itunes set a password for restore

Switching carriers, backed up my phone...I was in a hurry/kids waiting in the car/had to run...no time to even THINK about encrypting the backup. As a matter of fact, all I wanted to do was to back up the phone, wipe it, then restore it with a new sim card (according to the instructions of the T Mobile guru (he tried)). Also, the guru (via facetime) wanted to look at the settings of my back up to see if the encrypt back up box was checked and it wasn't (he thought for sure it would be--you know--typical user error "It's easy to click the box and then just enter a password"--I've changed my ways since, but I'm not about making things any more difficult than they already are, I didn't just click the box and just enter a password. Now, I go to restore the phone (everything is on there, literally, not my online life-I don't have one of those-but my administrative life, my working life, which I thought was safe with Apple) and it asks for a password. What? I. Clicked. Backup Now. Not. Encrypt>enter password (TWICE!).

I have found this same problem on other forums so I am not the only one who has lost so much to a glitch by Apple.

Details: Switching carriers (AT&T to TMobile-no comments), had the phone unlocked and created new account in my name, with PIN. Got SIM from TM "Just put this in, restore, and bada bing!"

Went home, connected phone to iTunes, kids want to go to the pool "we're waiting in the car!", clicked back up now, left the phone for about two hours. Came back to a sim card error.

Disconnected the phone, reconnected. Restore backup. "Password?" Nope.