Cannot restore music/apps after Update to phone

Question

Hi. Really hope someone can help here. Don't think I have a severe problem, at least hope not. Nutshell:
-Started Update about 3 hours ago.
-After update, got error message stating problem, needed to restore to back-up.
-Thankfully I had backed up the device just prior to update, and just checked, I still have all of my data on HD
-When trying to restore, I kept getting error message, asking me to repeat the process, and phone is completely bricked at this point
-Saw message stating this is frequently caused by anti-virus/firewall, so disabled AV/Firewall, restore again, successfully
-Phone no longer a brick, but ALL data is gone, like a brand new phone, not a good thing
-I can see all of my apps/music in my itunes library, as well as my hard drive, but can not find a way to get the data back to my iphone.
-Tried syncing (haven't tried restoring yet, wanted to do a little research first) no success, no drag and drop, etc... very stupid imo, how can you not be able to drag and drop?! anyway...
So, need help getting my data back to my phone, music and apps.
Again, your help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you
Message was edited by: Dave1818

Answer 1

Hi all. Just in case you end up searching this thread, the answer was so stupid and should have been obvious... man, Apple is really screwing things up that should be easy. Anyway, here is the dumb answer, and yep, maybe it is me who is dumb, but we all miss the obvious, (who hasn't last keys lately???) it should have been a super easy fix.
Ok, I never had an issue with syncing prior to this, default settings worked fine, and I am not someone who uses iTunes for anything other than this required use for updates and back-ups. So, I had/have very little interaction and knowledge of iTunes.
When looking at the GUI, clicking on your iphone or other device, you immediately see the summary page. I never noticed the tabs on the inner frame of the window, with the info/apps/music/etc subtabs. I always browsed my libraries by the main tabs on the left side.
Then, after all of this crud yesterday, I did find them. After the update, for some reason, they were all unchecked, all music, apps, frikking so stupid!! When you go into the page, you have to re-check the box to sync, something I had never had to do before. Then, as with most preference set-ups, I cycled through the pages, checked the boxes, tried to sync after, and it still didn't work...
Well, the genius coders here decided that the only way to make these changes 'sticky' was to click 'apply' on EACH SEPARATE TAB!!! You have to do each 1 by itself: music sync check then APPLY, apps sync check then APPLY, you get it..
Again, thanks SO MUCH Apple for another update with Unacceptable major flaws, so simple I was always looking tons deeper. Steve Jobs, Get your team back on point, this is getting to be a major mess..
Hope this helps others.