iPhone X Maintain data on phone during first connection to iTunes

[centre21]

So here's the situation:

My wife got a new iPhone X, but the people at the store didn't let us know that she'd have to upgrade to El Capitan to synchronize the device. Her Mac is capable of running EC, but we never got around to upgrading it. So I attempted to upgrade her Mac, but the upgrade kept failing. We have since upgraded her Mac and iTunes recognizes her phone, but now we have a new dilemma - she's been using the phone for a good while, and she has data on there she wants to keep. The problem is, when she connects her phone to iTunes, she has two choices: Restore from Backup or Set Up as a New Phone, both of which will erase the data she currently has on her device.

Has anyone been in this situation and found a way around it? I know I can get the pictures off the phone, but it's the notes that I'm worried about.

Cheers!

 

[now i see it]

iTunes is behaving badly (as usual). In my opinion, iTunes is the worst thing about the Mac. Horrible.
I have a Mac mini on El Capitan (not sure what version of iTunes I have) and when I plug the iPhone in, iTunes automatically syncs it without any input from me. In fact there's no way to prevent it. But it never asks to restore or set up the iPhone.

I do have an older version of iTunes installed because I do get pestered from time to time to upgrade it- but I never do because its working.

Check to see if there is a newer version of iTunes available.
Also check the menu items in iTunes to "authorize this device" or something to that effect.

I think the safest way to use the iPhone is to sync as much as you can to iCloud (except photos). Notes, Numbers, Pages, Safari bookmarks, keychain, contacts etc should always be saved to iCloud. That way you become less reliant on iTunes hell and documents that can sync to iCloud are readily available any time in any device.

I too was an iCloud hater and skeptic in the past, but from experience I've learned it's the better of two evils.

It's easy to transfer your Notes in the Notes app on your iPhone to iCloud. Then you won't have to worry about them. If you're paranoid, encrypt them with a passcode.

I never backed up my iPhone via iTunes ever in 4 years. Only recently have I been plugging my iPhone into the Mac. Always backed up to iCloud with zero issues.

 

[Minorite]

'Set up as new' shouldn't remove any data except music: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4094634

If you don't use iTunes store or iTunes sync much, you can switch to iMazing instead of iTunes. They don't have any library sync or similar, and it's much more conveninent than iTunes in most cases.