Help! iTunes freezes when syncing

I'm having the same problem. Does anyone know if there's a preference file or something that could be corrupt and where it might be?

Same problem here - the syncing problem just gets worse & worse on the iPhone 3G. The only thing I can think of that has changed recently is the recent Security Update which I just installed yesterday. Even though I've always unchecked the automatic sync box it attempts some kind of sync every time I plug the phone in (I've just unchecked every kind of sync possible - contacts, calendars, photos, podcasts etc - which seems a bit extreme just to get iTunes not to slow down and freeze up with an iPhone plugged in). This time I just left iTunes for about 30 minutes when it froze up for the millionth time - this time it eventually unfroze itself and complete whatever it was it was trying to sync - a ridiculous and unacceptable amount of time IMO. I detest the whole sync process and much preferred the iPod and iTunes when it was a simple drag and drop set-up.

I solved my problem by going to itunes/preferences/devices and deleting the back up for my phone. I then did a sync and now everything seems to be working as it should.

one thing that might help out.

You can manually manage the iphone almost like the ipod.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1535

Then you just need to use sync for contact, calendars and photos.

One thing you might want to do is sync just contacts to see how long it takes.
Then sync calendars.
Then photos.

This might give an idea of what is taking all the time.

Hope this helps.