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

Same here, deleting voice memos did the trick. Thank you.

For me, it was a movie rental on my iPad 2 that was stuck in the cache and that I couldn't erase. I restored the iPad and it works perfectly now...

Problem resolved !

I synced without USB which my

Mate recommended, don't know

How but this worked!!

Worth a try I say!

Good luck all.

Dear all,

This is a very anoying situation and disappointing. I unfortunately can not see any real pattern on the solution, for some were the voice memo, others were iBooks, or iPhoto's, etc. but the truth to be told is that iOS 5 sundely see files that "are supously corrupt" but that I could sync without any problem before or even worst, that I can transfer to my IPad 2 by others ways (email, dropbox,etc). If a file is corrupt you will not be able to open or transfer any mean.

In my case, it even gave me problems with app that I had bought/downloaded long time back, while unchecked them I could move forward sync but even worst, I could downloaded via wifi on the iPad later. I had problem with pdf books that I could open in my computer running on windows 7 withouth any problem and emailed to me thus I could transfer to the ipad.

In any case, the problem is still there, there had not been any help or assistance to this problem from apple eventougth there are post as oldvas one month.

I hope that someone at Apple will look seriously to the problem and send out a real solution. At this stage I am giving out to continue , after expending more than a week reading and proving solutions that did not solve the problem or solve it partially and having serious doubt on the reliability of the new iOS 5.

I couldn't agree more rmonmsal.  On this thread and many others there seems to be multiple "solutions" to the problem, with the only absolute answer seeming to be a system reset.  I am not keen on resetting my iPad to fix a problem that appears to be a file corruption in one component.  A veritable needle in the haystack with nothing like  a log file to steer me to at least a corner of the haystack.

Apple were always supposed to provide robust solutions that just worked, and in this case I am running a completely closed environment of Apple products (iPad to MacBook).  Without any pointers by way of a log file or the like I feel completely in the dark and at the mercy of Apple to find a solution rather than in the hands of the users out there who generaly find solutions faster than the vendor.  Can I hear MS sniggering right now?

Come on Apple, if you can't provide a fix, please at least throw us a bone to help everyone narrow down the source of their individual problem.

Has anyone had the problem after the IOS 5.1 update? Any chance that update solved the problem? The program needs a step that gives notice as to what file is causing the sync problem. They do that with songs that have DRM issues that prevent syncing. They just need the same functionality for corrupted files.

Had the same issue on one of my kid's touches - removed the voice memo's and the voice memo sync option and the issue cleared.

Clearly a bug though.

Yay, after about 3 weeks, this thread finally solved my problem. I dumped 2 PDF books, and I can now sync as before. Thanks all.

To jdwalkerjr: I had hoped 5.1 would solve the problem, but for me it made it worse. While upgrading to 5.1, I got an error message. Then I was given no choice but to do a restore. Lost everything. And then could not sync to get everything back. Got most stuff back by dragging media icons to iPad icon. Still did not have my iBooks back, so when I saw this thread, I suspected one of those books was the problem. Yup.

I cannot synch my new iPhone4S after having downloaded OS 5.1. Like others in this discussion, synching will not go beyond "Waiting for items to copy," and if I attempt to cancel synch, iTunes gets hung up on the canceling function.

This iPhone 4S is the first Apple product I have purchased since a PowerPC in 1994. That ol' thing gave me the unhappy Mac face so often, I got rid of it in about 1996 and got a PC, and have had PCs ever since (and most recently a Samsung Omnia Moble Windows phone). There is so much to like about the iPhone4S, and I was excited to receive it. But this synching issue seems relatively and disappointingly serious, and I am disheartened that Apple has not made a fix available. I hope it is not indicative of additional problems to come.

Dear Zelliott7234, can you provide instructions for downgrading to 4.3.3, please? I went to the page about it (http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1358), but it does not provide an option for downloading the OS. Thank you.

iOS 5 was really big update, over 200 new features and many of the old features completely revamped. I don't think any other manufacturer could've handled update so big better. It's almost amazing that it didn't have more bugs and Apple have already fixed some of them in 5.0.1. But there are at least two (what i know of) bigger bugs still needing to be addressed by Apple. One is this sync problem and the other one is the infamous battery problem. There is most certainly 5.0.2 coming very soon. I managed to circumvent this bug by deleting useless voice memos (thanks to this thread!) or one might just try disabling voice memo syncing. Or try to disable syncing of any other items one by one and give feedback to Apple http://www.apple.com/feedback/, they won't necessarily read all of these posts.

My Iphone is doing the same thing.  My problem seems to revolve around ringtones.  Every time I purchase a new ringtone this problem starts.  A temporary solution is to copy all of my ringtones in itunes to a created folder on the desktop and then delete all ringtones out of itunes.  I then uncheck the sync ringtones box and hit sync to remove the ringtones from my iphone.  I then move the ringtones from my created folder back into itunes and then re-check the sync rintones box and then click sync to put ringtones back on to my iphone.  After that my iphone syncs without a problem.  Hopefully they will fix this bug soon.

Seems to be fixed with iTunes 10.5.1

I just called tech support.  They told me to delete itunes then reinstall it again.  I did just that and threw my itunes into the trash, then downloaded it again. The problem is fixed.  I don't get the "waiting for items to copy" anymore and the sync is fully completed. 

I have the same problem and it's proper irritating. Apple just fix this. When you roll out something make sure it works. I remember when you only had some minor bugs when you rolled things out and fixed them with in the week, now every time I update anything I fear something crazy is going to happen that won't let myproduct work like I paid for it and then have to wait weeks or months for a fix.  I have been an apple customer for 15 years now. Stop cutting corners and saving bucks to make record profits, it's really obvious. What made you great were mind blowing products, SERVICES, AND SUPPORT, not just cool looking products that mostly work.

This fix is ridiculous:

Cancelthe sync in iTunes. In iTunes turn off Genius (Menu > Store > Turn OffGenius). Then un-tick the Sync options for all the following for your device(iPhone, iPad etc.):

Sync Ringtones

SyncMovies

Sync TVShows

SyncBooks

SyncPhotos

Now pressthe Sync button. All the items will be removed (quite quickly).

Now goback to iTunes and reselect the Sync tick box options for all the items youdisables as in the list above.

Press theiTunes Sync button. After all the items have been re-synced press the Syncbutton again as some further artwork may need syncing.

Now turnGenius back on (Menu > Store > Turn Genius On) and then press the Syncbutton again. After it finishes press Sync one more time and after this allshould be back to normal.