iTunes asking for iPhone backup password I have never set

I used my computer password and it worked. It was not the Apple id or either phone's password.

I most likely have accidentally used a different password for my Apple ID vs backup. I would not have purposefully done that because it would mess with my password memory system. I remember setting up the backup, but don't recall the specific steps. I also don't remember there being a big notice about the difference between the two. I would hope that Apple would do that. Now I am going to try the many different variations of mistakes I may have made to accidentally put in the wrong password twice:-(

Peter Marsh wrote:

What I was also able to discover was that by using this product, Apple OS was setting passwords in the background without user intervention. So when the replies come in to be careful and record your password settings, they are missing the point. This is happening automatically and WITHOUT HUMAN INTERVENTION.

If that is true you should be able to provide steps to reproduce this. Please list iOS/ OS X & iTunes versions that are used etc.

Personally I have not seen this & cannot believe that Apple are randomly picking passwords for encrypting backups - some users have said that the Gmail password was used & others say the iCloud or a Mac user account password was used. Keychain Access (where passwords are stored) requires user interaction to allow new apps to read a password - it seems impossible that iTunes just picks one for the backup.

Please outline how this feature gets enabled without intervention - I'd love to be able to test.

Found on another thread and posting here just FYI. Apparently the backup uses the Original Password that you set up! So it doesn't change, no matter how many times your password has been changed since.

As expected, Apple have identified and fixed the problem which no longer occurs.

If you look at iTunes and run a backup, the relevant section in the dialogue that pertains to passwords is …

What I had on previous version of the OS was that the "encrypt iPhone backup" check box was greyed out and checked. This means I could not alter the setting but it actually set a password - which I never overtly did. Now the problem has apparently been engineered out - no doubt one of the thousands of "security" updates we so willingly agree to take on board.

Good news, Apple has obviously realised there is a problem and fixed it. They would probably never own up to it because of the litigation risk but I am pleased all the same that people do not have to go through what I have had to go through.

I have had decades of working with computers and trust me, this is not the first time that a quirky problem has been identified, complained about and fixed quietly in the background and the vast majority are blissfully unaware of the issue. To them, it never happened.

Cheers.

Herein endeth the matter.

I could manage it easily in another way with DiskAid iMazing2

in iPhone > File System/Media/iTunes_Control/iTunes > delete the file iTunesCDB and that's it !, for iTunes it is a new iPhone

same here ,it is a new macbook pro from 2017 , I have never done any iPhone backup , I saved my iPhone the first time with encrypted checked and was not asked for a password

Now I hav ea new iPhone and want to restaure my backup in it , I am asked for a backup pw

I have tried to backup another time with encrypted unchecked but I am asked for a pw ?

it is a nonsense !

nothing works , I cannot save and use anything in iTunes, one of the worst and useless application

You are absolutely wrong - this setting has enabled itself. Happened to me today. I have never needed a password to restore from back up and this time it is a requirement except that I NEVER set a password.

I've replied at the end of this thread for continuity. Google search for "test itunes backup password without performing a restore" found the original post in this thread.

The link for itunes feedback in this thread was a find and I posted the following feedback:

"I have googled this issue but nothing comes up. I have become concerned that I have lost my itunes backup encryption password. Since I set up encrypted backup in the beginning, each subsequent backup occurs without requiring me to re-enter the password. Therefor there is no assurance that I know what the password is and some day in the future when I need to restore the backup (either to the original phone or a new phone), I may not know what password was used. This is too late to do anything about it. What is needed is a way to test the encrypted backup password without having to restore the backup. Give us a way to browse an encrypted backup and extract one file (to the computer [running itunes]) without having to restore the backup entirely. This feature would insure that we know the encrypting password."

Yes my wife's iphone 6SE is on ios 11.2 and I see that I can use the new "Reset All Settings" function to reset the phone and make new encrypted backups going forward. But that to me is as drastic as attempting a full restore of the phone after creating a current encrypted backup.

My concern with "Reset All Settings" is that I will have to perform any customization (wallpaper, photos imported using itunes, imessage conversations?, etc...) that is not made clear with the read me on the "Reset All Settings" "feature."

Resetting all settings wipes out your customization, but it doesn't wipe out any of your data. That sounds like a win to me. Plus, not to sound harsh, but this could be avoided by not forgetting your encryption password. Having a way to browse or reset pretty much defeats the purpose of having encryption enabled in the first place. Security comes with a price if don't keep track of the information, that's just the way technology works. No one forced you to enable encryption, (unless it's a company owned or issued device, or has sensitive or private information) and no one is forcing you to forget your passwords either.

Drew, It happens, I have seen it. When I get the time and perform a safe backup using a third party product {imazing} I will take a series of screen dumps and hopefully prove to you that this happens.

Apple does listen to complaints as any good corporate citizen should. Recently, they made a forward announcement of a new / upgraded range of computers with a scheduled supply date. This has never happened before in their history, most people only find out that there is a new model coming when they place an order and get the old model from stock.

I can't say Apple changed their policy because of my complaint, but with enough people complaining, the company and its behaviour could only get better. It's called feedback.

One bit of feedback you should try is humility and respect. Give it a go. It's refreshing.

Have a nice day.

Peter Marsh wrote:

Now the problem has apparently been engineered out - no doubt one of the thousands of "security" updates we so willingly agree to take on board.

Good news, Apple has obviously realised there is a problem and fixed it. They would probably never own up to it because of the litigation risk but I am pleased all the same that people do not have to go through what I have had to go through.

If you care to spend time reading this article you will see that some are upset with the change of this feature…

iOS 11 Horror Story: the Rise and Fall of iOS Security | ElcomSoft blog

It now means that your entire device data can be compromised if the device password is exposed. A new backup can be used to extract all your passwords, call/ messaging/ browsing history etc. Also read how the Apple ID & other devices can be accessed too. One password may protect everything you own with an Apple logo. On iOS 10 & lower this is not possible.

Spin it as a victory if you like but it is a change that weakens device security down to one password (that is often entered in public places e.g. easily recordable and recording attacks have been shown to work previously, device passwords are often shared with spouses, friends, possibly colleagues etc).

It drags iOS down to the levels of Android security, not something any sane Apple user should celebrate.

Dude, Apple created a password on my own backup, I can't access it and I've NEVER chosen a password for my itunes backup.

Why would Apple even admit that? They hid everything from us in the past, they slow down every old iphone that exists when a new edition comes out... they denied that question for yeeears but now they actually admitted that we were right. Apple lies about a bunch of stuff, they spy on every iphone user and steal our information....

it ***** man ... don't believe everything that apple tells u because they lie, its a fact.

Heyyy! i figured it out. The message asked you to enter the 4 digit password of your old device that has never had a password right, so what i did was go into my OLD PHONE (which never had a password) and created one. Literally second later i entered that **** password in my NEW IPHONE and tada! that **** worked 🙂 took maybe 2 hours to figure this crap out.

Same thing happened for me today. I freshly installed iTunes, backed up. erased my phone and tried to recover. now its asking for password which I never set. This is ridiculous. I assume, its using some default password and apple only know that the **** it is 😟