Itunes only wants to "set up as new phone" or "restore from old backup"

[enzo thecat]

Wanted to sync phone to itunes on computer for several reasons. Its been awhile since I've done this and of course itunes had to go through several laborious updates and so did the stupid iphone. Now when I plug it in, my only options are "set up as new phone" or "restore from old backup". I dont want to do either because I will loose so many pictures, contacts, etc.

Is there anyway to get itunes to recognize the iphone and just let it sync as normal? Do I have any options? Please help.





TO APPLE: Apple, WTH? You have made the user experience agonizing anymore. It used to be so simple. The user experience keeps getting more and more agonizing.

 

[Cmd-Z]

Did you used to sync this iPhone to this specific computer? IIRC, the iPhone can only connect to one computer (or library, to be specific) otherwise it may force you to erase it upon connection to the computer.

Even if that is true, set your iPhone to backup to iCloud before connecting to the computer. Do the iCloud backup first, and make sure that your contacts live in an email account (iCloud, Gmail, etc.) and not solely on the iPhone. If you do this, even erasing your iPhone upon connection to the computer would allow you to (afterwards) restore from the computer and choose your iCloud backup to recover your iPhone settings, app data, text history, etc. The only thing you might lose are songs or apps that were purchased from a different iTunes account which are not on your computer.