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

I have had this problem for over a week now. And I havbe just fixed it. It was very simple. All I did was delete all my ringtones from my iPhone applied that and it synced straight away. Then put the ringtones back on. I had a ringtone that was corrupt and the only reason that I found this out was that when it wouldn't sync it was always trying to copy this item.

Hope this works for you.

I've been sat here since 2011 and it still hasn't synced fully

Remove(uninstall i tunes) then download agian. It resolved my similar problems

Hi everybody,

I have been waiting since Beta 1 for this issue to be solved. Today when I finally downloaded the final version of iOS 7 I realized that nothing changed. I keep having the same problem "Waiting for changes to be applied" for years...

But 15 minutes ago I finally realize what was messing my sync progress. Hope you don't laught at me but it was a song.

Yes, a song. One of my 3796 songs had an special character in the "Composer" tag. I erased it and tried syncing again and IT WORKED. I almost cryed but is true it finally synced since 3 months ago 😝.

Hope It helps somebody.

Having same problem. Just downloaded Infinity Blade III. Can't get past the "waiting for items to copy" Help?

iOS 7. iPhone 4S. Waiting for items to copy (step 4 out of 4). Never ends. This is the third time it happens... the workaround for me?

Shutdown phone (if you unplug, it's still trying to sync anyway), switch on, sync works... once. Next time I do it again, it hangs.

Since it can work for me after a restart of the phone, I doubt it's a special character in a song.

Never used to be an issue, and it's the same music collection anyway.

Yeah I think now the issue is infinity blade III because I'm having the same problem after I had installed it....

Had the same problem. Got mine to sync without having to do a restore. New IOS seems to have changed way media syncs, so music, podcasts and video I had not previously checked were being synced. Went through settings for iPhone sync and stripped out all music, video, podcasts, iTunes U, etc. The phone synced no problem. I was then able to carefully go in and add things back. The subsequent syncs worked just fine.

I'm using iTunes 11.1.3, which at this time, is the latest for my Mac. I got the message about Synching Artwork ... Waiting for items to copy, came across this forum, then noticed the up and down arrows. It's on 356 of 884 (so many items!) In the P's (Pages, yay!) of apps to backup. I thought I only had 602 apps on there. Only, right 😉 and 1,795 songs, 4,590 pictures. Battery issues, so starting fresh.

Trying not to be impatient, but once I noticed the apps names by changing the arrows, I realized it was going to take longer than 3 hours I already had it on.

Good luck!

Mandy

Deleting the artwork cache worked for me. Many thanks!

This is still happening and really ticks me off, iTunes must be one of the worst pieces of software Apple has ever created!

I love Apple products, great design, always work well, but the software is very flaky and unpredictable! iTunes must be the very worst offender!

I recently bought a MacBook Pro as I couldn't stand Windows 8, I have an iPhone 5 and I just ordered an iPhone 6, but to be honest if there was an alternative to iTunes, I would install it ASAP!

iTunes hangs when I try and sync too many photos, not too many for the iPhone memory, it just seems to stick without reporting any error. As a software development manager, if any of my software engineers wrote crap like this, I would fire them! iTunes is just unusable!

Apple, please get a professional software specialist to fix this piece of junk!!!

I presume, since the last post was in 2013, that people have either resolved this or have given up. I have had this problem multiple times over the years and each time I have searched for a solution and ended up reading many of the posts here with no luck. However, I have found my own fix which I just succeeded and have actually used before...

Turn off the syncing of everything apart from your Apps. Something, somewhere is causing the glitch and it is probably not an app. Run a sync and if it works, then proceed to the next step. Now, turn on photos syncing and run a sync. If it worked, turn on Books, if that works keep turning stuff on until you have a problem.

Lets say the problem was in photos. Turn photos syncing off again and make sure a sync will still work. You could try syncing everything else apart from photos and see if syncing works without photos. If it does, it's a photo screwing things up. Then sync half your albums. If that doesn't work, sync the other half. If that works then you know the problem photo(s) are in the first half of your albums. Keep going until you narrow it down. Remember that some of your photos may be in more than one album.

If it's not the photos that's screwing things up then follow the same procedure for the other media categories. This time round, for me, it was an audiobook that was responsible. I had turned everything off apart from audiobooks and then finally turned them off too and everything synced fine. I have found the audiobook culprit and stopped syncing it and everything else has now synced normally.

Hope this helps...

YES. After combing Apple Support for days and trying all kinds of arcane solutions, I found your post. It's logical, I can understand it, and it worked. Thank you.

Apple, you listening? Reach into your massive Jobs-ian heart and send rjshaydon a MacBook Pro or something. I mean it.

Thanks gilboy, glad it worked. Just hope I remember this myself in a few years time when it inveitably all happens again! And Apple, a MacBook Pro or an Air would be lovely please!

Here's what worked for me. I've had this issue a few times, between iOS 6-8 and iPhone 5S to 6 (just today with the new phone).

FIRST - BACKUP FIRST

1. Make sure your iPhone/iPad/iPod is backed up using iTunes. Use the cord (not WIFI).
2. Be sure to "Transfer Purchases" as well.
3. Sync and backup the device.

NEXT - FIX MUSIC SYNCING ISSUES

1. Now, in iTunes, highlight the device, click the "Music" tab, and uncheck (click to uncheck) the "Sync Music" check box.
2. Sync again.
3. Then, turn off the device and restart it.
4. Also close iTunes and restart the computer.
5. When everything is ready, open iTunes and Sync the device again.
6. After this time, highlight the device in iTunes, click the "Music" tab, and check (click to check) the "Sync Music" check box.
7. Uncheck all of the previous music items in the list below the check box. Try only one playlist, artist, or album in the beginning.
8. Sync again and you'll see it works.

Hope this works for you!