When you restore an iTunes backup to your iPhone, it asks you to enter the password to decrypt your backup. When you are trying to back up your iPhone using iTunes and you want to uncheck the option “Encrypt local backup”, iTunes asks you to enter the password to unlock your iPhone backup.
If you remember the password, you are good to go. If you forgot the iPhone backup password, it will be a big problem. Here in this article, we will tell you how to recover the iPhone password or remove the iPhone encryption settings.
Solution 1: Check Your Mac Keychain to Get Back the Password (Only for Mac Users)
First thing first, this solution works only if the following conditions are true:
- You used a Mac computer to back up your iPhone.
- You checked the Encrypt local backup box while backing up your iPhone (obviously).
- You checked the Remember this password in my keychain box while defining the encryption password.
Once you are sure that all the above points are true in your case, you’re good to proceed further.
The step-by-step recovery process on Mac if you forget iPhone backup password is explained below:
- Launch the Finder app on your Mac PC.
- Click Applications from the navigation bar on the left.
- Go to the Utilities folder from the right window.
- Locate and double-click to launch the Keychain Access app.
- Ensure that the login option under the Keychains section from the upper portion of the navigation pane is selected.
- Go to the Passwords tab from the right window.
- Next, use the Search box present at the top-right corner to search iOS Backup.
- Double-click the target encrypted backup instance from the list that appears next.
- On the iOS Backup box, make sure that you are on the Attributes tab.
- Check the Show password box to reveal the forgotten password.
- When the Keychain Access prompt appears, enter your Keychain password.
- Click Allow.
- Back on the iOS Backup box, view the password in the Show password field.
- You can now safely use this password to unlock your iPhone backup on your Mac.
Note: If you encrypted your iPhone backup on your Mac but didn’t check the Remember this password in my keychain box, you will not be able to recover or view your password using the above solution. In such a case, you must rely on a reliable and efficient third-party tool to get the task done.
Solution 2: Use a Tool to Recover the Password
If you encrypted the backup while creating it via iTunes and forgot iPhone backup password, you can use a third-party tool called AnyUnlock developed by iMobie for password recovery. iMobile AnyUnlock can get back your forgotten password, so you can use it to unlock iPhone backup or remove the encryption settings, thus allowing you to restore the backup to your device and make a new backup without encryption.
A couple of other things that iMobile AnyUnlock can do include:
- Unlock Screen Passcode
- Unlock Apple ID
- Bypass MDM (with conditions)
- Remove SIM Lock (with conditions)
- Bypass iCloud Activation Lock (with conditions)
- Unlock Screen Time Passcode
- Turn Off Find My iPhone
- Does iDevice Verification
- Works as iOS Password Manager
The latest version of the application supports all models of iPhone and can even recover iOS 16 backup passwords.
The guide to unlocking iTunes backup using iMobile AnyUnlock is given below:
- Download and install iMobile AnyUnlock on your computer.
- Launch the program.
- From AnyUnlock’s main interface, click iTunes Backup Password Recovery.
- On the next screen, click to select the encrypted backup that you wish to unlock. Click Continue.
- When the next box appears, choose your preferred password recovery mode. You can select from Dictionary Attack, Mask Attack, and Brute-Force Attack. To learn more about these modes, you can follow the links given below:
- Dictionary Attack is to try all the passwords stored in the document where there are thousands of common passwords that real people usually use. This is the fastest way compared with the other methods.
- Mask Attack attempts to guess the password using certain patterns and eliminates unnecessary characters and spaces during the process. This expedites the task that is otherwise lethargic when Brute-Force Attack is used.
- Brute-Force Attack uses almost all possible characters, spaces, and numbers in various combinations to guess the password. This method takes a significant amount of time to complete, but in many (not all) cases the results are promising.
- Click Recover Now.
- Wait while AnyUnlock recovers your forgotten password.
- Once the process completes, the iPhone backup password will be displayed.
You can then use the password to unlock iPhone backup and restore it to your device.
If You Don’t Want to Create Encrypted iTunes Backup Anymore
If you don’t need the encrypted iPhone backup anymore but want to create a new backup without encryption, you can remove the encryption even if you forgot the iPhone password.
iMobile AnyUnlock has your back here as well, but remember that it cannot remove the password of an encrypted iPhone backup that you have created before.
You can learn the process by following the instructions given below:
- Download, install, and launch the iMobile AnyUnlock app on your computer if you haven’t done it yet.
- Use the Lightning Cable to connect your iPhone to the PC.
- Click Remove iTunes Backup Encryption from the main interface.
- On the next screen, click Start Now.
- Wait while AnyUnlock detects your device and shows its details on the Apple Device page.
- Review your iDevice info and check if it is correct.
- Click Remove Now.
- Wait while AnyUnlock removes the password for the encrypted iOS backup.
Now, you can create a new iPhone backup without encryption using iTunes.
Conclusion
If you are a Mac user and created an encrypted iPhone backup with the ‘Remember this password in my keychain’ box checked, you can easily recover the password using the Keychain even if you forgot iPhone backup password. On the other hand, if you backed up your device through iTunes on a Windows computer and forgot iPhone backup password after encrypting it, you must use a third-party tool to recover the password or get rid of the encryption.
