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Activating Encrypted Backups
Activating Encrypted Backups

As of iOS 13, encrypted backups must be turned on in order for PhoneView to access your Call Logs.

Updated over a week ago

As of iOS 13, encrypted backups must be turned on in order for PhoneView to access your Call Logs. There are a few steps involved to turn on backup encryption. 

Note that these steps are different in macOS 10.15 Catalina, as iTunes is gone.

About Encrypted Backups

Backup encryption is turned on or off using the iTunes app on your Mac. However it is important to note that the setting itself resides on the phone. Once activated, all backups to any desktop computers, as well as any data sent to apps like PhoneView, will be encrypted, and a password will be required in order to restore from the backup or decrypt the data.

The backup encryption password is completely separate from your Mac's admin password, your Apple ID password or iOS PIN code. You'll create this password when turning on encryption. The password will also be required if you ever need to turn encryption off again.  

The setting does not apply to iCloud backups. They will not be affected at all by changing this setting.

Turning on Backup Encryption

Follow these steps to turn on encryption:

  1. Connect the iOS device using a USB cable, and quit PhoneView if it's open.

  2. On macOS 10.14 or older, open the iTunes app on your Mac. Click the tiny iOS device icon in the iTunes toolbar.  On macOS 10.15 (Catalina), rather than using iTunes, locate the iOS device in any Finder window sidebar.

  3. The device's Summary screen will be displayed:

   4. Click the Encrypt local backup checkbox. You'll be prompted to create a password. We recommend also checking the checkbox Remember this password in my keychain. Note that this password is separate from your other passwords such as Mac's admin password and your Apple ID password. You are creating a new password just for backups.

   5. Click Set Password. You'll be prompted to enter your PIN code on your iOS device. iTunes will then turn on backup encryption and begin creating an encrypted local backup. This may take some time. If you do not want a local backup, you can click  Stop to end this process after a few seconds. 

  6. Backup encryption is now activated. Open PhoneView, and complete a PhoneView sync. PhoneView will prompt you for the encrypted backup password created in step 4 above. The Call Log will now be displayed.


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