailbreaking and I had broken something). The first time I restored without being asked for password, the second time, restoring from the exact same backup in the exact same conditions (after full delete and restore of phone) and it asked me for password. Again, the password was an ancient iTunes password that I never used for anything besides my apple ID. So clearly, at some point the encryption password is set based on your iTunes password but not linked with it to update when you change your iTunes password.

That could have something to do with your jailbreak experiment.

backups are encrypted and stored by the computer, on the computer, jail breaking wouldn't have anything to do with it.

I've figured it out. The very fist itunes password you make is the answer . From day 1 when you first create your account that password you typed is the answer.

OLd iTunes password (password that was used initially on phone) worked. thanks.

This worked for me! thanks

this is the the only way out ,try to remember your very first password when you made iTunes account and finger crossed it will work(worked for me) goodluck . 😁

mine was my phones 6 (or four) digit pass code. also make sure you have no pending emails that need to be verified. Like ones you have as back ups as these were my issues twice. I tried all other older passwords and t didn't work but the phone unlock screen worked.

USE 1234

!!!!🙂

100% The first password that was used to set up iTunes

Unless legitimately it had been encrypted recently and you changed the password

I know you posted this 4 years ago, but it helped me so much today. I really love you

The "password," WHICH I NEVER SET UP for iPhone backup, despite what good ol' Mr. Know-It-All Finch says, was my 4 digit screen unlock code.

thanks, the old password works for me too.

Well here's my tuppence worth - today I went and bought myself a new iPhoneSE. Before I set off for the Apple Store, I backed up my iPhone5 to my work laptop's iTunes (this is a PC laptop running win7, for what it's worth). When I tried to restore that backup to my brand new iPhoneSE, I also got the prompt to enter a password to unlock the backup.
Here is the thing - I have NEVER backed up the phone to this laptop previously, it was always backed up at the iMac at home, so I know for definite that I hadn't entered a backup encryption password previously, and this morning I wasn't asked for a password when I performed (what the laptop version of iTunes considers) the first and only iPhone backup.
I've tried my iTunes (AppleID) account password, the admin user password for the machine, the passcode for the phone, none of these unlock the backup. So where has the encryption backup password come from?

ADDENDUM
Since posting the above, I have solved where the password comes from, it's actually held on the phone. It is not dependent on which instance of iTunes you use to back up.Thankfully, the password was in my mac's keychain, so I am happily restoring now