Lose all authorised computers and associated media while keeping the rest

Question

Hello all,
Disclaimer:
I'd assume this question has been asked and answered countless times over, but my Google fu is weak and only led me to posts where people were trying to restore backups or create one in the first place. Sorry for the repeat if I've missed an obvious answer elsewhere.
Scenario:
I've owned a string of iPod Touches over the years and used these with a string of computers. I eventually reached my limit of 5 authorised machines. In any case, all the Touches are broken or in some way defunct now. Recently, I finally got an iPhone. When I first plugged this into my home media computer (the one remaining of the 5 authorised machine, 2 of the others having bricked, the other 2 beiung ex-work-machines), it gave me the opportunity to restore my saved backup. At this point I should have thought ahead and said no, but I didn't. Since then I've painstakingly built up my voluminous contact list, authorised and configured my new telephony contract, etc.
Problem:
The home media machine I backed up from just happens to be the family's music hub, but is in regular use by a family member. I want to authorise my personal and work machines, but would have to restore to do so. The question is, can I do so in such a way as to keep all my contacts, telephony settings, WiFi preferences, and email accounts? The inconvenience of losing the media I uploaded from various machines is utterly trivial, but ultimately this is the only thing I believe I should have to sacrifice from this over-laboured method for, essentially, de-authorising previously authorised machines remotely.
So: is a restore going to wipe everything, leaving me to manually re-establish all the non-media customisations, and if so are there more purpose-designed methods whereby I can simply de-authorise the machines I no longer have access to?
Thanks for your time,
Barney

Answer 1

Hello all,
Disclaimer:
I'd assume this question has been asked and answered countless times over, but my Google fu is weak and only led me to posts where people were trying to restore backups or create one in the first place. Sorry for the repeat if I've missed an obvious answer elsewhere.
Scenario:
I've owned a string of iPod Touches over the years and used these with a string of computers. I eventually reached my limit of 5 authorised machines. In any case, all the Touches are broken or in some way defunct now. Recently, I finally got an iPhone. When I first plugged this into my home media computer (the one remaining of the 5 authorised machine, 2 of the others having bricked, the other 2 beiung ex-work-machines), it gave me the opportunity to restore my saved backup. At this point I should have thought ahead and said no, but I didn't. Since then I've painstakingly built up my voluminous contact list, authorised and configured my new telephony contract, etc.
Problem:
The home media machine I backed up from just happens to be the family's music hub, but is in regular use by a family member. I want to authorise my personal and work machines, but would have to restore to do so. The question is, can I do so in such a way as to keep all my contacts, telephony settings, WiFi preferences, and email accounts? The inconvenience of losing the media I uploaded from various machines is utterly trivial, but ultimately this is the only thing I believe I should have to sacrifice from this over-laboured method for, essentially, de-authorising previously authorised machines remotely.
So: is a restore going to wipe everything, leaving me to manually re-establish all the non-media customisations, and if so are there more purpose-designed methods whereby I can simply de-authorise the machines I no longer have access to?
Thanks for your time,
Barney