iPhone Backup Encrypted Without Password

Normally, when first doing the backup, a pop up requests the password for the encrypted backup.

Then the user is asked if they want to store the password in the keychain.

I would search through Keychain Access and/or the Passwords app for passwords that might be associated with the iPhone. On earlier Macs, Keychain Access was in the Utilities folder. For recent Macs on newer macOS, it is in

/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/

If you cannot remember or find that password, I do not believe there is any feasible way to access that backup. This is very strong encryption.

I assume you have tried your user login, Apple ID, etc. passwords.

You might consider perusing the passwords stored in the Passwords or Keychain Access app in case one of them jogs your memory of what you might have used.

You may not remember creating an encrypted backup password, but at some point you did. Since it is fully encrypted, it would not be stored anywhere, like Passwords. The good news is you can guess as many times as you want. The bad news is until you guess the correct password, the backup will be unaccessible to you. There's nothing Apple can do to help you with this.

Steve626 wrote:

What about Keychain Access app, it is still there but in a different folder than it used to be. It may have some different or older passwords. I think the likelihood of actually finding your password there is not high, but you may see other passwords that remind you of the password you did use.

There is nowhere to find an encrypted backup password, so it won't help to send them on a chase to find something which is not stored anywhere. That's the entire point of encrypting the backup. They likely created a backup password so long ago, they've forgotten they did. Once they create one and make subsequent backups, even long afterward, the same encryption key would apply to the backup.

This is why people should write down important passwords/passcodes and keep them in a safe place for future recall. Doing so would avoid situations like this.

D_9000 wrote:

Thanks for the advice. I’ve reviewed all my passwords in the passwords app without any luck. I honestly believe this backup does not have a password created by me and I’m trying to figure out how that happened.

The backup could have been created and then "inherited" from a Mac in the past. But it is very hard to imagine how an encrypted backup password could have been created by someone other than the user. The macOS does not have that capability, only the user does.

Going forward, take measures to protect against this. For instance, I keep both iCloud iPhone backups (which take no effort since they are done in the background at night usually) and on-my-Mac local backups. Both are encrypted (I used to uncheck that box to encrypt the local backups but I do encrypt them now) but the password is one I will never forget. Yet it is also written down inside a separate encrypted file that I keep on multiple Macs and in the cloud, that file has some special passwords or account information that I sometimes need. Also my wife knows this special password.

Having two types of backups protects against some problem developing with one of them. As happened to you. Given that modern Macs are already fully encrypted, I don't think one needs to encrypt the iPhone backup file as well, but I still do that as well.

Given how easy Apple has made it to back up an iPhone to iCloud, I don't understand why anyone would not use iCloud backups for the iPhone. If it costs a few dollars/month more, it seems insignificant compared to the current costs of iPhones or Macs. But there are alternatives, such as a program called iMazing (that is one example, there are others). But apps like iMazing are also not free. I also use iCloud Photos and iCloud Messages, I don't want to ever risk losing any of these things.

What about Keychain Access app, it is still there but in a different folder than it used to be. It may have some different or older passwords. I think the likelihood of actually finding your password there is not high, but you may see other passwords that remind you of the password you did use.

lobsterghost1 wrote:

There is nowhere to find an encrypted backup password, so it won't help to send them on a chase to find something which is not stored anywhere.

I did not actually expect they would find the encrypted backup password there, I agree with you. But people often tend to reuse passwords with slight (or no modifications). I thought by reviewing existing passwords anywhere they might be stored from the past, it might jog their memory for old passwords or password patterns/schemes that had been used in the past.

Thanks for the advice. I’ve reviewed all my passwords in the passwords app without any luck. I honestly believe this backup does not have a password created by me and I’m trying to figure out how that happened.

D_9000 wrote:

Thanks for the advice. I’ve reviewed all my passwords in the passwords app without any luck. I honestly believe this backup does not have a password created by me and I’m trying to figure out how that happened.

If you need it, thats a problem. if you don't, just delete it and make another.

AFAIK, all modern backups are encrypted, ie Mac and iPhone OS for the last few years.

Tip always use the Mac account password, or the iPhone passcode as the password.

steve626 wrote:

lobsterghost1 wrote:

There is nowhere to find an encrypted backup password, so it won't help to send them on a chase to find something which is not stored anywhere.

I did not actually expect they would find the encrypted backup password there, I agree with you. But people often tend to reuse passwords with slight (or no modifications). I thought by reviewing existing passwords anywhere they might be stored from the past, it might jog their memory for old passwords or password patterns/schemes that had been used in the past.

OK. I reread your post and see you did suggest seeing if something there brought back a memory.

Passwords are interesting. I know one person who takes the last letter of the word associated with something and adds that letter to some standard password (this is not a very good security approach but it is what they do). So for an iPhone backup, the letter "e" would be added to some standard reused password. Or for East-West Bank, it could be the letter t or the letter k. If the person with the forgotten password saw this pattern in other existing passwords, it might be a hint to recreate the lost password perhaps with better results. It sounds pretty unlikely in any case ...

Thanks, you're definitely right about being hosed. One thing I wanted to confirm and can't seem to get a straight answer on is, WHEN did I make this password. That sounds like a silly question to ask someone who isn't me, but what I mean is this iPhone is relatively new (about 3 years old) and this MacBook is very new (3 months), but my AppleID is decades old. So should I assume that at some point since 2008 I clicked Encrypt Backup and the password I set then has followed me from phone to phone without me knowing it?

This is why I'm so confused by it. I have backed up my phone before, but not in many years. And I do not remember ever needing a password to either restore my phones from a backup or transfer everything to a new one. Now, all of a sudden, this password is the centre of my entire life! :(

I suppose anything is possible. But I suspect they weren't doing anything similar and are just hosed if they can't remember the encrypted password they made however long ago they made it.