Don't Forget Your Password! ⇒

I had read that if you encrypt your iPhone backups, when you restore you won't have to re-enter all your mail, wifi and other passwords. So I dutifully encrypted the backups. And then I forgot the password. I didn't really want to have to redo all my app organization and settings the next time I needed to restore my iPhone. Thought I'd post the steps to remove the encryption in case others need to do this: 1. Jailbreak phone 2. Install OpenSSH 3. Mount the phone on the desktop (I used ExpanDrive) with the default directory at /var 4. Download a sqlite3 browser (I used MesaSQL) 5. Follow the instructions here to remove the required line 6. Hook phone back up to iTunes and uncheck the Encrypt Backups checkbox. When prompted for a password but in anything (doesn't matter) 7. Sigh with relief 8. Unjailbreak your phone. 9. Follow instructions here to restore your phone without having to redo all your folder organization 10. Repeat with your wife's phone. Long process!