Will re-syncing iPhone to a new iTunes installation delete app data?

Really helpful solution, but my question is. What about Voice Memos will it be also tranfered or is there a risk of losing it?

Good question.... I heard if you "transfer purchases" it won't hurt anything when you sync.

Seems to me that if all you're concerned about is the apps themselves, then there are two ways to go:

1. Right click your device in the iTunes sidebar and pick "Transfer Purchases".
2. Go "iTunes Store" in the iTunes sidebar, choose "App Store" on the bar across the top, go to "Purchased" on the right sidebar in the store itself, then click the "Download All" button. This has the same affect as "Transfer Purchases", except it'll get every app you've ever downloaded, not just the ones currently on your iPhone. Thank you iCloud.

Then from there simply go ahead with your sync. Your apps will all be deleted from your phone first, then transferred back to your phone WITHOUT any data and IN THE WRONG ORDER on the home screen.

However, if you actually care about how your apps are set up, what order they're in on your home screens, and the actual data contained in your apps, e.g., your voice memos, your photos, your passwords, documents you've created, etc., then it's just not as simple as the above. Something like wjosten's instructions are necessary, especially steps five, six, and seven.

Of course, if the apps you care about keep all their stuff in the cloud, then maybe this isn't a concern for you. For instance, the Facebook app of course keeps all it's stuff on the Facebook website, so maybe it's not a big deal to log back into the app since all your stuff will of course still be there. The thing to keep in mind is if you use any apps that actually store their data in the apps themselves, not on a website or in the cloud.

I just went through wjosten's instructions and the only issue I encountered is that the apps didn't come across in the same order on my home screens, but all my data came trhough intact, which is what I really cared about. A few minutes of moving icons around I can handle. Losing data I cannot.

I just tried the following guide and it worked just fine for Iphone 4 iOS5 (Windows 7 and iTunes 10.5).

Two of the directories are different for Windows 7, you can find them at C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\

Guide : http://rackerhacker.com/2008/11/02/syncing-an-iphone-with-a-new-mac-without-hass les/

Great advise wjosten -- thanks so much for taking the terror out of syncing my phone with my new machine. Running Windows 7 and it works great, in case anyone out there is wondering.

ONE IMPORTANT NOTE FOR OTHER USERS RE VOICE MEMOS: I used the failsafe of emailing my voicememos to myself before starting this process because I was not sure whether to have the box for "sync voice memos" checked on my iphone settings. (In other words, it was not clear to me whether that was an indication to sync to the voice memo list on my cpu or to the voice memo list on my phone.) I left the box unchecked and followed wjosten's steps above. The voice memos on the phone were wiped out, but I have them on email (to do this, just go to the list of voice memos on your phone, tap "share" and choose "email"). So I would just tack on to wjosten's extremely helpful tip that if you're concerned about losing vm's, be sure to email them to yourself. I don't know whether leaving "sync voice memos" on my phones settings would have preserved them.

hi wjosten,

first of all thank you for the awesome instructions you provided. you've helped alot of people including me. there's just one thing that im having trouble with. i would appreciate it if you can give me instructions on how to sync music coming from my iPhone. whenever i click the music tab and tick the Sync box, it's giving me an error message saying:

The iPhone "my iPhone's name" is synced with another iTunes library.

Do you want to erase this iPhone and sync with the this iTunes library?

-And there's an option to click Erase and Sync or Cancel

Pls tell me what to do and how i can put the music, photos, videos content from my iPhone to iTunes. Many thanks!!