OS reinstalled - how to sync my iPhone?

[Qbah]

Hi peeps,

Tried googling but couldn't get a clear answer (or maybe my google-fu sucks today). Anyway... My OS died a few days ago (nasty rootkit that also modified one of the core files - BSODs on startup, same in safe mode blablabla). Long story short, had to wipe my OS and run a fresh install. So... my new OS is up and running (and blazing fast thanks to the X25-M!), I installed iTunes, moved all my purchases from the phone to it but when I try to sync it still yaps about erasing all applications and their data.

How can I sync my iPhone without wiping it? I have some important things on my phone, high-scores in games too, lots of books, music... I will be seriously pissed if there's no way of doing it without wiping your phone clean.

Halp!

 

[vbuggy]

Hi peeps,

Tried googling but couldn't get a clear answer (or maybe my google-fu sucks today). Anyway... My OS died a few days ago (nasty rootkit that also modified one of the core files - BSODs on startup, same in safe mode blablabla). Long story short, had to wipe my OS and run a fresh install. So... my new OS is up and running (and blazing fast thanks to the X25-M!), I installed iTunes, moved all my purchases from the phone to it but when I try to sync it still yaps about erasing all applications and their data.

How can I sync my iPhone without wiping it? I have some important things on my phone, high-scores in games too, lots of books, music... I will be seriously pissed if there's no way of doing it without wiping your phone clean.

Halp!

So did you take a backup of the iTunes folder before you blew away the OS and move it back?

 

[gorcorps]

Hi peeps,

Tried googling but couldn't get a clear answer (or maybe my google-fu sucks today). Anyway... My OS died a few days ago (nasty rootkit that also modified one of the core files - BSODs on startup, same in safe mode blablabla). Long story short, had to wipe my OS and run a fresh install. So... my new OS is up and running (and blazing fast thanks to the X25-M!), I installed iTunes, moved all my purchases from the phone to it but when I try to sync it still yaps about erasing all applications and their data.

How can I sync my iPhone without wiping it? I have some important things on my phone, high-scores in games too, lots of books, music... I will be seriously pissed if there's no way of doing it without wiping your phone clean.

Halp!

You can't (officially) do this. IIRC it's an Apple counter-measure to ensure you're not sharing music on your friends' computers. There is some software that can manage files without itunes though, such as copytrans suite. Try thatt.

 

[Qbah]

I only backed up "My Music\iTunes". I didn't want to take a chance that anything from the OS drive would still be infected by anything. Is there something in there that could help me? The "Program Files\iTunes" (or whatever it's called) is gone. Damn...

And I'll try that copytrans suite, thanks gorcorps!

 

[vbuggy]

I only backed up "My Music\iTunes". I didn't want to take a chance that anything from the OS drive would still be infected by anything. Is there something in there that could help me? The "Program Files\iTunes" (or whatever it's called) is gone. Damn...

And I'll try that copytrans suite, thanks gorcorps!

Yeah, that's all you need - you should be able to restore the latest iPhone backup if you copy the My Music iTunes folder which should be current, right?

 

[TheStu]

The way I do it on my Mac, which should work for Windows is to reinstall iTunes, launch it, point it to where you want it. Then close it out. Copy the old stuff back, replacing everything that is there. Relaunch iTunes and it should all be how you left it. This is assuming of course that you were running the latest version before the wipe.

 

[silverpig]

If it's just the apps, then you can easily re-buy them all and it won't charge you.

 

[gorcorps]

If it's just the apps, then you can easily re-buy them all and it won't charge you.

Some of us lose track of what we buy though, and apple makes it difficult to view what you're already bought. You can view your purchase history in itunes, but you can only view by month. And then you can only see app names, they don't give you links to download them. So you have to write down all the apps you've bought and then go one by one and redownload them again. Much bigger PITA then it should be.

 

[ubercaffeinated]

all your programs are in the itunes folder. navigate around until you find it in itunes, and it'll load up the apps into itunes. dunno why it doesn't autodetect. i just did this myself last night.

 

[Qbah]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm not worried that I will lose my apps. I don't have that many (and I actually remember if I paid for something when I see it 😛) plus they're in the iTunes folder anyway - and I transferred my purchased items to iTunes too so the apps tab already lists everything. It's just what's inside those apps.
- usage data with my car
- game high scores and progress
- eBooks (I don't even remember where I got most of them from...)
- mailboxes (I got so many... so annoying to setup everything again!) - will this get wiped too?
- notes
- bookmarks
- GPS favorites
- IM history (I would HATE to lose this D🙂

All that is application-specific and I will lose it if I wipe the apps and reinstall them.

I checked the Copytrans Suite but it's only for music-related things (least of my worries, got everything anyway on my HDD).

I'll try what TheStu suggested and see if it helps.

Any other ideas are very welcome though 🙂