ITunes wants me to set up iPod Touch again or restore it or eject it???

Question

I bought this iPod Touch only two months ago. And since this is my second iPod (the first was a 5 gen that I had had for a couple years), I only did the initial iTunes 8 update I had to do when I bought it. Since it had been working fine, I didn't do any subsequent update(s). My motto is if it ain't broke...Anyhow, I don't normally do updates unless there is a really big gain I want. However, as of yesterday whenever I tried to sync it, iTunes wanted me to set up my iPod touch as a new iPod or restore it. Although it recognized the iPod's name, it wouldn't list any of the other information on it (playlists, etc.). The only other option I had was to eject it. I didn't understand why with no changes to my iPod or iTunes I would have to set it up again or restore it all of a sudden. When I called apple support, I was told that, "there was a problem that has been fixed and now in order for it to stay fixed, you have to restore it one more time." The lady that told me this got this from a product specialist. So I asked her what was the problem? Was it with iTunes or my iPod? How did it get fixed? She couldn't answer these questions but said that something kept updating and since it has been fixed but sees certain issues on the iPod, it wants to restore it so I had no choice but to restore it. Okay. I never updated iTunes 8 since the first time I downloaded it in September. So, why is it updating itself anyway??? Or is it something else that is updating itself? What's updating when I haven't done anything at all? I don't get it. I asked her if I could speak to the specialist myself because I'd like to be able prevent this from happening again (and to just have a basic understanding of what happened). She said I could and put me on hold and nobody ever picked up. I called back and a very nice guy answered that said that these things just happen sometimes (like once a year). I'm not really angry with them. They didn't make the things. I just want to know why it happened. Does anyone out there have an explanation? Have you had this experience?
Sorry. I'm just realizing this is in the wrong area. I don't post that often....I'll try to get an answer elsewhere.
Message was edited by: sjbrown

Answer 1

Welcome to the discussions,
are you using the same iTunes account? If no, did you authorize iTunes with his account info again before you connected his phone?
To keep your accounts separate on one PC, create a new windows user, log in, disable autosync in iTunes, set up the second account and back up manually by right clicking on the device in the device list and choosing "backup". This will save data, pictures taken with the phone and settings to itunes. See what's included in this backup here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766
Transfer your purchases the same way to copy all apps and bought media from the Store to your computer. Music, unless bought in iTunes and transferred with your purchases, is not part of the backup. But you can share music between different accounts on one computer: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1203
Set up at least one contact and event on your computer to be able the merge your calendars and contacts after your phone got wiped during the first sync.
The rest of the data can be restored from the backup you made.
Restoring: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414