Apple offers its users the choice of three different backup methods, allowing to be created, plain and password-protected local backups via iTunes, or making over-the-air iCloud backups. The following table plots major differences between the three types of backups:
iTunes, plain (unencrypted) |
iTunes password-protected (encrypted) |
iCloud | |
Keychain encrypted with |
securityd (*) |
Password (same as the rest of the backup); some keychain items with a higher protection class are still protected with hardware-backed securityd key |
securityd (*) |
Amount of data |
Full (but keychain data may remain inaccessible unless securityd is extracted out of the physical device) |
Limited (some keychain data unavailable) |
Limited (for example, no IMEI and other hardware-specific data) |
Type of recovery |
Most information available instantly |
Must recover original password |
Must know Apple ID/password, or must have non-expired authentication token... |