i never set a backup password but it says that i did so i cant do my backups and I NEED THEM!

iCloud requires authentication. In order to change your iCloud password, you need to be able to prove that you are who you say you are. The iTunes encrypted backup is stored locally. If the password could be re-set, it would be a HUGE security hole in the encryption, making the encryption completely worthless. You may not care about the security of your data, but most of us do.

Being a computer scientist, I completely understand that you can't reveal the password. I totally get that. But as an end user to software, I cant be convinced that if this is a viable method for backing up a device, that I'm not asked for a password if it is necessary. Any average user would not expect to have to enter a password if they don't see the box checked. I think my frustration lies in the fact that this process where I don't see a box checked, and I haven't set a password that this is something that's feasible to deliver to end users. Theres a lot of smart people at Apple I work with them often as a developer, but this is a bad user experience and iTunes shouldn't be considered a viable backup especially if people are more likely to lose data than actually recover it (the point of a backup).

It shouldn't be a huge security hole as long as I can prove that I am who I say I am. Which I can do by authenticating via my resettable iCloud password.

Why should it matter where the file is stored? If I can authenticate myself, I should have access to it.

I will reply when I want to. You are not the Lord of the Forum.

A password on a website can be reset because it is stored on the website. A backup password cannot be reset because the only place it is stored is on the phone, where it is used as the encryption key for the backup. It is not stored on Apple's servers or anywhere else in the world, because if it was stored anywhere else it could be compromised. That would be a sufficient answer for a cybersecurity engineer.

It actually is stored in the Keychain on the phone also, but only if the user checked the box to save it there. And if it is there you can find it by opening the Keychain app.

iCloud backups are store in Apple's cloud servers and are under their control. A local backup is not.

You can "authenticate yourself" by typing the correct password for the encrypted backup. You can not reset the password. I get that you don't understand why.... But that isn't going to alter reality.

There is no box to check on the phone. It's iTunes on the computer that asks me if I want to set an encrypted backup, and there's no option there to save the password to keychain. Not in any version that I've seen.

Whether there are or were other options is completely irrelevant.

It is what it is. Tell Apple about it if you're not happy, but please stop wasting electrons by continuing to rant about it here. You're accomplishing absolutely nothing.

My situation: New iPhone SE, restored from backup of iPhone 4S on older version of iTunes so as to fetch contacts and the like. Later, manually backed SE up via new iTunes on new PC. I watched the process and as the backup process started and ran, the encryption-enabled box in iTunes was not checked. As the backup completed, the encryption-enabled box checked itself! It went from not checked, to checked, in front of my own two eyes. Is it possible that the first restore from the older backup from the 4S also imported the encryption-enabled state from that phone and imposed it on the new phone, but that the encryption state was not displayed in the backup process on the new PC/new iTunes UI until that first backup completed, at which point iTunes auto-checked the encryption-enabled box?

Completely agree with you. I also never entered a password, not a single time let alone two times. I do not remember checking any encryption checkbox, but it is a corporate issued phone so it may be some setting that forces encryption. Still, it never ever asked for a password when I created the backup! Lawrence Finch (below), I'm certain you are not lying and for you the experience was very different, but accept the fact that for some users this is a very annoying issue.

Sorry, I do not think that is correct. I have a "new" iPhone (new to me). It was reset to factory setting. I downloaded some apps and decided to backup. First time for this phone on this computer and I have a message in iTunes saying "Your iPhone has never been backed up on this computer." Why would that be the case that the iPhone as never been backed up on the computer but I'm still being asked for a password?

I too have wasted far too much time with the encrypted password problem. Fitted a new screen to iPhone 5s which must have been faulty as it was slow to respond and the letter P would not function. I was convinced the phone had a virus so checked that I had a recent backup before totally re-setting the phone to clear the bug. Phone still behaved oddly whilst trying to re-commission it so realised it was the screen. Fitted another new screen after which the phone behaved properly and the P worked on the keyboard! (I guess the screen was not aligned correctly).

Connected phone to macair to find O needed an encryption code. The phone and macair belong to my partner, I do all the IT stuff and have never entered a password for encryption, EVER.

Using my own iphone 5S on my own windows based Vostro, I find that I only have one backup file on iTunes WHICH REQUIRES A PASSWORD TO ACCESS!!! Confirmation that I have not done something stupid like forgotten a password. I always write down all passwords in a password book, ALWAYS.

Bad form Apple, updating the iphone so that it automatically backs up in Encrypted form making up its own password.

A HUGE APOLOGY is required Apple staff!!!!!!!!

superhobbsy wrote:

Lawrance. I didn’t set a password. That’s the problem. It appears that an iPhone update set the phone to create an encrypted backup with a random password saved in my phone!!!!!

Did you have an Exchange account set up on your phone so that you could get your company email?

If you did, then more than likely the Exchange administrators set policies requiring encrypted backups. Try using your Exchange account password.

I have no Exchange accounts set up, no. Retired so no need 🙂

Having to collect new contacts info from friends etc as they have been lost.

I also noticed that my iTunes now only saves ONE backup file whereas it used to keep several - just in case! Not good in my view.

Thanks for the post Tim.

someone set a password. Despite what you think Apple software does not create random passwords. The good news is you can start guessing. You get unlimited guesses. And the users who successfully guessed have always found it to be a password they had reused from elsewhere. And not always a password they have used on an Apple product. So forget the idea that Apple somehow reused a password that you entered for some other purpose.

superhobbsy wrote:

I have no Exchange accounts set up, no. Retired so no need 🙂

Having to collect new contacts info from friends etc as they have been lost.

I also noticed that my iTunes now only saves ONE backup file whereas it used to keep several - just in case! Not good in my view.

Thanks for the post Tim.

Did you ever have an Exchange account in the past?

And you are wrong about backups. iTunes has never saved more than one restorable backup, except that a new backup is created after any iOS update, saving the last update of the previous version. iCloud backups save the 3 most recent, but not iTunes. If you have a Mac you can archive a backup, so the next one will be a new one. But you must manually mark the backup as archived.