Completely new Iphone backup?

HI

The other day i had a problem with iMessage on my phone. I phones up and got told something had gone wrong somewhere down the line and that i had to completely wipe my phone.

Where i had been connecting my iphone to my macbook i thought everything would have been backed up, but after restoring phone none of my apps had transferred back onto it 😟 so i had to download them all again.

I used to have an iMac so im guessing somewhere down the line something has gone wrong.

Please can comeone tell me how to get everything backed up again, when i click on sync apps in itunes it says all my apps on my phone will be replaced with the ones in itunes, but there isnt any there.

Please help