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

I'm wondering if it has anything to do with other software locking access to disk/files where iTunes keeps its library.

Couple of times I got "Can't write to "disk"" something on cancelling sync at "Waiting for.." lock state.

Syncing my three-day-old iPhone 4S was stopping on the Genius step, so I disabled that, but no luck: now it's on Syncing Artwork when it gets stuck "waiting for items to copy". I deleted the Album Artwork caches, but no luck. I already lost some important to do list items in a restore / backup shuffle, so I'm not doing that again.

I had one voice memo on my iphone and i deleted it. then it sync'ed properly.

Deleted my voice memos and all's well again! Yeesh...

Thanks for posting your fix... I managed to fix my iPhone by following your instructions...

Regards...

As with all others here, I am having the same problem. I have now tried all suggestions bar a full reset on my iPhone4 and a full re-install of iTunes. I really have no desire to do that though.

I hope Apple has cottoned on to this and investigates the problem!

Tried everything listed above, restting, reinstalling, resyncing just music

Solution

1 - open voice memos app on iPhone (3gs ios 5)
2 - delete all voice memos (you can copy them to yur computer hard drive/desktop before deleting if they're important)
3 - resync iPhone in iTunes

No more hanging on last task (5 of 5, 6 of 6, 7 of 7, whatever it happened to be)

Now my phone syncs without hanging

Hope this helps

Factory resetting the iPhone worked for me.

I had the exact same problem. I left my iPhone hooked up to iTunes via USB overnight. When I woke up in the morning, it was still there, "waiting for items to copy". After looking around at a few troubleshooting sites I decided to try a few things. I unplugged the phone, which automatically cancels the sync. THEN I went into the phone (Settings>General>iTunes Wi-Fi Sync), and CANCEL/TURN OFF the sync. I found that for the first sync, or reboot of your iPhone after the iOS 5 and iTunes 5 updates, it's better to do that straight through USB and not over WiFi at all. I was trying to do it that way, BUT even though I did indicate that I didn't want to sync over WiFi on iTunes, the phone was still set to do it that way, until I disabled it as described above. I hope this helps some of you. After you've done that, it would make sense to sync again straight through USB. I also have Genius turned off. Now, my sync takes a minute or two.

FWIW - after attempting to upgrade to iOS5 on two iphones and one ipad, I had the same problem with getting hung up at "waiting to copy items". I *finally* just clicked the 'x' in the progress bar (stopping the sync) and then right-clicked on the device name and 'ejected' the device (which was necessary to really stop the sync-attempt). I rebooted computer, then device, plugged with USB, and when I went to each device I chose what I wanted to sync from the Summary/Info pages, and just synced --- everything went flawlessly after that! FINALLY, all three devices are updated, upgraded, synced and I am FINALLY a happy clam.

I can't believe we are left to fly blindly with all of this.

Exactly THIS fixed my problem! Thanks a lot!

Rafa

This worked for me, was very annoying as have new albums to put on iphone...

Cheers for the help 'skyrat78'

I was having the same problem with my iPhone 4 and the new iOS 5 update but I just took all my music and ring tones and photos off and just synced the apps first then added ringtones then music then photos and synced one at a time. It seems they are having a bug with large portions of syncing that's why it gets frozen at the last processing stage.

I hope that helps

Fun and games is over... I'm on the "I've tried it all and still have the issue" listing. I have not done a full restore and reload, but shouldn't have to...

Apple, what's up?

😟

Yeah nothing has worked for me. In fact, half the solutions don't even apply. I don't have any photos im putting on. Genius was never turned on. No matter what I do (other than a reset or whatever) it doesn't work. It will sync everything it just seems to forget to tell me it's finished or something. I'm just gonna hold out for a update and it better work or Apple is gonna hear it!