Turning off iTunes backup encryption

[AZhappyjack]

How can I turn off the encryption for iTunes backups? I don't care about the backups that are already encrypted backups... but I want to stop encrypting backups.

We have 3 iPads that the grandkids use when they come over, and to eliminate any fighting over who gets which iPad, I routinely backup one and restore the other 2 with that backup. Somewhere along the way, someone enabled encryption for the backups... strangely, I can still backup the device, but cannot restore the other iPads from that backup without the password.

My objective is to turn off encryption for the backups so that I can backup and restore as I used to do...

 

[CoastalOR]

You do lose some information if the backup is not encrypted, but the loss may not matter you. Here is the information from Apple (see the iTunes section):
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203977

 

[AZhappyjack]

You do lose some information if the backup is not encrypted, but the loss may not matter you. Here is the information from Apple (see the iTunes section):
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203977

I understand that stuff like health data, etc will be excluded... not an issue, as the iPads just have kids games on them, and the point of the backup/restore exercise is to sync content, so they all have the same games.

However, when I try to turn off encrypted backup, it asks for the password - which is the issue. Maybe I can just uninstall iTunes and then re-install it.

 

[CoastalOR]

Sorry, I did not realize you did not have the password from your original post.

See this Apple Support document, check the "Turn off iTunes backup encryption" section towards the bottom:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205220

It sounds like you may need to:

the only way to turn off encrypted backups is to erase your device and set it up as new

if you can not get the password or you do not want to switch to iCloud backup.