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

Yup...I am having the same issue with my iPhone 4. It gets stuck at "waiting for items to copy". It is updated to iOS 5. I have my mac updated to the latest iTunes as well. I also have a 3rd Gen iPod Touch I upgraded to iOS 5 and that is working fine. I have another iPhone and iPad I am waiting to upgrade until i know everything is going smooth.

Ya...same problem here. I left it overnight thinking maybe it will finish eventually but in the morning it still said "waiting for items to copy". As far as I can tell everything did sync but this gives me an uneasy feeling like something is corrupt. This is after the ios 5 upgrade failing to restore properly then the sync seemed to work but when I tried the next day to sync it said my library had been synced with a different iphone. ***! So I restored again and now this!

Same issue here. iPhone 4 (not S) 32 with Aperture library. Have tried rebooting computer and iPhone, no luck. Even after I unplug the charge/sync cable from the phone it STILL shows syncing on the phone 😟 I have been trying to delete photos as I recall this could be an issue with iPod Photo Cache but it won't get as far as deleting the pictures either!

I allowed mine to sit in the "waiting for items to copy" state for 15 hours at one point, didn't budge. 😟

Same issue. Syncs everything except my music. So annoying.

I believe I am exepriencing the same thing. I noticed itunes had finished copying all my of 12325 songs but was still saying updating files on ipod and the ipod is still "downloading" songs. I unplugged the usb, turned the computer off, wifi isn't even set up and it's still actively downloading songs. I just got my ipod touch 4 yesterday and didn't even use it before I updated to ios5 because I updated my 3rd gen first and transferred my fiance's music without a problem. I am on hold with apple support now to see what they say. I assumed it was my ipod but maybe ios5?

Same here. It is an iOS 5 issue because I downgraded to 4.3.3 and it worked.

same issue!!!

Also whatever i drag over to my iphone4 (music, Movie, Ringtone) it comes up gray and i have to right click and hit transfer purchases in which case it works but it also goes through all the ringtones i made. Does anyone else have that problem? Looks like this......

I'm thinking it has to be an apple error.....i hope

I have the same problem whether I try to sync via wifi or by USB. I don't care as much that the music and ringtones won't sync; the real problem for me is that iCal won't sync between my iPhone 4 and my iMac. Yesterday, syncing worked like a charm. Today, nothing will copy: music, photo stream, iCal, nothing. ITunes gets hung even on "Cancel Sync," suggesting that the issue may have to do with the current version of iTunes, not iOS 5.

My phone lists the last successful back up to iCloud as yesterday at 4 pm, even though I've added content and trying to sync several times since then. I'm reluntant to add ANYTHING to my phone or iTunes right now.

@skynettle

I found out how to fix the syncing issue. Follow this link and complete the instructions. It worked for my new iPhone 4S 32gb.

http://leimobile.com/faq-how-to-fix-ios-5-photo-sync-issues/

Also as far as the 'Other' section being rather large, I believe it is due to the music not being synced properly and it places it in that category. I would try to play a song and it just wouldn't play. The way I fixed that was to just restore my iPhone and then it worked.

Good luck!

this fix doesnt work for me. ive tried many different things including doing a reboot of the phone...nothing seems to work for me! i hope this is something apple addresses in a patch or something...

I accidentally posted above because I thought I was in the iPhone forum, but I may have found the solution for all of us.

I connected my iPhone via cable to my computer and opened iTunes. I then synced each category separately using the "apply" button. I turns out that the problem was some videos in the photo section that, for whatever reason, couldn't be viewed on my iPhone. As soon as I unchecked the "include videos" under photos, the sync went through without a hitch. I'm back to wireless syncing.

The bad files may be different for each of us -- maybe it is a missing music file or a video or something else -- but syncing each section, one at a time until all are included, should give you a better idea where the problem might lie.

Well at least it is good to know others have the same issues. Note that this was working fine in the beta versions of iOS5 & iTunes. I upgraded to the final versions, and with a brand new 4s all the above problems started. I too have tried nearly everything to resolve without success. The selective Apply method above didn't work for me... perhaps I have a "bad" file in every media type (apps sync ok however). 😠 If there was a problem with a file you think iTunes would report something? The console and syncserver log file say nothing. I'm looking now for a way to increase the log level of the syncserver to see if I can tell what might be going on.

I tried this under Windows as well (clean iTunes setup, with same music library) and the problem was still there. So it is probably something to do with the media that iTunes is now choking upon vs. the phone. I guess one approach might to be clean out iTunes and slowly start adding content back in and syncing. 😟

I had the issue with the 'other' section and my syncs to the icloud kept getting stuck. The issue, I think, is caused by a corrupted backup to the icloud. And I could not delete the corrupted backup. I tried to from both my ipad and iphone and it would say it was unable to at this time and to try later.

The only way I could fix this was to do this:

1. Shut down itunes

2. On an ios device, Go to Settings>icloud>Delete Account (I deleted all accounts to be thorough because I have more then one email account and the backup can potentially contain data from all email accounts)

3. Had to wait about 15 minutes and it finally let me delete the corrupted backup.

4. Reset to factory settings

5. Setup choosing backup to icloud. I went into all the settings and configured everything how I wanted.

6. Restart itunes. Did not use usb. Itunes found the phone over wifi.

7. If you are going to be using icloud leave everything in iTunes info tab unchecked.

8. Synced apps and music

You will know it's working correct when you can do a wifi sync directly from the option in your device.

I solved the "other" problem (which filled my device to capacity) without resorting to the "reset factory settings." I shut down iTunes. I shut down my iPhone (the same would work for the Touch), and restarted my computer. When I connected my iPhone, all was right with the world. I do think that those who experience the "other" problem will also experience the hang on "waiting for items to install" issue. I believe they are connected.

A techie told me that the "other" issue is probably multiple versions of the iOS trying to install successfully on the device.