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Jorge Lopez1 Author

Level 1

31 points

'iPhone previously synced with computer' error when I connect to itunes

I have a v1 iphone and yesterday morning upgraded to 2.01. That seemed to go just fine and I used it all day.

Last night the batter ran out and upon plugging it into the charger it seems as if the phone has been de-activated. I then connected to iTunes and received the message saying "An iPHone has been previously synched with this computer" and I chose to restore from my backup which seemed to work fine. I could use the phone no problem.

This morning I connected it to iTunes to move some music over and it gave me same "An iPhone has been previously..." message as before. So I'm restoring again, but I'm wondering what is up and if anyone else is experiencing similar issues

Dual 2ghz G5, MacBook Pro 2.4ghz Intel, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Aug 7, 2008 8:50 AM

18 replies

Aug 16, 2008 8:31 AM in response to Belfastbmx

Yep, just tried the "new phone" option and all is now fine!! All my notes, weather locations and sms were all there. All I had to do was sync my contacts, music, photos etc. and everything is back to normal.

Whilst this has taken me a total of a few hours to fix and has been extremely frustrating, it has been my only issue with my (original) iphone since november 07. I just hope it doesn't happen again.

For anyone out there with this issue, just go for the "set up as a new phone option"

Aug 26, 2008 12:35 PM in response to Jorge Lopez1

I had the same problem for a couple days but eventually resolved the problem.

*I did NOT:*
1. Set up as a new iPhone.
2. Uninstall/reinstall iTunes... although this option would have been attempted before #1 had I not been able to resolve the problem.

*I DID:*
Repeatedly restored the phone from a previous backup.

Note:
Phone WAS still working during this time and I had not lost any data/music/contacts/apps/etc.

Results:
At first, nothing changed. Same issue as originally stated in this thread. After 3 or 4 restore sessions, it finally recognized my iPhone however, it wiped off all the music from the phone. Phone is still syncing at this time so I do not know if I've lost any SMS, notes, etc.

Good luck..

crsouser

Level 1

5 points

Sep 11, 2008 6:55 AM in response to Jorge Lopez1

I have yet to let my phones battery drop below 60% and I constantly have the issue with 2.1 Fireware on a iPhone 3G.

If having your battery drop that low causes your phone to no longer sync (an essential function of the phone as a PDA and for application installation) it warrants a product recall if they can't fix it in a timely manner. As the product cannot reliably do what it is advertised to be able to do.

Really people.. how hard is it for Apple to have iTunes check the serial number on the phone and determine that is the same phone? This versus every time I plug my iPhone into the computer it thinks its a new iPhone. I have done the new phone setup multiple times, done the restore from previous iPhone multiple times and this just keeps happening.

I am not trying to sync it on another computer either (which I think you should be able to sync it on multiple computers like an iPod), though do sometimes charge it via USB cable on my work pc which doesn't even have iTunes installed.

I wish they would just fix it or add the ability to sync outside of iTunes as its really starting to get on my nerves!

Christopher

'iPhone previously synced with computer' error when I connect to itunes