If you have a wallet.dat that is using "password1" and you then make a copy of that wallet.dat and change the password of the copy to "password2", then the original version of the wallet.dat will still be using "password1".
Nothing you do to a copy (in terms of passwords) will affect the original file. How can it? If the original is not being modified, then the password cannot possibly have changed. It makes no sense.
I suspect you've gotten confused with all the "copies" and have actually been attempting to open the old file with the new password (or vice versa). In any case, I'm glad you've managed to get it sorted and have a functioning backup