Q: password to unlock your iphone backup file

TYPE IN THE PASSWORD TO YOUR LAPTOP.

i never use that password for anything else and it worked!

type in my email password and it works smh ...dont ask how ......apple screwed this one up!

Thank you for sharing. This tip was lifesaving.

After trying all 8 passwords I have used in the past 5+ years, I read a post about someone using the very fist password they ever used to set up an Apple/iTunes account. So I went to an old security vault i had for passwords and used one from 7 years ago (iPod/iTunes) and it WORKED! I rarely every used the pasword back then either, so I'm happy I had it saved.

Still bizarre that this password somehow became my iPhone 4 'backup file' password when I haven't used it for any iPhone product, ever. Nor is it my current iTunes password.

After reading all the other posts and this one - the penny finally dropped - to just try any and all passwords that I could think that I've EVER used - and hey presto - it worked! Thanks for the advice.

To the smart arses above accusing people of simply forgetting their passwords - I say this - GET A LIFE - NOBODY ASKED US FOR THIS PASSWORD FOR YEARS PERHAPS MORE THAN 5 YEARS - THIS IS AN APPLE PROBLEM - NOT THE CUSTOMERS - dim witts..

Password for the backup can not set itself. It either has to be turned on by the user, or by a policy being enforced by an Exchange server.

Yes it worked!!! (itunes password) did not.. but computer password did..  thank-you

computer password worked!!!!

When I was prompted to give my password in iTunes and couldn't figure it out, I went to set up the iPhone as a new device. When it gave me the option to restore from back up on the phone itself, I tried that.  It had me reconnect to iTunes and then went on to restore my phone from the back up.

I'm not entirely sure why that's different, but it worked!  Hope that helps.

Just type the itune password with no capital letter

I had exactly the same issue and I tried 1234 as a password and it worked!!!

Then 1234 is the password that you entered the first time you were asked. Have you noticed that everyone in this message thread reports that a different password worked, but it was always one that they knew or had used in the past?

A-FLOOPIN-MEN.................... This ***** :/// So much stuff lost!! and this has been going non for a while, you'd think Apple would try ad solve it. This is why I am switching from apple.

For the Apple ID Attempt would be the whole email? Like for example Apple@yahoo.com or Just "Apple"? Because I tried both and failed, both times. What am I doing wrong?

I went to my list of passwords and tried them all. Eventually, one worked and it wasn't my Mac, iTunes, or iPhone lock password.  It was just one I chose, I guess, a long time back for purposes of back-up, I suppose, that I didn't make a note of.