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

Sorry. Revert automatically to a preselected option, which is the definition of default.

We’re just happy we got our backups back. Kick rocks Lawrence.

I'm am constantly amazed at the number of persons that refuse to admit that they ever made a mistake.

Except it IS true. iTunes does not set passwords on its own. There's only 2 ways your backup has a password: Either you checked Encrypt Backup, or you have an MS Exchange corporate email account on your phone, and your Exchange administrator installed a security profile that requires backups to be encrypted. In either case, the first time you backed up you were prompted for a password - twice, to verify that you entered the correct one. The phone knows that there is an encrypted backup, so any time you connect the phone to iTunes the Encrypt Backup box will be checked, regardless of whether it was the original computer/iTunes installation or any other computer. Note that the phone does not know what the password is; only that it exists. The "password" is not an actual password; it is the encryption key for the backup. So there is no place it can be recovered from.

iTunes also does not accept a blank password, so throw out that hypothesis. In other threads, people have guessed the backup password. And it has always been one that they know, and that iTunes could not possibly know.

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.

podrivac wrote:

I refuse to believe that the hundreds of people requesting help with this problem all volunteered to choose a password and then forgot it. Something is clearly wrong.

There are over 1 BILLION iPhone users. I have no problem believing that a few hundred of them forgot a password, or even forgot they set one. Especially as that password may have been entered years ago. The remainder of the billion users remember their password.

Ok. Then set the iTunes backup password to match the iCloud password, since you need that password anyway to purchase anything in iTunes. Why require setting a new password for this very specific purpose if not to railroad people to buy iCloud storage?

That is not possible. The iCloud password is system generated from the user's Apple ID and the phone's internal ID. You do not have to set a password for iCloud; it is automatic. Just the fact that you are logged in to your iCloud ID on your phone when you choose to make an iCloud backup makes the iCloud backup secure.

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.

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.

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.

Lawrence, for the last time:

I have not lost my passwords, I didn't create them. Unbelievable story I know, unbelievable that an old password must have been generated by Apple, which is why it is so important that others do not suffer the same torture that I suffered.

Firstly, I am very pedantic so leave nothing to my memory, especially passwords.

This problem first showed up when trying to restore my girlfriends iPhone on her own MacBook. I would DEFINATELY have written down a password if I created one for someone else.

I then checked my backup on my laptop and couldn't access the encrypted backup. I would DEFINATELY have added that password to my list of passwords carefully hidden somewhere, but I didn't.

I specifically chose not to use encrypted backups as I didn't want all my passwords stored elsewhere.

I would have added a new password to my keychain - nothing there.

Apple happily publish information helping people who have "forgotten" their password. This process has instructions how to turn off the automatically encrypted backup process, so Apple must have put it there in the first place.

I have changed my AppleID passwords on several occasions as someone tried to logon to my account using my email address, but I overwrote the original password in my list so have no way of remembering what the was.

Nightmare!

I know there are many people who forget passwords but I am 100% certain I didn't create one for an encrypted backup.

I will not respond to any further posts from you unless they are of help.

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?

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.

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.