NLC
Registered user
Thought I would post this so others can learn from this major flaw with the Apple iPhone.
In trying to get my iPhone to work with a Scala Packtalk Duo I decided to reinstall my iOS to rule out any system corruptions on the iPhone. I backed up my iPhone X to my MacBook Pro locally and specifically unchecked "encrypt backup" to install a clean iOS system. When I went to restore the phone 1 hour later I was asked for a password which I never set. Unknown to me, and thousands of other Apple users by all the posts on the subject, even if you uncheck "encrypt local backup" if you have checked "encrypt local backup" at any point in your life of Apple (i.e. on an iPhone 3 a thousand years ago) or if you are using your phone for business and the company installs its own security profile requiring encrypted backups the backup will be encrypted without your knowledge. While it is not the end of the world as most of my data is backed up to the Microsoft Cloud but this is an issue that needs to be sorted. While Apple goes out of its way to protect users privacy it is a bit hypocritical to encrypt data without the users knowledge. It could be easily fixed by Apple asking you to verify the password before backing up or perhaps telling you that the backup is encrypted. I imagine many people have learned the hard way and would be seriously pissed. Although I have my data backed up it is a couple of hours re-installing everything at least.
So before you wipe your iPhone make sure the backup is not encrypted (does not have a lock beside) otherwise you will get a nasty surprise if you have no idea what the password is. Apple Support were fecking useless by the rep repeating "at Apple privacy is very important to us" and "I know how you must feel".
In trying to get my iPhone to work with a Scala Packtalk Duo I decided to reinstall my iOS to rule out any system corruptions on the iPhone. I backed up my iPhone X to my MacBook Pro locally and specifically unchecked "encrypt backup" to install a clean iOS system. When I went to restore the phone 1 hour later I was asked for a password which I never set. Unknown to me, and thousands of other Apple users by all the posts on the subject, even if you uncheck "encrypt local backup" if you have checked "encrypt local backup" at any point in your life of Apple (i.e. on an iPhone 3 a thousand years ago) or if you are using your phone for business and the company installs its own security profile requiring encrypted backups the backup will be encrypted without your knowledge. While it is not the end of the world as most of my data is backed up to the Microsoft Cloud but this is an issue that needs to be sorted. While Apple goes out of its way to protect users privacy it is a bit hypocritical to encrypt data without the users knowledge. It could be easily fixed by Apple asking you to verify the password before backing up or perhaps telling you that the backup is encrypted. I imagine many people have learned the hard way and would be seriously pissed. Although I have my data backed up it is a couple of hours re-installing everything at least.
So before you wipe your iPhone make sure the backup is not encrypted (does not have a lock beside) otherwise you will get a nasty surprise if you have no idea what the password is. Apple Support were fecking useless by the rep repeating "at Apple privacy is very important to us" and "I know how you must feel".
