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

This is most certainly a BUG on Apple's end, Lawrence Finch. I'm sorry but I use only 4 passwords - all very difficult to guess or attempt to reproduce- and they are the ONLY 4 I use anywhere. I have tried every variation of these 4, to no avail. I DID NOT WISH THIS ON MY PHONE in the first place, which is the biggest issue most users are now being forced to deal with. I don't want any of this sort of crap Apple assumes we DO want simply because they are losing market share to Samsung. Most of these idiot features come straight from that dumb OS. I have now re-started, re-factory set, re-everything and now have NO PHONE to work with. Just a factory set POS I hate and at this stage, am being forced to consider a different OS. What is the point of dealing with this?

This is what worked for me:

f you are using a Mac, you can try using the Keychain method. First, open Applications > Utilities > Keychain Access.app. Second, in the search dialog, search for "iPhone Backup." Third, double click on the most recent entry for "iPhone Backup." Fourth, at the bottom of the dialogue box, click "Show password" and type in the administrative password for the computer. This will reveal your iTunes backup password!

I connected my iPhone to a new computer that I had never connected to before and did a back up. At no time did it ask for a password. It used a password that I had not used for a number of years and would have had no way of remembering unless I found it using this trick. This really is an apple flaw, it should have asked me for a password, not just used one from years ago

this didn't work. I tried it last week

In the end, I was able to find 3rd party software to unencrypt for PW.

The PW, btw was NOT a password I have ever set: 123456, and it took me 2 weeks to get my phone back.. I agree this was more than a flaw on apple's side but I have learned the hard way that we are not allowed to say anything bad about apple in this forum. Sort of strange that Dell, Lenovo and others are so much more transparent !

It's clear that you have no technical background and don't wish to learn from those that do. It's none of my concern if you don't want your problem fixed. I'm simply trying to prevent you from passing on incorrect information to others.

Did you ever find a resolution to this issue? The same thing is happening to me. It was giving me errors initially saying that the passwords I was trying to create could not be set. Eventually I tried again and it performed the backup, but did not prompt me to enter another password. When I tried to restore the backup on my temporary phone, it's telling me to enter my password. I have entered every possible option but cannot get it to recognize one. (I did find another post regarding the initial error trying to enter the password).

This also just happened to my wife’s phone. We backed up her old iPhone 6s to my laptop, she’s never backed it up there before, and we took it to trade in at Best Buy. Got the new phone home and plugged it in to restore and it was asking for her encrypted backup password which she said she never set up. We backed up the new phone as a test and it popped up asking for two passwords and she confirmed this did not happen with her old phone. After several tears and hours later she gave up trying. I hopped on the forums here and read where it could be your old work email password. Got her back down to try some old work passwords from 2 years ago when she got the phone and it WORKED! She still doesn’t remember ever using a work email password for backing her phone up but this worked for us. Good lock out there.

Except that is not true. I've never set encryption, much less a password - and yet there it is, asking me for a password.

These are not 2 separate actions.

Funny, FileVault encryption is stored locally but it lets you do this exact thing - reset the password with your iCloud login. I guess this is also a HUGE security hole?

https://support.apple.com/HT205220

Hello Sir

it seams that this is important to you that you are "Right"

Did you write the code for this " Encryption" password and checkbox ?

This is a common thing that happens with Apple products and Apple ID s

i think that apple is an awesome company AND they have their " oops " moments

otherwise why would they have " fixes " updates ? the keyword is " Fix"

meaning something is not working correctly / broken / ....... i think you get my point

i personally have this same problem. the thing is that i have and save all of my usernames and passwords to a spreadsheet

and i update it everytime i add a new or change an old. Everytime.

i think you need to remember that computers are built by Humans and the code is written by Humans and we all have our

" OOPS " moments So it is not impossible that this little section of a section has a " OOPS " in it

Thank you for all of the possibilities i can check

Peace

Ok Lawrence Fish, tell me this. Like some of the other people posting, we also believe there is a bug in iTunes. My wife had (had is the operative word here) an iPhone 6. On Friday, April 5th, 2019 she wanted a new iPhone Xr. She backed up her 6 to her windows 7 laptop. The encrypt button was not checked and unbeknownst to us it made an encrypted backup. As I am looking at this laptop right now, the encryption is STILL NOT CHECKED.

So we go to the Apple store and trade in her 6 for the Xr. The Apple employee says, "Yeah, just plug in this Xr and hit restore to a previous version". He never warns us about possible encrypted backups, and since we never had a problem with her 6 that would facilitated a restore..... and the encrypt box is not checked....we let Apple wipe her 6 so they could take it in.

When we got home and tried to restore on the Xr, we got the password box. We have tried every password we would have used. Nothing. Luckily, on Jan. 19th I went into he 6's DCIM and had previously saved her photos to a separate folder. However, she has now lost all her text strings, ringtones, and any photos she took from Jan. 19th 2019 (which included her granddaughter's 3rd birthday) till now. As you can imagine she is LIVID.!!! So, as I read these other users accounts of this glitch with iTunes, I have no doubt this is a software bug in iTunes. It is naive to think it is impossible for this to happen. If that were true, then why are there software updates for bug fixes. I worked at Apple in Tech Support for a short period, and I have seen some weird crap.

Also, iTunes automatically backed up her Xr twice but those backups are NOT password protected, It is my understanding that once you set encryption...all backups from then on are encrypted. Explain this to me Lawrence.

Yes, an encrypted backup done in the past keeps its password forever. However, you would still need that password to restore that backup to a new device.

People who are so cheap they don’t want to spend 99 cents a month to protect the data on their $1,000 phone that they are paying $50 a month or more to use deserve whatever happens to them and their data.

There was never an iCloud breach. A few very foolish celebrities chose weak passwords that a hacker was able to guess and gain access to a few individual iCloud accounts. That does not qualify as a “breach.” That’s one reason Apple now almost forces users to enable 2 factor authentication to protect their accounts, and requires it for some services.

Apple tells you to back up your phone before bringing it in for service. If you didn’t they will offer to back it up to iCloud sometimes, but iCloud backups are automatically encrypted using an internally generated encryption key based off the iCloud ID & password. This has nothing to do with an iTunes encrypted backup.

The idea of a password hint is something to consider. The problem is many users would just enter their password as the hint, and that wouldn’t sit well with company IT departments that impose an encrypted password requirement so you would need protection against that. If you have a Mac the password screen gives you the option of saving the backup password to your keychain.

First off, iCloud used to be more expensive, but I guess competition has brought it down. It would be very helpful that when you run a backup you would need to put that password in everytime to start a backup if it's to be encrypted. This would alert the user that if he has lost the password, to stop and find it first or create a new one. As far as the hint goes. The user would need to use a hint that only they know. If they are stupid enough to use use their hint as their password....well, there is only so much you can do.

Our situation was like some others in this thread, in that we had no idea the backup made right before going to the store was encrypted. The encryption checkbox was not checked and it still isn't. So, the only way we would have known was to go into iTunes>preferences>devices and see if it has a lock icon next to the backup date before leaving the house. The Apple store offered to back the 6 up to iCloud, but we just assumed since we just did it on her laptop, we were ok.

BTW: you didn't answer the question about the battery replacement.

[Edited by Host]

Lawrence, I'm not sure what happened but I'm glad I took your advice and kept trying. I tried my old Apple password and it worked! I do know for sure that I DID NOT set a password when I backed up my device because I was in a rush when I did so. I know for a fact that I did not type any pass word or code because it was all done the same day. This is for sure some sort of flaw.

The third party programs are a scam. They can work but they are extremely slow. Use Hashcat to try and crack the password. Its a totally free open source, very powerful password cracking program. It does take some getting use to as its all command line based. But there are videos on YouTube on how to use it and install it. I'm using it to try and break my encrypted iphone backup that I didn't set a password for. Go to hashcat.net to learn about it. They also have a forum to help people but I would start with watching YouTube videos.