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Always asking "Trust This Computer" [MERGED]
- Thread starter mrochester
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It’s obviously not much of a priority for Apple to fix.UPDATE: Just upgraded to latest 17 and Sonoma last night, and it BROKE again
It's absolutely crazy situation. The most important problem that the iPhone screen does not turn off automatically at this message. You should manually click Power button each time when you put the iPhone on the power stand.
Yeah it's annoying for those of us who do this but it's obviously not a big problem for Apple.
Like a flashmob: class action lawsuit, returning iPhones back to shops and buy new again each week and so on.
Not enough people are bothered or would do it to make any sort of difference to Apple. If you have a niche use-case (of which backing up to a computer is probably one these days) then you aren't going to be a priority.
I don't think that's true. Most likely the situation was that you could extract all of the data from the phone (albeit encrypted) by spoofing a trusted device, such as by getting ahold of a non-encrypted trusted device like an older Mac without FileVault (etc.) or a PC without disk-based encryption. Etc. etc.
The encrypted data could then theoretically be cracked off-device by a system with far more computing power.
By forcing the password prompt, that adds another layer of protection to the situation where the data can't even be extracted without passing the checks governed by the Secure Enclave.
It's the same situation where if you store data in the cloud or if it's intercepted in transmission— anyone who obtains that data can then crack it at their leisure as long as they store it and have enough computing power to do so. That can be really expensive but it's not impossible.
Are you sure? Was there any UX change, and are you sure a backup completed? Would be interested to see/hear.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I was looking for a solution to this as well when I came across this thread... and this excerpt shortly after:
So it would appear to be intended behaviour — if you use automatic backups. I have this enabled so that when I'm on my home wi-fi, my phone wirelessly backs itself up to my NAS overnight when charging. Looks like I'll have to either manual start a backup these days or move to iCloud backups, which I didn't want to do because it only backs up 'your most important data'.
Not happy with this change, but from a privacy perspective, I want to assume/hope this is to negate phone thieves attempts to scrape data from the device via backing it up or spoofing the trusted device (whether that be by a stranger or someone you know - family, housemate, etc) — or potentially to negate authority/law enforcement from retrieving data without permission. But... it's almost roadblocked a core function. I have ADHD, I never remember to back up my devices and rely on automatic backups via this, Time Machine for my mac, etc. Automation saves me often, but that feels like it's been revoked.
Personally, if I were in that UX team, I'd allow an opt-in option to save the device as trusted and consent to a fat disclaimer saying what you're acknowledging and the risks therein.
source: About the "Trust This Computer" alert message | support.apple.com
So it would appear to be intended behaviour — if you use automatic backups. I have this enabled so that when I'm on my home wi-fi, my phone wirelessly backs itself up to my NAS overnight when charging. Looks like I'll have to either manual start a backup these days or move to iCloud backups, which I didn't want to do because it only backs up 'your most important data'.
Not happy with this change, but from a privacy perspective, I want to assume/hope this is to negate phone thieves attempts to scrape data from the device via backing it up or spoofing the trusted device (whether that be by a stranger or someone you know - family, housemate, etc) — or potentially to negate authority/law enforcement from retrieving data without permission. But... it's almost roadblocked a core function. I have ADHD, I never remember to back up my devices and rely on automatic backups via this, Time Machine for my mac, etc. Automation saves me often, but that feels like it's been revoked.
Personally, if I were in that UX team, I'd allow an opt-in option to save the device as trusted and consent to a fat disclaimer saying what you're acknowledging and the risks therein.
Thee has to be some way one computer and one iPhone can create a hashed identifier based on the IEMI or serial number or something. :/
Its even worse that the message pops up all.the.time. making people blindly click the popup when the "This computer" in the popup could be the computer who you do not want to "back up" to.
Its even worse that the message pops up all.the.time. making people blindly click the popup when the "This computer" in the popup could be the computer who you do not want to "back up" to.
iOS 17
Stiiiiillll not fixed.
WHY DOES IT ASK MORE THAN ONE TIME AFTER PHYSICALLY CONNECTING YOUR DEVICE THROUGH USB???
I need to know!!! Please tell me why the world's biggest, richest, most powerful tech company simply cannot bother to fix this??
I'm starting to assume that it's some form of "punishment" for having the audacity to want to use a method other than iCloud/OTA.
Stiiiiillll not fixed.
WHY DOES IT ASK MORE THAN ONE TIME AFTER PHYSICALLY CONNECTING YOUR DEVICE THROUGH USB???
I need to know!!! Please tell me why the world's biggest, richest, most powerful tech company simply cannot bother to fix this??
I'm starting to assume that it's some form of "punishment" for having the audacity to want to use a method other than iCloud/OTA.
The same error when OTA. I use Wireless charger and I am upset getting this every time.
I've been told that the reason for multiple prompts is for added security when connected OTA. I sort of get that.
But if the phone is physically connected through USB, there is zero reason for it to prompt you more than once per connection. Yet it prompts you any time you try to initiate anything.
The most "funny" thing is when I connect it to charger (Apple original) by USB wire. The phone asks me if I trust. Trust charger, are you OK, Apple???
No matter how many times people make excuses about security, the fact that they refuse to at least implement an option to turn this off is infuriating.
If I plug in the phone to the computer, ONE PIN PROMPT SHOULD BE ENOUGH UNTIL I UNPLUG IT.
As it is and has been for a while now, trying to perform a backup or update fails literally half the time because you didn't notice that it prompted you for the PIN a THIRD time.
If I plug in the phone to the computer, ONE PIN PROMPT SHOULD BE ENOUGH UNTIL I UNPLUG IT.
As it is and has been for a while now, trying to perform a backup or update fails literally half the time because you didn't notice that it prompted you for the PIN a THIRD time.
That's actually incorrect— if the Mac is exploited, it could perform additional full backups of the device(s) to insecure locations after you've performed that initial authorization. Granting access to a USB connected device is not the same as granting access to a specific remote Mac process, and the iOS device can't verify which processes are running on the Mac to send data to. The purpose of the passcode is to protect against spoofing what the iOS device sees as a backup target at the human level.
It's 2025 and at least iMazing backups will prompt for trust 2-3 times PER BACKUP.
Do not click on "backup now" and leave to do something else. Your backup will not be done when you return.
Do not click on "backup now" and leave to do something else. Your backup will not be done when you return.
Tools like iMazing allow automatic backups when your phone is reachable by wifi. That is, it would be fully automatic if you didn’t have to confirm you trust the computer every single time. But it means you may get the “Trust this computer?” popup at random times. And then you’d have to double-check that it’s really your computer who requested that. Plus it’s in principle possible that an attacker catches the moment and manages to preempt the pairing and instead asks to pair to a different computer. It would be useful for the popup to show the computer name and IP address.
I might be wrong but I don’t think you can pair with a computer over wifi until you have connected via a cable at least once to turn on the wifi setting.
According to iMazing, remote pairing is possible via wifi on macOS, just not on Windows. Regardless, if you’ve done that with multiple computers, there are still possibilities of misuse, and it would be helpful to get an indication of which device you’re connecting to.