iTunes keeps asking to set up my iPhone as new

[chadsteruw]

Does anyone else keep getting the screen from iTunes asking to set up your device as new or restore from back up? I've already set up my iPhone and just want to sync my photos. Everytime I've gotten this screen, I select "setup as new" and it continues on, but when I try to sync my photos, it deletes all my applications.

This usually happens after I my iPhone leaves the wifi network, then comes back (i.e., sync in the morning, go to work, come back, and expect wifi sync to kick in in the evening, and i get the setup message)

I've already had to reinstall apps 3 times in the last week (luckily i don't use that many)... hope anyone out there who's had the same issue can help.

Thanks

[Rob.S]

This is happening to me also. I upgraded to iTunes 10.5.1 (PC) and yesterday performed a successful backup and sync of my 4S which was already running iOS 5.01 (with no such problem until upgrading iTunes).

Tonight, iTunes states that a device has previously synced with the PC. My iPhone is my only iOS device, but it must not realize that this is the device that previously synced for some reason unknown to me. It will only let me set up the phone as new, or restore from backup.

Is there a way to make iTunes backup my phone and sync it?
Unlike the OP, I have 400 apps on the phone.. and I dread having to reinstall, recreate folders, lose app settings, etc! I'm sure this will require several hours of work, and I'm really hoping I don't have to go there!

Does someone know what might have gone awry, and / or how to get around this glitch? Thanks.

[karendigs]

I am getting the same since I updated iTunes to 10.5.01 - I cannot restore from any of the selected backups and I cannot find any help on the apple site. Everytime I try to restore from back up I am returned to the same screen asking if I want to set it up as a new phone or restore from a backup! I am four days into a two month trip in Italy and I have disabled the international data roaming but do have international roaming (I am originally from Australia) and I am hoping that I don't need to have data capabilities to fix this. Can anyone help with this? I have no music and all my apps have disappeared (although this is not as important as the music given I don't have data capabilities anyway!)

[Thetonyk123]

Well I'm not updating my itunes anymore. You can temporarily back up to iCloud.

[Zcott]

I remember this happening with an old beta of iOS 5. Are you running the most recent version of iTunes and iOS 5?

The 'fix' for this was to finally allow iTunes to set it up as a new phone when prompted, which didn't actually do anything. It didn't wipe any contacts, photos, or anything else, and it finally shut iTunes up.

[JeffreyP]

I saw this July 2007 post and it's exactly the experience I'm having today in 2012. My iPhone was stolen. I replaced it. I restored from backup. Everything completed perfectly and my iPhone was restored. However, every time I plug it into the computer it's synced with, it pops the "Set up as new or Restore from backup" screen, even though it's already restored perfectly.

I have tried erasing and re-restoring the phone and hard resets and every other combination of factors and nothing makes any difference. It's beyond frustrating at this point and searching the web has yielded only this one post of someone having the exact same issue – 5 years ago!

Any help will be met with profound appreciation.

Thanks!