How to get iphone to sync to new computer after old one crashed?

[STW]

PC laptop crashed months ago and I finally got a new laptop--and returned to Apple with Lion OS (yea!).

But the iPhone doesn't want to sync to the new computer. I can do a partial backup but it won't sync apps or music, and tells me I should use the computer I usually sync to.
When I try to upgrade to OS 5 it says to do this on the computer I usually sync too, saying it can't back up after upgrage on my new computer.

But that computer's HD crashed and it won't boot.

How I can get the iPhone and iTunes account to associate itself with a new computer and drop the other one completely?

Cannot find this anywhere in Apple's instructions or tutorials.

[RickAgresta]

No personal experience but have you tried talking to your local Apple store?

[lelisa13p]

Just a thought, but have you authorized the new computer via iTunes and removed the authorization for the old computer? You're allowed sync to 5 computers simultaneously (helpful for families with multiple iDevices.)

[STW]

Yes, at the Apple store they have no idea. (!)

I would remove authorization from the crashed laptop but it doesn't boot. Since it crashed.

When I try to authorize the new Mac, it just tell me to sync to the authorized one.

[DianaS]

I have had very good experiences with Apple support on the phone - they have literally stayed on for hours while we worked thru issues. It's a little bit of hassle to work your way thru on-line support to the "call me back now" screen, but much less of a wait than calling in directly I've found.

[royfernandez]

This should be helpful iTunes Store: About authorization and deauthorization

[lelisa13p]

You can try to Deauthorize All Computers. from iTunes on your new computer and see if it is allowed.

From the link provided by the post above, if this is not your only authorized computer, you should be able to open iTunes on your other authorized computer and Deauthorize All Computers. That should take care of the dead computer that you can't physically deauthorize. You'll have to then repeat authorization for every computer that previously was authorized in order to reinstate them. There are specific warnings about when a computer should be deauthorized; you missed this info before discarding your old computer so please read all of the info in the linked page (all sections.)

If the dead machine was your only authorized computer and the above suggestions fail, then you'll have to use another approach.

[Varjak]

Just one caveat to that Lelisa: isn't there a limit to the number of changes you can make in a year?

[lelisa13p]

I'm not sure about limited number of changes but there is a 5 computer limit. In order to add #6, one of the others would have to be deauthorized.

[Hook]

I don't know about now, but if I recall you could only do a nuke all authorizations from iTunes once a year. I think that was meant to allow deauthorizing dead computers, though, really, why do they care? It's really a legacy holdover from DRM days. You should be able to conect your iDevice to any computer with iTunes and away you go. If I ever get an iDevice, this is the stuff that will drive me batty (there is plenty of stuff that drives me batty with Android, this isn't an anti-Apple rant... I save that for my rants about their lawsuits ).