How do I remove the restriction passcode on my iPad? [duplicate]

The restrictions password can be reset by adding a PIN to the Springboard preferences file in iOS 6. Easier said than done!

The instructions below worked for my iPad - and no jailbreak required.

They are, with a few minor changes, from Apple Support Community starting from about the 8th page:

1. Download iBackupBot

2. Connect iPhone/iPod/iPad via USB

3. Backup device to iTunes

4. Close iTunes (leave your device plugged in to your computer)

5. Open iBackupBot - this will open all device backups that it can find

6. Select your backup from the left column

7. Sort right hand pane by Path and locate "Library/Preferences/com.apple.springboard.plist" (there may be two files named this; try them both) and double-click to open

8. Extracted it (and only it) to the desktop. Do this by Checkmark the file, then select the Extract Icon (or File - Export menu), then select the checkbox that says only that file and the other checkbox that says something about Info about the file. Two files will appear on your desktop - one ending in plist and the other ending in .info.

9. Edit com.apple.springboard.plist with you favourite plist editor (e.g. Xcode)

10. Look for and change the string for "SBParentalControlsFailedAttempts" to 0

11. Add in

    <key>SBParentalControlsPIN</key>
    <string>1234</string>
    

    after

    <dict>
        <key>countryCode</key>
        <string>us</string>
    </dict>
    

12. Save your changes, and return to iBackupBot

13. Import the modified plist. It is now in the backup!

14. Exit iBackupBot

15. Open iTunes and use Restore Backup to your device

16. After restore is done and phone restarts the password should be 1234.

Amazing! But use at your own risk.

And, just to repeat, I got all this from an Apple Support Community discussion. Nothing is original.

There's a tool that can recover the restrictions passcode from an unencrypted backup, called pinfinder. Download the tool at the pinfinder github page, make an unencrypted backup and follow the instructions.

It is possible, I have done it before on my sister's iPad, the passcode is stored in a plist file in the iPad backup. I will return when I find what the plist file is called.

Also note that synchronising with a computer will create a backup on your computer.

So I have looked it up, this appears to only work in iOS 4. I see a possible way around it in iOS 5 but I have not tested this new method.

1. Find your backup folder. Windows: %AppData%\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\ and Mac: <your home folder>/Library/Appli­­cation Support/MobileSync/Backup/

2. Open your iPad's backup - this involves a little guesswork (if you sync more than one device). However, you can check the date of the backup in itunes preferences, then find the backup in the folder with the same date.

3. If you are using iOS 5 here - see if you have an iOS 4 backup with the passcode. If you have an iOS 5 backup only backup your backup. I have not tested the following method.

4. Locate the file 662bc19b13aecef58a7e855d0316e4cf61e2642b (no extension). Open with a Property-List (plist) editor - link from Youtube. (Mac comes with a built-in one).

5. Look for the key SBParentalControlsPIN. Underneath is the 4 digits of the Restrictions Passcode. If you have an iOS 5 backup, you won't find the key and you need to do step 6 instead.

6. WARNING! THIS MIGHT BREAK THE BACKUP, BACKUP YOUR BACKUP FIRST. I HAVE NOT TRIED THIS, I CANNOT VOUCH FOR IT WORKING: - Locate the key called SBParentalControlsEnabled. Uncheck the box, or change from true to false, or similar. Restore your iPad from this backup. IF IT FAILS, REPLACE THE MODIFIED BACKUP WITH THE ORIGINAL COPY THAT YOU MADE, THIS WILL GET YOUR STUFF BACK.

Hope this helps, and sorry if it doesn't.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaXtrSHfWi8

This works definitely, either by installing the SSH client as in the original message or by connecting with terminal from iMac (at least it worked with my iPad 2 with iOS 6.1.2 that was jailbroken with evasi0n 1.05 and then installed OpenSSH on iPad).

To Manually Reset the Passcode:

1. Install any desktop software for browsing the iPhone filesystem (iPhoneBrowser/iFunBox/SSH/DiskAid trial version).

2. Navigate to /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/ and delete com.apple.springboard.plist

3. Navigate to the directory /var/Keychains/ and delete "keychain-2.db"

4. Reboot the iPhone.

To give you an idea on how this worked, the com.apple.springboard.plist file contains the setting of your passcode turned-on. Deleting this resets the toggles back to default (after the final reboot) and takes care of that part of the problem. But since a passcode was already defined, the "keychain-2.db"