will itunes erase my iphone if I set it up as new?

Well I have this very same question too and if you search the web many, many other people also. Perhaps "diesel vdub" you should think about not giving silly answers and instead read people's questions properly? Or as ElenaRaq suggests, if it offends you so much, just move on.

To be clear, if you use a new phone for say a week and fill it with contacts, emails, photos etc, and then connect to iTunes for the first time, you might (as I was and others were) only be given an option to Set it Up as a New iPhone, or restore from a previous backup of another device if you have other devices backup there. It is not at all clear from the iTunes platform or the web support and forums whether clicking Set up as New Phone wipes the device or not. Obviously we don't want to wipe devices. It's a simple case of requiring disambiguation - does "new phone" in this case mean a real new phone (which would suggest wiping the phone and setting it up as new) or just a phone that is new to the iTunes account (which would suggest it's fine, it would add the phone without wiping so you could go on to backup all its contents / sync etc.

In fact far from being "silly" this question seems quite difficult to answer. The web doesn't know. You haven't answered it either - instead choosing to dismiss it as "silly" and I just went into a Vodafone store selling and supporting new iPhones and they weren't sure at all. And have just spent half an hour talking to Apple Tech Support in the US directly on the phone, senior tech support people were consulted, various deliberations, and even they couldn't give a 100% guarantee that it would not wipe the phone. So it's odd, if it's so obvious as to be a silly question, than no-one can answer it. Don't you think?

You patronisingly told us to try reading the User Guide. Okay perhaps then you could explain exactly where in the User Guide this particular scenario is explained? I've looked and there's nothing. I'd be keen to know exactly what you think is "silly" about this question? If you fail to point to the user guide section that answers this query, fail to explain why the question is so "silly" and fail to answer it, perhaps you could apologise to ElenaRaq and all the many other iPhone users who are experiencing the same uncertainty and have the same question, who you have so arrogantly insulted with your rude and totally unhelpful answer?

Thank you.

Brilliant - many thanks for this helpful answer. Best wishes.

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

This is without doubt one of the most gratuitously offensive replies I have seen on an Apple forum. If my staff responded to a user like this they would no longer be one of my staff. The only silly question is the one you don't ask.

Jerry

Just to confirm, your advice worked perfectly. We did it, Set up as New Phone, and it didn't wipe anything.

So, in this particular situation, "Set Up As New Phone" doesn't mean turn your phone into a new phone (wipe it), but it means add your phone as a new phone to this iTunes account.

Glad it helped. 🙂

tt2

Thank you! This was very helpful for me. I was using my iPad for more than 3 months, when I connected it to my iTunes, it asked me to set it up as a new iPad or restore. Following your suggestion, I set it up as a new iPad, and luckily did not lose my data.

I had same question, would iPhone be erased but I also want to know what about my backup.

Now another question. If I set as new iPhone what about previous backup I made?

After backup I requested and got unlock from AT&T which erases iPhone content and sets it as new iPhone.

Now iTunes is asking that question 'Setup as new iPhone or backup'.

If 'setting as new iPhone' means it will be another iPhone on my account will I not be able to get the backup made when it was old iPhone? That backup has all my content.

With 'set as new', will I have a choice to give it a different name or same name?

If I give it the same name will I be able to get my content?

If I give it a different name will I be able to get my content?

iTunes does show 3 different options for 'Restore' but will the options be there for a new device?

Will 'Restore' undo the unlock and put AT&T back as cellular carrier?

You can restore an iPhone from any compatible backup. If you have a restore that you want to put on the iPhone then go ahead and restore it. If you choose to set up as a new device you can still use your existing backups at any time. The current name of the device doesn't matter. Restoring a backup should not cause the phone to become locked to the carrier. See How to unlock your iPhone - Apple Support. After restoring the backup it should become archived and a new rolling backup for device will be created. The device name will be restored but you can change it later if you wish.

tt2

Cool. 😎

tt2