Warning: Apple Devices app accepts wrong encrypted backup password until after iPhone erase

Heads up for anyone restoring an iPhone from an encrypted backup on Windows — I ran into a pretty scary gotcha that could cost you your data.

When using the Apple Devices app to restore from an encrypted backup, the app prompts you for the backup password as expected. The problem is that if you enter the wrong password, it doesn’t immediately tell you it’s incorrect. Everything looks like it’s proceeding normally.

You’re then asked to confirm that you want to erase the iPhone and restore from the backup. Once you approve, the phone is wiped first — before the password is actually validated. Only after the erase completes does the restore fail and prompt for the password again… which is when you finally learn the password you entered was wrong.

At that point, your device is already erased. If you don’t remember the correct backup password, your data is effectively gone.

So the lesson here is: double-check your encrypted backup password before confirming any restore, and make sure you’re absolutely certain it’s correct. This workflow doesn’t protect you from mistakes, and the failure only shows up after the destructive step has already happened.

Hopefully this saves someone else from a very stressful surprise.