Syncing stays on 'waiting for items to copy' with iOS 5

Same issue here. Updated to latest iTunes and IOS 5.

After an hour of syncing it just stops with this message.

Dunno the state of my device.

Considering that this issue has been around from the BETA days, and considering the number of threads here and elsewhere, doesn't it strike you as arrogant that Apple released OS5 with a known bug of this magnitude.

Fix please support.

I've been having some success with the selective Apply method.

1. Uncheck all the different tabs & subareas of content to sync.
2. Sync your device.
3. Enable sync apps & click apply (will cause a sync).
4. If that media type worked, then work your way across enabling one thing at a time hitting apply afterwards each time.
5. When you get to the larger collections (Music, movies, etc.). Turn on sync, but then selectively add just individual movies, albums, etc. and hit apply after. If that item works and syncs, then try the next and so on.
6. Eventually you may encounter an album, track, etc. where things grind to a halt (or it says it syncs but nothing copied to your device). If so, skip that one and continue (there must be something in iTunes that now doesn't like that media, even thought it might have worked before 😕).

Super time consuming and annoying... but I'm now actually starting to get content back onto my phone where i wasn't getting anything other than apps there previously. 😐 Good luck.

I don't know if it is arrogant, it is just how things tend to work with product releases in any company. It probably only impacts 1 out of 10000 or something, and they can't track down the bug to fix it, so they decided it would be better to release on time rather than hold it up for the millions. For those of us impacted however... very frustrating.

FIXED... at least for me.

It turns out there were a few corrupt music entries/references in my iTunes library. Must of happened during an iTunes upgrade at some point. When a sync encountered one of these in the set of items to send to the device, it would either freeze, or end abruptly and not copy anything. It often appeared that it was stuck on copying photos, but it didn't actually have anything to do with the photos, the status message just happened to stop there.

I found the bad entries by trial and error (tedious), I don't recommend that approach. In the end I removed all my music items from iTunes (don't delete media!), and then just re-added everything back into iTunes via "Add to Library..." Success.

The following might also work, but I didn't try it. Mainly because I feared it would add back the bad entries vs. recreate everything from scratch.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451

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!

For anyone with syncing issues, please see if Itunes Wi-Fi Sync under settings, on the device appears to be working.

I do not have it checked in Itunes, yet it seems it is trying to sync via Wifi on my ipod.

Could this be the problem?

I unchecked all the different tabs and subareas of content and tried syncing, but the same problem..

"Waiting for items to copy". So didn't help!

By unchecking Sync Apps, it removes all the Apps from the phone. You can sync the Apps back to phone but the data from them is lost. For example all your docs from JotNot Pro, exercises from Sport Tracker and other stuff. 😟

Hopefully we'll see the fix soon!

Finally solved the problem with some help on another thread.

Originally, I deleted voice memos from itunes and figured that would delete them from my Ipod Touch, when I synced.

Went into the Voice Memos app, on the Ipod and discovered the voice memos were still there.

Deleted them and presto....all is well.

This issue had been driving me nuts for a week.

Now I am finally going to update my Ipad.

FINALLY!! Thanks fot the tip nodrog666! WORKS for IPHONE4 too!

I had probably tried everything, unchecking all the iTunes Sync boxes didn't help, deleting all the data (song, voice memos from iTunes libaries didn't do it either. I had got all the error messages like.

"waiting for items to copy"

"waiting for changes to be applied" etc.

If I interupted the unfinished sync and ejected the iPhone4, iPhone sometimes showed message "Two items could not be synced. See iTunes for more information." But I couldn't find any info from iTunes as I just had ejected the phone.

The problem was with my Voice Memos in iPhone4. For some reason it copied them in the iTunes libary but was unable to finish the sync. (Unchecking Sync voice memos didn't help). Since I had the files in iTunes I copied them from

Users/Home/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Voice Memos/

to a new folder. Then I deleted all voice memos in iTunes.

after this I DELETED ALL THE VOICE MEMOS IN IPHONE4 and was finally able to complete the sync! Since I had made the copy of the Voice memos for a new folder, I just copied these files to iTunes media libary and now I can Sync without problems and listen old voice memos as music files. 🙂

I hope this helps someone.

Zedola,

You said, "...it is just how things tend to work with product releases in any company..."

No it's not. I have been in software development for over 25 years (MoD & DoD included), and this is simply not acceptable.

You said, "It probably only impacts 1 out of 10000 or something",

Not sure where that figure comes from but I have two friends with iPads who both experienced the same issue.

In fact, over 15 million iPad 2s have been sold, 100 million user of iPhone 4 by end of 2011.

That's 115,000,000 and by your own assesment, that makes 11,500 disappointed users.
I suspect that the figure is a lot higher than that.

In fact, if a bug has been widely reported whilst in Beta, then the fact it has been flagged at all, indicates a serious problem that needs to be sorted. Not least because it's almost impossible to gauge the scale and scope of the impact.

You said, "...they can't track down the bug to fix it..."

Then it should not have been released until it had been sorted.

You said, "...so they decided it would be better to release on time rather than hold it up for the millions..."

In the knowledge that this would have impact on an unknown number of the user-base?

Yes it's arrgant.

It's also arrogant for them not to at least acknowledge that there is a fault and offer a workaround rather than leave it to individuals to offer, sometimes potentially data destroying, solutions.

You will note that this is an Apple owned forum and so far, nobody from Apple has had the courtesy to offer an update on the situation, never mind a solution.

It does not look well for Apples image either.

nodrog666 nailed it...

"Went into the Voice Memos app, on the Ipod (iPhone in my case) and discovered the voice memos were still there. Deleted them and presto....all is well."

Roget, I can tell you're pretty ****** but in regards to your last statement, "You will note that this is an Apple owned forum and so far, nobody from Apple has had the courtesy to offer an update on the situation, never mind a solution," Apple has this forum for Apple users to talk. If we want top talk to an Apple representative with simply click another button to have them call us or to make a time to go in and visit them.

Also, in regards to new software being relessed and your feeling that is in unacceptable to have bugs, again I would have to disagree. Most compnaies I know of that roll out something completly new and unique enhancing the corner stone of technology tend to have problems which they address after the fact. With a simple upgrade, of course it would be unacceptable, but we're talking 200 addittions being added. I would assume there would be problems and it would not be perfect. I honestly can't think of any technological new release that has run with complete ease so I have no idea where you were working.

As far as getting on the girls case for trying to be underatanding, I think that is wrong and she didn't declare she knew a number of people impacted but was making a random guess. Again, I notice you're upset and I understand why because I'm having the same problems, but no need to attack another person to try to make yourself feel better. It's just too immature and childish. If you're that upset and angry, don't be in the chat room and go to Apple directly.

Finally, of course Apple is arrogant, and they have the right to be. They are one of the most recognized brands in the world, the #2 ranked place to work as reported by Forbs in the yearly rankings, making an absolute fortune, the most advanced company on the market from a technological perspective, setting the benchmaks for technology, etc. However, you're arrogant in the way you came across reacting to the girl the way you did and honestly, unlike Apple, you don't have a right to be.

That said....back on topic, not syncing voice memos worked for me as well.

Sky,
Okay, just to be clear, whilst I reserve the right to be angry, in this case it is mere frustration.

From my experience, brand owned forums are used by the brand to monitor and provide advice to it's users. Typically, Actinic, Microsoft and so on. It is a useful way of getting feedback on user issues and of customer care.

I do agree that most software that is released has often got bugs that have gone undetected. Even in the rigorous testing of Aerospace and the MoD this happens. However, it is never the case that releases are made with known bugs identified in the Alpha & Beta testing phases.

My real issue is this: There are a large number of people on this and other forums, as well as those who suffer in silence or ignorance of the issue who deserve a response from Apple. Is that really too much to ask?

The problem comes when firstly, the issue is not clearly defined. Whilst being fundamentally the same, the description of the bug and the circumstances of it's occurrence do vary in these posts.

Secondly, it appears to affect various devices, including iPods, iPhones and iPads, the common denominator being iO5, however, the solutions offered are not common to all devices.

Also, some of the solutions offered would result in the loss of data and without adequate warnings, could be disaster for some individuals.

It looks as if the syncing memos works for a number of people but for others it won't. For example the person with the new iPhone 4s and myself included as I don't have voice memos on any of my devices which include iPhone 3Gs and iPad 2. (it's only my iPad 2 that has the issue, my wife's is okay).

With regards to the standing of Apple and it's ability to make money, that is not the issue. The issue is that despite having over 30,000 employees on it's books, it can't resolve this very simple issue. Nor does it feel fit to reassure it's customers that it is at least working on it.

BTW: It's Roger and not Roget. (Minor point but I feel quality control is very important) 😉