An error occurred while restoring this iPhone (-34)

I got exactly this error and also had a large iTunes library set to downsample to 128k. I'd just updated iTunes and then gone to backup and install OS5 on my 3gs iPhone.

All I did was to decline the retry of restore (when the error message pops up) and then when I looked at the phone it was ready to follow dialogues to complete the OS5 installation process. Once I'd gone through those on my phone my iPhone appeared in iTunes ready to Sync as normal. Everything was present on the phone except for my Music and Movies - I don't sync Photos so I don't know what other people will exerience regarding them. Then I clicked sync and it's run through and synced all my music. Now everything's running fine and as normal - so don't panic!

This was the solution for me, too.

With your device attached, in iTunes go to the summary page and at the bottom section, under "Options," make sure the box is checked for "Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC."

Apparently doing the latest upgrade unchecks this box and that both deletes all of your tunes (and videos) and causes the (-34) error.

Typical Apple software update mess.

BEFORE YOU TRY ANY OTHER RESETS first try the following (as it is the easiest to do and will cause you the least amount of grief when it works):

With your device attached, in iTunes go to the summary page and at the bottom section, under "Options," make sure the box is checked for "Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC."

Apparently doing the latest upgrade unchecks this box and that both deletes all of your tunes (and videos) and causes the (-34) error.

Typical Apple software update mess.

Hey! I don't know if you already got it to work, or for anyone else who needs help. I couldn't find any other forums about the -1 error

To fix the "An error occurred while restoring this iPhone (-1)" on my 3GS while updating to the new iOS 5...

I unplugged my phone, hard reset the phone (by holding both buttons), and restarted my computer. Once my computer came back on I just plugged in my phone and the restore worked.

I pretty much sharted a brick when I thought everything was lost on my phone... Ahh. I hope I've helped someone out there. lol

Having similar problem. But in addition to the failed restore and then the "(-34)" error, my photos are all screwed up on the iPad. The rest of the iPad functions seem to be OK.

In photos, the correct events seem to have synched, but the photos inside the events are all mixed up. For instance, in the most recent event, which should only contain around a dozen photos I took the other day, there are 42 photos, most of which are years old. When I open an individual photo, the resolution is lousy, suggesting to me that it is a thumbnail. Any thoughts?

Slightly off topic, but is there a way to delete en mass photos imported via the camera connect kit? I have imported hundreds of photos this way, but don't want to delete them all one by one.

Thanks!