Backup Error - Copying Keychain Data

Are you running any security software on either your computer or router?

Go here:

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

Copy the contents of the "Backup" folder(the folder itself) to your desktop, then delete the contents of that folder, but not the folder itself.

Close & relaunch iTunes, connect your phone, right-click in the left device pane, select backup. What happens?

Any resolution on this issue? I am getting the same issue. Not sure if the problem is phone or Mac related, but I've run out of ideas.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks...

BTW - I tried all of the suggestions above with no luck.

I'm having this same issue. Were you ever able to fix it?

I since encountered this error, and found out that even *restoring* from my backups didn't work, since they all had this keychain error as far back as a month ago!

If you're in the same situation, and have a semi-recent backup that displays this error on restore, here's how to fix it: http://simx.me/technonova/tips/fixing_a_error_copying_keychain_data_pr.html

Note that you'll need to use a hex editor, but if you're desperate enough, the steps should be pretty straightforward. Hopefully this helps others in this annoying situation!

I'm having this issue. I'm not convinced it actually has anything to do with the backup itself, but rather with a corrupt file on the iPhone. Wouldn't it be better to address the corruption on the phone rather than the backup?

I doubt you'll be able to fix the affected file on the phone. And I also doubt that your backup isn't affected. Have you ever restored from your backup, or have you just trusted iTunes implicitly that it did the right thing?

<Edited By Host>

It's true that I don't know the backup isn't affected and I haven't tried restoring from it. But:

1. an apparently good backup was created the day prior to this failure (backup with no errors), and I have retained a backup copy of that presumed "good" backup.

2. the problem seems to be corruption in one file: /var/Keychain/keychain-2.db on the phone. if I remove that file from the phone, a backup completes just fine. Of course all passwords are lost. I could easily live with that, but unfortunately removing it creates other problems like push not working due to lack of certs. So I put it back again and now backup in iTunes fails again.

3. I did try your method above on the backup, I think successfuly. But I tried to use it not to restore, but just to run a successful backup of the phone in its current state. Needness to say, that did not help.

Conclusion thus far:

1. if there were a kind of keychain repair utility that could be run on the iPhone, the problem could be fixed without need for complicated mucking about with backup files.

2. if there were a way to re-create perfectly legit and unique push certs -- ie, the ones already in the corrupt keychain file somewhere -- without restoring, that keychain-2.db file could just be deleted first. (Then generate new certs on a fresh keychain file).

My money is on #2, but I haven't found a way to do that yet. (Close but no cigar.) This discussion may have to be taken elsewhere, too.

Incidently, I did end up restoring from the last backup and now all is well. So, 1: the backup was fine, it was the corrupted keychain-2.db file that was the problem, and 2: underscores point #1 above. iOS should be able to self-repair damaged keychains.

Loren Ryter - you saved my phone (and data!)

For some reason my phone started randomly having this problem too! It would sync new music, etc but on the last step when it would back up the phone, it would always fail! I looked in my Console and found the same errors as the original poster which led me here.

I also tried restoring my phone to the last good backup, but that did not fix it. I also tried deleting the backup and making a new one like everyone else on the internet suggested. No dice. I even took a computer that never had iTunes on it, tried to create a backup on that....same error!

What fixed it was using PhoneView on the Mac and deleting this file: /var/Keychain/keychain-2.db

It then backed up successfully!

Thanks so much!!

Glad to hear it. But then you didn't run into issues with invalid push certificatins, like pop up dialogs all over the place in apps that use push? If not, you're lucky, because I found no way to resolve that other than a restore in the end.

At least in my case the latest backup was in fact good. I did have to manually select a fresh firmware file (using option-restore in iTunes), and then restore to last backup afterwards, because a normal restore has to backup first.

Correct. What I ended up doing was wiping the phone, restoring/upgrading to a fresh install of 6.1.2 (I was on 6.1 before) and THEN restoring from my "backup" and then everything seemed to work.