Connecting a used iPhone with iTunes for the first time

Question

Connecting a used iPhone with iTunes for the first time

When i bought my 5s end of last year i switched it on coming out of the box, without connecting it to iTunes. I started making back-ups to iCloud.

Now i want to connect it to iTunes to make a back-up, but iTunes thinks it's a new device and only proposes me either to restore an old back-up, or to start using the device "as new".

I'm afraid of losing everything chosing that last option, and the last back-up on my iMac must be one of my iPhone 4 so i wouldn't want that either.

Now how can i make a back-up with iTunes in that case?

iPhone 5s, iOS 7.0.2, space grey 32GB

Posted on Aug 18, 2014 2:18 PM

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Answer 1

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

236,309 points

Aug 18, 2014 2:41 PM in response to dark fader II

Make sure that automatic syncing is turned off in iTunes, then after connecting the phone click on the backup button.

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Answer 2

Aug 19, 2014 1:21 PM in response to ChrisJ4203

not sure if you read what i wrote..

iTunes only proposes me to either restore an old back-up, or to start using the device "as new".

So it's not possible to click any backup button in this case

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Answer 3

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

236,309 points

Aug 19, 2014 9:10 PM in response to dark fader II

Since you chose not to set the phone up in iTunes, then your only choice if you want to use iTunes now is to set the device up as new. You could make a backup in iCloud and restore to that, and then change to iTunes after that, but at this point, you cannot back up to iTunes until the device is set up.

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Answer 4

Apr 3, 2015 2:54 AM in response to dark fader II

i can't help but think there must be thousands of people with this problem, no? It's not really that i "chose" not to set the phone up in iTunes, i just must have touched the power button unboxing it.. I'm sure many people wanna put it on as soon as they take it out of the box...

i also cannot find a way to add any music to my phone using iTunes, because before you can even do that wirelessly, i'm reading you need to connect with usb first. ughhh 😟 I wish Apple had only allowed over the air updates after a first connection with iTunes and i wouldn't have had this problem 😟

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Answer 5

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

236,309 points

Apr 3, 2015 9:51 AM in response to dark fader II

So are you saying that you have not been able to use your device since your August post? You can take the device, connect it to iTunes and set it up as new, then restore your iCloud backup. That will put your device back into the state that it was in before you connected it. You can start an iCloud backup from the iPhone itself. Once the device has been connected to the computer, it will not prompt for that again. To set up the device to sync wirelessly, you are correct, it requires you to still connect once to iTunes.

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Answer 6

Apr 4, 2015 2:12 PM in response to ChrisJ4203

oh i'm using it daily, just wanted to add some music again so thought again about this thread.

so you are 101% sure that i wouldn't lose anything, that iCloud back-up saves all my pics, contacts, non-apple apps, general iOS settings, all app settings, email settings etc etc, in short ANYTHING? i would get the exact same device as now?

i was hoping to find some Apple certified info about this, don't wanna do this to find out it doesn't work 100% and than just be angry at some guy from the Apple discussion board who's located far away ;-))

also i'm guessing it will put iOS8 on there when i do that? (i have 7 now. i read that iCloud synch works in a different way and that you're not able to synch for instance agenda's with iOS7 people. my wife uses my old iPhone 4 so that's a no go for me

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