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An odd one here:

  • Encrypted iTunes backup
    • backup completed successfully
  • Key stored in the Keychain (since the first backup of this device a long while ago)
    • Also stored in PasswordSafe and both keys match so I'd say I have the proper key.
  • Trying to restore, iTunes asks for the password, but "fills it in" - and then complains of the password not being valid!
    • I've tried typing the password -- actually typing all the "iPhone Backup" passwords for the rest of the family's devices in my keychain - and the result is the same!!

I absolutely need to recover some of the data in the backup (i.e., family pictures not stored elsewhere) so I'm looking for info on how the actual data is encrypted hoping I might try "raw decryption" on the content.

Given how fast the "not valid" response is, I'm hoping iTunes is trying to decrypt some metadata file and failing -- but that it might be possible to get to the pictures themselves.

Thanks a lot in advance for any pointers!?

-- Javier

P.S.: This also makes me worry about the reliability of the backups I have of the other devices; I've opened another question about this - How to verify that an iTunes backup is valid?.

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    There’s a related question on SO with an answer that mentions an open source tool to decrypt iTunes backups: stackoverflow.com/a/13793043. There’s also a commercial tool by Reincubate; while they mention in a blog post that the tool cannot “fully read your encrypted backup if it got corrupted” they still offer that you can contact their support team in this case for “helpful tips and tricks”. So contacting them to ask whether they can help might be worth a shot: iphonebackupextractor.com/blog/2014/jan/17/… – Rinzwind Jun 18 '15 at 19:28
  • Thanks a million for the pointer. I had already "found" (and bought) the iphonebackupextractor tool and it doesn't work :( - I was planning to contact the developer to see what might be the issue; good to see that these guys are already open to that. I'll also try the Python tool before in case it can give me more info on what the issue might be. Thanks!! – JJarava Jun 18 '15 at 21:00

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