Help me find a clue to the password for my encrypted iPhone backups.

August 20, 2019 3:33 AM

So apparently I encrypted my iPhone backup using iTunes. And apparently I didn't save the password down anywhere because I was like "oh that's so easy, of course I'll remember it." Which means now I can't. And I need to. I've now tried 70+ passwords, I've gone through my diaries of the days I did the last restore, nothing. So is there ANY way I can get a clue as to what it is? A first letter. Number of letters. SOMETHING.
posted by rileyray3000 to Technology (7 answers total)

So - don’t tell us here, but try to think of the theme of how your passwords tend to relate to each other, and think “if I were making a new password, what would it be?”
posted by corb at 5:24 AM on August 20, 2019

Did you possibly read about "pass phrases" around the time you made this password?

Similar to passphrases, if I'm limited by number of characters, I've made passwords from passphrases by taking the first letter; e.g. This Is A Password That I Should Remember But Is Hard To Guess -> TiaptIsrbihtg ?

Something related to backups.

Trendy song/movie/tv show? What were you reading? Characters within the stories?

Did you have any particular goal you were chasing/working for around then?
posted by nobeagle at 6:00 AM on August 20, 2019

It's very easy to typo password entries. Try your favorite easy passwords again, a few times.

I searched encrypted iPhone iTunes backup and got some results, but I don't know if they are effective.
posted by theora55 at 6:48 AM on August 20, 2019

It's called an Apple ID unless I'm misreading since you're talking specifically about backups and it is an anti-theft device. Unfortunately, even if you factory reset the phone it would only remove the login code but then you would need to use the Apple ID login assigned to that email. The reason I think it's the Apple ID is that is what your backups are assigned to.

Anyway, Apple can reset the PW if you can prove ownership though the process can be a bit onerous. I'd contact them.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 6:58 AM on August 20, 2019

Open up the Keychain Access utility (Applications -> Utilities) and search iPhone. I just did this last night. My password was saved in my keychain.
posted by annathea at 7:46 AM on August 20, 2019

This is not the iTunes user password. OP is not locked out of their phone. When you back something up to iTunes it tells you it won’t back up your personal information unless you encrypt it and set a password for this backup.

I don’t know how to crack it, but unless you need something that’s in that backup right now you could make an unencrypted backup, then a new encrypted one. Then again, if you didn’t need it you probably wouldn’t be asking here...
posted by Huffy Puffy at 8:42 AM on August 20, 2019

I did exactly the same thing recently, getting a new phone after my old one died. I searched all over until I found a page on apple (sorry, I don’t have it to hand) that stated, in bold text, that because it was a password for an encrypted backup, there was NO way to retrieve it, something that I thought should have been much clearer during the backup phase.

I panicked quite a bit, and then sat down with a notepad and tried all the standard passwords I use for everything, including permutations with letter/number replacements and lowercase/capital letters. Every password I thought of, I wrote it down, and when it failed, I crossed it out.

I went through 70 passwords before I got to the right one. It was not a good time, but yeah, that’s the only suggestion I’ve got for you. Best of luck.
posted by Ghidorah at 10:06 PM on August 20, 2019 [1 favorite]