How to Recover iTunes Encrypted Backup Password when You Forgot

"For security, I set a password protection to encrypt my backups in iTunes. However, I forgot my iTunes backup password and unable to access the backups. Is there any way to help me retrieve the iTunes backup password?"

iTunes enables you to use password protection and encryption to protect your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch backups. But if you forgot iTunes backup password, you have to recover the backup password, so that you can unlock your backup and then remove the encryption. In this post, we will show you two straightforward methods of how to recover iTunes encrypted backup password when you forgot.

Method 1: Recover iTunes backup password by resetting

If you forgot the iTunes backup password, you can reset it. But at the same time, you need to make a new encrypted backup replacing the old one and set a new password protection, so that you can recover your iTunes backup password and regain the access of backups. This method is only available in iOS 11 and beyond. Here are detailed steps.

Step 1: On your iPhone/iPad, go to Settings -> General -> Reset.

Step 2: Click Reset All Settings option and enter your iPhone/iPad password. Then click Reset All Settings to confirm. It just reset the device settings including iTunes backup password and it won't erase the data on your device.

Step 3: Connect your iPhone/iPad to iTunes again and create a new backup with a new password protection.

Finally, you have got a new iTunes backup password and regained the access to encrypted iTunes backups.

Method 2: Recover iTunes backup password via recovery tool

If you want to easily recover iTunes backup password without backups losing, a trustworthy and safe recovery tool is the way out and iTunes Password Recovery is such a tool. It is a powerful recovery tool designed to help you recover iTunes backup password and regain access to encrypted iTunes backups. Here is a guide on how to use it to recover iTunes backup password.

Step 1: Import the encrypted iTunes backup file.

Download and install iTunes Password Recovery software on your computer. Then launch it and click Open option.

A Select iTunes Backup File window will pop up showing the automatic search result of iTunes backup file on your computer. Select the encrypted backup file of your iOS device and then click on OK button to import.

Note: If your iTunes backup file isn't shown in the dialog box, you can click on Add File button to add it manually. It is generally located in the directory below:

C:\Users\%userprofiles%\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

Step 2: Select password recovery mode and complete some settings.

1. Brute-force Mode. It is a commonly-used password recovery mode and it will try all possible character's combinations in specified Range. If you choose it, you can complete some options to shorten the time of recovery. For example, if you vaguely remember that the password ends with 123 and has no uppercase letter, you can type 123 in input box next to End at and uncheck the box of All caps latin (as shown below).

If you probably remember the number of password characters, please click Length tab. Enter Minimal password length and Maximal password length in the input box, which can also shorten recovery time.

Mask mode. If you remember part of the password, please choose the Mask recovery mode. On Range tab, type the certain part that you remember and replace the part you forgot with a question mark (e.g., you vaguely remember that the password has three digits and the first digit is a lowercase letter z, you can type z?? in the input box next to Mask.). Besides, if you know that the forgotten part has no special characters, you can uncheck the box of All special symbols and the same is true of other options. This recovery mode can help you retrieve iTunes backup password quickly.

Dictionary mode. This mode will take advantage of the built-in dictionary to retrieve the iTunes backup password. There are two dictionary files. One is the default dictionary file provided by the software, the other is a notepad file created by yourself, which may include commonly-used passwords, your ever-used passwords and some special characters like phone number, birthday, etc. It is also a recovery mode worth trying.

Choose Dictionary mode. On the Dictionary tab, click Select Dictionary button to import a dictionary file.

Smart mode. If you know little about the document password, the Smart recovery type will try all possible character's combinations including all printable characters to find the password smartly and automatically. If you choose this mode, you don't need to complete any option.

Step 3: Start recovering iTunes backup password

After the configuration of recovery mode, click on Start to launch the process of password recovery.

Just wait a moment, a window pops up showing the iTunes backup password on the screen and you can click Copy button and paste it to unlock iTunes backup. If one of recovery mode fails to recover iTunes backup password, you can try another one. In a word, this tool can definitely help you recover iTunes backup password, no matter how complicated it is.

Tips: You can download iTunes Password Recovery for free. Its free trial can only recover iTunes backup password containing no more than 3 characters. If you want to recover a complicated password, just purchase the full version.

Download: iTunes Password Recovery