3 accounts at itunes, problems updating iphone apps, how erase old acc?

Question

hi
i am having troubles with my itunes accounts. for whatever reasons
i have 3 accounts there, which i established in the last 10 years, buying software and hardware at apple store germany. i cant remember the last 2 account names/passwords, only the present one. thats confusing. one sideeffect is, that i cant update all iphone apps, it refuses to update some apps, which i bought earlier.
i have to do it manually via iphone app update inside the iphone, also i usually get 3 mails from "apple news".
i would like to have ONE account which refers to my .mac mobileme membership and my main apple mail adress, but i dont know where to call in order to change that, there is no support for itunes account (phone) other than mail, so i mailed them and got answered from a mailbot like "we cant erase old accounts". i am feeling helpless.
any idea?
thanks!

Answer 1

By design, the 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. Because you replaced your hard drive, your phone will see your computer as a "new" computer and all itunes content will first be deleted from your phone. The itunes content sync is one way: computer to phone. If you have photos that were synced to your phone or music ripped on your own that were not backed up, you will first have to extract them from your phone using third party software:
http://www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy/index.php
Once you've done that, do the following in the order specified:
1. Disable auto sync when an ipod/iphone is connected under preferences in itunes.
2. Make sure you have one contact & one event in iCal & Address Book. The entries can be fake, doesn't matter, the important point is that these programs not be empty.
3. Connect your phone, itunes running, do not sync at this point.
4. Store>Authorize this computer.
5. File>Transfer Purchases(To make sure all purchased content on your phone will be in your itunes library).
6. Right click(Control Click) in the device pane & select reset warnings.
7. Right click again and select backup.
8. Right click again & select restore from backup, select the backup you just made. When prompted to create another backup, decline.
9. This MUST be followed by a sync to restore your itunes content, which you select from the various tabs, You'll get a popup regarding your contacts & calendars asking to merge or replace, select merge.
That's as good as it gets without a backup of your itunes library.