password to unlock your iphone backup file

T19BF wrote:

Why do you believe so firmly that the dialog must always appear.

Are glitches impossible?

In addition to the responses you have received already, I work in cybersecurity. I know a lot about passcodes and how they are used. I know that passcodes are never stored in apps in "plaintext" - they are always hashed or enciphered using a non-reversible algorithm. When you enter the passcode, it is hashed using the same algorithm, and the two hashed values are compared to determine if the passcode was entered correctly. As the passcode itself does not exist anywhere in the app or system (iTunes, Windows, Mac OS, etc) there is no way that iTunes could use any passcode as the backup passcode. By eliminating that possibility, the only way it could have gotten into iTunes is if someone entered it.

In addition to passcodes on your computer, some users have reported that when they found the passcode it was their iPhone or iPad screen unlock passcode. These exist in one place only - on the iPhone or iPad. They are not stored anywhere on any computer, not stored on any Apple server, or anywhere else other than on the iPhone or iPad. That's why the FBI had to spend almost $1 million to hack one device. Because the passcode was not stored anywhere but on the device itself, and entering an invalid passcode 10 times would have erased the device.

T19BF wrote:

So, in your exalted opinion, itunes never screws up.

In fact, no software in history has ever screwed up.

Wind

No in my exalted opinion as a cybersecurity specialist I know that even if iTunes screwed up it could not possibly have created an iTunes backup using a passcode that you know. It could in theory create a random passcode, but there are hundreds of examples from people who finally guessed the passcode, and it was always one that they had used currently or in the past. See my other post for more details.

EVERYTHING glitches

Except YOU.

Nobody has been called a liar. Nobody has insisted iTunes doesn't glitch.

We have consistently asked those who disbelieve to read the conversation more thoroughly. Find the replies from those who eventually figure out which password THEY originally entered and then used to decrypt their encrypted iTunes backup.

Never claimed that, claimed just the opposite said I didn't intentionally enter a password, but may have entered a blank one.

I, personally, have never insisted I didn't enter some sort of password.

Other's have and I'm not going to categorically claim that they absolutely had to

I have seen software behave in so many bizarre ways, I'm not going to rule out anything

Now, could anyone suggest a solution to a blank password.

T19BF wrote:

Never claimed that, claimed just the opposite said I didn't intentionally enter a password, but may have entered a blank one.

The dialog box will not accept a blank password. Something had to be entered.

Ok... but I am not locked out of a backup, and you are. You need help and advice, and I don't.

Your outrage at my opinion does not alter that reality.

You have asked for help and have blankly refused all offers. You have accused those here, with a firm grasp of technology, of refusing to accept your version of events. You have, presumably, read through this conversation to see that others have ultimately found the password they used to encrypt their backup and yet refused to accept this may be happening to you. You have seen numerous mea culpa's.

So be it.

You can continue to come here, asking for solutions to impossible situations. Your choice.

If you did indeed enter a blank password. Twice. And you have tried entering a blank password now. It would seem there is no solution to this never-before-heard-of and quite-unlikely-to have-happened glitch. As has been explained, the "password" you enter is used as part of a formula by iTunes and macOS, to encrypt the data.

How could a no data/blank password be used to encrypt?

Ha, I am proven correct, I did not enter a password, EVER!

Feel BETTER?

So, it was never about getting help. It was about being right.

People are so quick to jump to conclusions

You don't even realize how wrong this is. Our conclusion was correct. A password was entered. That actually makes "us" right"

You went from no password, to possibly a blank one to "my kid did it".

Well done. You're clean on this one.

T19BF wrote:

Ha, I am proven correct, I did not enter a password, EVER!

My kid did, when they used the phone.

People are so quick to jump to conclusions

So, yes, a password was entered. There was no blank password entered. There was no magic encryption without a password. The system worked exactly as it was supposed to, exactly the way we said it did.

Not exactly, people INSISTED that "I" absolutely entered a password, no matter how many times I said I didn't.

Never once did anyone bother to inquire whether somebody else may have owned the phone before

T19BF wrote:

Not exactly, people INSISTED that "I" absolutely entered a password, no matter how many times I said I didn't.

Never once did anyone bother to inquire whether somebody else may have owned the phone before

Probably because you said this:

"It doesn't make sense. I have backed up my phone previously unencrypted with no problem.

3 days ago I decided to give encryption a try.

Are you people telling me I forgot a password I made 3 days ago???"

We had no reason to question you when you said that you, not your son, enabled encryption.

The particular individual who entered the password is irrelevant since your initial assertion was based the idea that no password or that a password was assigned either by Apple or by iTunes which proved to be false. Either way, it appears to have operated as designed.

As others have said it might be your original iTunes password. I as well tried my current password and even my iPhone password and those did not work but once I typed in my original password BOOM I made it in! I would try using passwords that you have in your head for other accounts for some reason it may be that!

Hey! I had EXACTLY the same problem and I solved it very quickly. Try to type the password you use everytime you need to authorize Apple to install something in your mac. Be aware that it may be different from your icloud/appstore password as well as your locking phone password. It worked that way for me after a few wrong trials.

This is because the password for your encrypted backup and your Apple ID password, ARE NOT the same password, unless you specifically set them to be.