Q: iTunes stuck on last stage of sync, "Waiting for items to copy", NEVER COMPLETES??

iMac 27" 3.1Ghz i5

OS 10.7.1

iTunes 10.5

iPhone 4s 64GB

iOS 5

I was getting stuck and I didnt want to wait anymore and I found this thread...I didnt want to restore and re-sync...

So I tried this...

Click on iPhone to the left of itunes..

Select music tab

Added one more artist

Clicked apply and presto!

It looks like album art and genius stuff was stuck....

Enjoy!!!

I've tried all of the suggestions here multiple times. None of them work for me.

I can't make a purchase.  Your Session has Timed Out keeps coming up no matter what I do.

Like many other in this thread, I experienced this issue.  I eventually resolved it by deselecting all my genius mixes, syncing, reenabling the mixes and syncing.

Two comments based on my experience:

1. It's important to pay close attention to the details of what the dialog says.  In my case, it said "Syncing music" and "Waiting for items to copy".  This points to issues with syncing of music.  The often quoted FAQ entry (http://leimobile.com/faq-how-to-fix-ios-5-photo-sync-es/) applies to the case where it says "Syncing photos" and "Waiting for items to copy", but is not relevant when it's hung during "syncing music".
2. A number of other people had pointed to issues with Genius mixes (thank you).  In my case, I could do with a smaller hammer than temporarily turning off genius. Instead, I deselected my genius mixes from the list of of syncrhonized items (this presumes that you use sync "Selected playlists, artists, albums, and genres), synchronized, reenabled, and synchronized again. 

Best

/Peter

That doesn't work for me either. I don't even use Genius mixes.

Internetman,

Could you share what exactly you're seeing? 

The details of what it is iTunes is trying to sync matters for the possible fixes, e.g., is it photos, music something else.  I looked at your previous posts and could not see that you had shared this.

/Peter

Sometimes I get a "Waiting for items to copy" message... other times I get "Waiting for changes to be applied."

The 2nd to last step is usually "Determining Tracks to Sync"

WOW! I just got everything working! I deleted my voice memo recordings (I only had one and it wasn't important) and tried syncing. From start to finish, there is no more hanging!!! I didn't restore my iPhone or anything...

Another potential solution for you all. Good luck!

Thanks for the tip - Unfortunately that didn't fix the issue for me.

Deleting the voice memos from the iPhone voice memo app fixed this bug for me as well!

Deleting voice memos just worked for me as well.  There was a 1 hour+ voice memo.  Looks like it didn't like this.

OK that fixed it for me.  I had a lot of voice memos.  I noticed too that they were duplicating - I had 9 copies of some of them.

I copied the "Voice Memos" folder out of my iTunes library and then deleted it from the iTunes UI.  Then I also deleted them from the app on the iPhone itself.

Now everything syncs as it should.

Jusrt for clarity's sake, for what it's worth:

1. I get both the "Waiting for changes to be applied" AND the "Waiting for items to copy" messages at various times. I can't seem to locate what I do that gets each one to appear. I might see info about random items of album artwork being synced quickly (5 or 6 items) and a photo here and there, but it all ends up the same way - THe barber's pole (not progress bar) and an endless wait....

2. I don't use Genius or Ping - It's not that.

3. I have deleted the Voice Memo folder from the iTunes folder and all of them from within iTunes too. I've also deleted those on the phone. Still doesn't work.

4. At various points I have got it to sync by disabling something and then re-syncing. As an example, I disabled the ringtones and it synced in a flash. Next time I tried to sync though, it was back to stalling again. So, it seems like disabling and re-enabling appears to reset something, but it then ends up reverting to the state which was causing the problem again next time around.

5. I have tried turning off Photo Stream and deleting the "iPod Photo Cache" - No joy.

6. I've done a full restore and then used the backup to bring my apps etc. back onto the phone, but it still fails. I haven't tried a restore and then manaully set up/installed all my apps etc. again as this would take me hours - I just physically don't have that sort of time to mess around with this any more.

7. I have turned off wireless sync - I'm limiting it all to wired syncing right now to try and nail down what the problem is.

So, the goal posts, for me at least, appear to be constantly moving. Every time it has issues syncing photos, for example, I disable photo syncing. Then it has an issue syncing something else instead. On the odd occasion, I get it to sync (I mean, 1 time out of about 20) but then the next sync causes it to go pear shaped again.

The one constant appears to be that a lot of people are having this issue, and some of the fixes are working some of the time, but there's apparently not one solution which really gets to the bottom of what everyone is experiencing. I'm sure that at some point we'll all find out about what was the real cause of it, but until then I'm about ready to lob my iPhone out of the window - Time for a coffee, methinks, and a calm down....

Yup!  Turning off Genius allowed my photos to finally be imported!  Thank you!

My final solution took all weekend to complete   I have 10.7.2, latest iTunes etc etc.  All using local backup, cable sync (not WIFI) too.  Also, I have about 13,000 images from Aperture syncing back in.  After the restore, after each and every step I checked the iPhone for the syncing logo to make sure it was really done.

For me my main oddity was that the Photo section was really goofing up on the space calculations.  After the restore outlined below, iTunes claimed my photos would take 12GB of space.  However, syncing 3 months of photos (supposedly 3GB) turned into 500MB of actual usage.  Makes me wonder if my root cause of the issue was Photo syncing only, or a combination of factors.

Here is what I had to do:

In iTunes, Turn off Genius

Turn off Photo, Music, Podcasts, Audiobooks, Books, Movies, iTunes U

Apply to phone (failed for me anyways)

Resync again

Quit Aperture (or iPhoto if you're using it)

Delete iPod Photo Cache (right click photo library then "browse package contents" to find the folder)

Unplug iPhone from computer

Restart computer

Power off iPhone

Open iTunes

Plug phone back in

Cancel sync

Restore iPhone to factory

Restore from latest backup

Wait for sync to be TRULY complete

Turn Music syncing back on, apply (to sync)

WAIT for sync to complete

EXCEPT FOR PHOTOS AND Genius and iTunes U:  Repeat checking off items (like movies) one at a time and syncing and waiting one at a time

In Photos, choose the sync button and choose your source (Aperture or iPhoto), then choose to sync only the last 3 months.

Sync, wait eons for it to complete

Switch 3 months to 6 months.  Rinse and repeat process until entire library can be synced again.

I didn't bother turning Genius or iTunes U back on.  I don't really use them anyways

This was a truly royal pain in the @#$ but my iPhone seems to be happy now.

Good luck, hope that helps someone!