itunes keeps asking me to restore

Why not restore?

Are you actually being asked to restore your phone or is iTunes merely alerting you to the fact that new software is available for your phone? If your profile is correct, iTunes should be prompting you to update to iOS 4.2.1. If you don't want to update, in the popup window that appears, put a check in the box labeled "don't tell me about this update again".

There is no way, I'm aware of, to bypass this restore request. If you want to sync your phone, you have no choice but to restore.

By design, an iPhone will sync iTunes content with ONE computer at a time. Any attempt to sync such content with a second computer will result in ALL iTunes content being first erased from your phone & then replaced with the content from the second computer. This is a design feature and cannot be overridden.

Is ALL of your iTunes content currently in the iTunes library of your new computer?

Is all of your other important data currently on your new computer...contacts, calendars, etc.?

I suspect a number of things have triggered the restore request...new computer, fresh install of iTunes, you apparently have never synced to this computer/iTunes, some part of the OS on your phone is not being recognized by iTunes on your new computer.

Hey Superpig,

Did you have to restore again? Ive had to restore my iPhone 4 times (I did it 2 times using backups, and 2 times as new install) and it has told me to restore it again.

Im 99% sure the problem is with iTunes, as right after the last time it told me to restore, i shut iTunes down, held shift key and restarted it. I then selected another (My iPod) library, allowed it to start up, then shut it down. I reopened it whilst holding shift again, selected my iPhone library and this tme it didnt complain and synced my iPhone normally.

Im going to uninstall, then reinstall iTunes i think, have you tried that? Did it help

I have the same issue, except I have it every other day.

I will be asked whether I want to setup my iPhone 3GS as new or restore from backup.
If I try to restore, it says the last Backup session didn't work, if I set up as new, I spent the usual 3 hours until apps and music are back.
And possibly the issue reappears tomorrow.. There doesn't seem to be any indicator as to why it happens and when it will happen, I just know that it drives me both nuts and away from the iPhone.

Does anyone have any idea as to the possible reasons for this?

I too am having a similar problem with touch 3rd Gen. It seems to be okay then on another day or even I could re plug it in and wam it happens again the asking of set up as new or restore from back up. I would like to know what is up with that.

Had to restore shift click style to get iPod back anyhow when they made the switch to 4.0 it goofed in the middle of upgrade. So I had to redo the firmware. It has worked fine since but I can't update or sync it without this occurring.
If someone figures something out I sure would like to know an answer.