itunes could not restore the iphone because the password was incorrect

This may not help a whole lot, but the password you may think is correct is probably not. This morning I plugged in my iPhone via USB to my PC to backup my iPhone content to iTunes. As the process began it said that there was a newer update available for my iPhone. I thought this was odd since I was not prompted previously on the iPhone itself that there was a software update. However I went ahead an said yes to the update. As it started it asked if I'd like to first backup my iPhone, I almost said No, but decided to instead backup my iPhone. It finished the backup, then started on the update. This is when it all went south.

It kept giving me the following message: "iPhone could not be updated. An unknown error occurred." It got worst. When I started to figure out how to restore my iPhone from iTunes, the password I just used to login to iTunes did not work.

I spent 3 hours trying to figure out why the login ID & password I used to login to iTunes could not restore my iPhone from my iTunes backup. Kept entering the same password over and over but no luck. Finally went searching online for answers. The best answer to this problem I could fine was just entering passwords I may of used in the past. For me there were only a handful of passwords I could of use. So started one by one entering past password, then WALA! A password I have not used in years worked. I can't even tell if my backup was encrypted or not. I just know this one password that I no longer was using, work! So try and making sense of that. I've saved that previous password now in a safe place. Don't even care why shouldn't have worked, but it did.

Again this may not help a whole lot, but if you happen to have a few past passwords that you may of used I would start trying each one and maybe you'll get lucky like I did.

Hello reemmatloub

There are a few more passwords that you can try, check out the article below for more options.

iOS: Troubleshooting encrypted backups

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5162

You can keep trying to restore the device from backup until you remember the password. If you're having trouble, try:

• Leaving the password field blank
• Your Apple ID password
• Your computer account password, if you have one
• Email passwords you may have used
• Your Wi-Fi network password
• Website passwords you may have used
• A password for hard-disk encryption software, if you use it

Regards,

-Norm G.

In iTunes, there is an option to 'Encrypt iPhone Backup'. If this is ticked, then you have set a password for the Backup at some point which means you can't restore from the backup until this password is entered correctly.

I read norm123's post and tried some other password that I've used for different things in the past and one of them worked. It's not the iPhone unlock code that iTunes wants. It's ridiculous that iTunes doesn't tell you that.

If you think you know that password but it's not working. Try typing the same number of blank spaces as the previous password. So if your password was Apple123 try hitting the spacebar 8 times. Worked for me. iOS7.1

I had the same problem and have been trying to resolve it all evening.

I tried everything that has been suggested on this forum.

But what worked for me was that I erased all the content on my phone and then restored it again.

Try it. It may or may not work for you.

I just hit the same wall going from an iPhone 5 and trying to back it up, and then transfer the data to a iPhone 5s.

The 4 digit phone password did not work.

my itunes password did not work.

computer password did not work.

what worked??? A random old password that I used ages ago for iTunes and a variety of other ecommerce sites.

Apple... you make no sense sometimes. Why do you make us all crazy over stuff like this????

jjwithers nailed it. You probably entered a password without thinking about it on your initial itunes setup. Cast your mind back to poor passwords you probably used years ago.

Thanks, Apple...

I don't know how it worked but I tried hitting the space bar instead of letters. I hit space 6 times and it unlocked the encrypted password.

So here is the deal...

I had the encrypted box checked as well and I did put in my password that I use for my apple ID (logical)... Well when I entered it, my CAPS lock button was on... So I did use my "Apple id" but in reverse of how I normally do with CAPS lock on... Give it a shot... Can't hurt trying.

Same problem here; never did set a password on my backup but it is asking for one. I tried iCloud password, the phone password, all lower case, all upper case, etc. Finally, I got it with my .. hotmail pasword ..

Try your itunes password in caps.

This thread has saved me a TON of time today, so thanks to you all. After a few minutes of frustration, I found this thread and I accepted the idea that my iTunes installation had locked in a password I gave it **years** ago. Fortunately, it was my favorite password for things not critical, so it got back into my head quickly and I was off and running to duplicating the essentials of my IOS environment on two different iPads before erasing one of them to give to a relative. Cheers!

I tried all my current passwords and didn't work either.

And then, I tried to do what jjwithers did, used one of my old password and OMG, it worked!

So weird. Wonder how to change this.

Setting up my iPhone 6 and had the same issue, where I had not created a password that I was aware of. I noticed that iTunes had the series of ••••••• pre filled in the form when I opened it, so after trying my normal password unsuccessfully, and noting that leaving it blank was not an option, I just hit enter with the pre-filled •••••• and it worked… maybe that is Apple for "you don't have a password"?