Level 1

36 points

iTunes asking for iPhone backup password I have never set

First, for the whole time being I have never set up a password for iphone backup and I've been restoring from back ups number of times in the past without any problem.

Few days ago my phone went faulty so I had to get a replacement. So I made a backup and took it to Apple store to get a replacement. When I got back home and tried to restore from back up it asked me for a password. I was like " What?!?! "

Then I was researching online to find similar issue and it looks like it automatically locked it up due to the device changes. Thank you Apple for the extra security but well no thank you because I've lost all thing now.

So the iTunes would have sourced a random password from anything so I typed pretty much all password I use with no luck and the last thing popped up from web search was (I use Windows by the way) the computer's administrator password. But the problem is there's no administrator password.

There's always login field coming up when I start the computer then I just hit ENTER without typing anything so there's no password.

I tried putting in a "blank text" by putting blank unicode character, didn't work.

I also contacted Apple regarding this and they kept saying

"you must have set up password somehow"

"ask the person who might have set up the password "

It's completely ignorant & stupid operators they have and this is the worst experience since I start using iPhone from 2007.

Any other suggestion ? (other than using those commercial crackers)

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 10.1

Posted on Dec 1, 2016 4:02 AM

Top-ranking reply

Peter Marsh

Level 1

25 points

Posted on Oct 8, 2017 5:58 PM

I replied to your initial post with a similar post of my own. I investigated the problem in detail and found a solution: stop using any Apple product to perform your backups of your devices and switch to a third party product called iMazing at https://imazing.com and gone will be the hassles introduced by the programmers at Apple.

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.

Getting back to the solution…

With this brilliant application, which is primarily set up as a backup tool for your iOS devices you can also inspect items that Apple’s software interface hides from you, like password and each and every file that gets put on your iOS devices. You can set a device password or remove it, delete locked applications etc - just like you would want to do.

For the small dollars involved, the saving in frustration and useless time-wasting is well worth it.

Disclaimer: I derive no benefit from the makers of iMazing for posting this message. I have no relationship with the makers of iMazing. I confess, I love their product.

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88 replies

iminimoo Author

Level 1

36 points

Dec 1, 2016 4:17 PM in response to Drew Reece

On what basis you think Apple is correct and I'm wrong ?? because I'm only an individual ?

How many times do I have to say "there's no encryption set up" so you believe me ? Trust me I've been using iPhone for over 8 years and I know what I'm talking about. Otherwise there wouldn't be those thousands people with same problem.

Again, this is not an encryption password. the encryption password is used to decrypt the actual backup file. For my case, and many others, it's just a password iTunes chose on its own to "lock" the backup. Some people used WiFi password, some used computer's login password (this seems to be applied to the most case) to overcome this.

Please stop suggesting me to try old password, literally when I said "I tried everything", I tried everything.

Only one thing I couldn't try was my computer's login password as there is no administrator password.

Thank you for your time spent on the reply but please please read my original enquiry so we don't have to waste our time reading same suggestion over and over again.

iminimoo Author

Level 1

36 points

Dec 1, 2016 4:19 PM in response to Drew Reece

and of course I can always start with fresh device & fresh backup but hey what's the point of having backup then if you just have to go fresh everytime.

iminimoo Author

Level 1

36 points

Dec 1, 2016 4:23 PM in response to Drew Reece

https://youtu.be/T7Qfo2KnPP8

You really think all those people are dumb enough to type their password and even forgot that they tick the "Enable Encryption on backup" box ?

I don't think so.

and a lot of them happened to have a new phone when they face that problem, funny huh ?

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Dec 1, 2016 5:33 PM in response to iminimoo

Apply some logic to the situation that MicBergsma (the YouTube poster was in)…

Mac OS does not save the user login password in 'plain text' - it is hashed & salted so OS X does not actually 'know' the password for a user account. When you login the same 'salting & hashing' are compared to the text you entered, if they match you can login.
To undo the backup encryption the login password was required for MicBergsma.

What is more likely?

A) Apple are secretly reversing the hashed password back to plain text and applying a setting to iTunes backups without informing users.

B) The user checked the encrypt backup box, saw a dialog & entered the account password (or any other password) they thought that was appropriate.

Sorry I do not believe that users are dumb, I do however believe that humans make mistakes. I have witnessed people setting up this very feature without understanding that the password was not the user account password, some people assume the password has to be the Apple ID password (because that is what they enter when iTunes nags them for the store). This is why I have to explain when people enable it - they often miss the nuance.

If you read the comments below the video it reinforces option B (at least in my mind) …

One user has found the backup was the 'iPhone lock screen password'

Another poster says 'it was the Apple ID password, before I changed it'

Another poster '…This was not the password I used to get into my computer.'

One more '…it said incorrect. then out of the blue i tried my gmail password it worked,'

And another 'I actually guessed the password, they used one of my passwords from a game I played from the App Store'

All of those people are finding different passwords work.

That would mean Apple is randomly picking passwords to perform 'option A' above. That is even more unlikely in my opinion because the iPhone does not leak the device passcode - multiple users in the Youtube comments say that the phone password (or an old phone password) worked for their backup.

Security researchers have found that getting the password out of iOS is practically impossible, so I can't believe that Apple are just plucking it out of the device & encrypting backups with that password or any of the others that people claim Apple used (Gmail or a random game password?).

I realise this is terrible for you but the best option is to copy the backup to a new location & begin a new one.

You can still try to restore the old backup in the future if you ever discover the password, in fact you can probably move it to a new folder inside Mobile backups & have 2 backups around (so you can keep trying the password). I think this thread describes it…

Want to Archive iPhone Backups in iTunes

Keep a duplicate on another disk for safekeeping.

If that isn't enough talk to an Apple store.

This is the best I have to offer…

iminimoo Author

Level 1

36 points

Dec 1, 2016 5:57 PM in response to Drew Reece

So you are still completely ignoring the fact that I have never set up the 'encryption', great. Sorry for making the 'mistake' that I actually didn't do. I work in IT industry so I understand how encryption works, thank you for the information by the way.

and now you suggesting me to start new ? I'm sorry but please stop replying, your comment is not helping at all.

If I agree that I set up the encryption passcode by mistake I wouldn't even be writing a post here and indeed I'm using the encryption passcode for other work devices and I have no problem with it.

M27_L

Level 1

4 points

Feb 6, 2017 1:59 PM in response to Drew Reece

Apple itunes is a piece of **** for this there is not even an option to email or text to change password ***.

Mar 16, 2017 5:17 AM in response to iminimoo

THIS IS INFURIATING! I have never ever set encrypt password and keep a record of all used passwords.

Nothing works.

FU apple

Jun 4, 2017 3:59 AM in response to finnk22

If you say so... Glad to help.

Jul 3, 2017 10:28 PM in response to panchososa694

Yes, that is exactly what we didn't select: to use a password. Our backup was unencrypted but now prompts for password.

Bchira

Level 1

4 points

Jul 4, 2017 8:44 AM in response to iminimoo

Hi,

I had the same problem.

Just typed in the password to my macbook.

And voila! it worked.

Hope it solves it for yall.

Jul 24, 2017 3:55 AM in response to iminimoo

use the password you use to log into your computer. has worked for me twice now

Jul 24, 2017 2:52 PM in response to dinkyryder

Thank you for the advice, that has been tried as well as all passwords used on that pc and phone. No joy.

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Jan 30, 2018 4:45 PM in response to andyluis23

See Disable iOS backup encryption.

tt2

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iTunes asking for iPhone backup password I have never set