The password iTunes was asking for relates to your encrypted back-up file. This password is something you set when you checked that box and performed a local back-up on iTunes.
The password iTunes was asking for relates to your encrypted back-up file. This password is something you set when you checked that box and performed a local back-up on iTunes.
That's not entirely strange. Restore times can be impacted by server loads at Apple (likely higher than normal today), and the size of your backup. It can often take several hours for a restore to complete.
In the same boat. Bar is a tiny sliver from being full, and has been like this for a while. Been waiting about 1.5 hours already, so just gonna wait it out for a while longer.
Got tired of waiting. Did a packet capture on my router and found the phone was pinging a t-mobile DNS server periodically, but that was it -- no connections to iCloud -- so I figured the restore must be done. So I forced a hard reset, and it booted up right away and seems to be restored. Crisis averted!
I understand that your concern is for iCloud restoring. I just want to impress that this truly is a no-frills, almost guaranteed method to a smooth restore. Often quicker than iCloud too.