I got the "waiting for items to copy" error then the "waiting for changes to be applied" with the big "other" all in yellow. I could not uncheck each subitem (contacts, music, podcasts,...) without it restarting the sync then going nowhere and hanging. I deleted voice memos including the ones under Music, still nothing. I retried syncing several times after restarting iPhone but still the same endless loop. Despite all this info seemed to go back and forth like a regular sync. I think it somehow got a corrupted file; I had a duplicate copy of a ringtone in my phone not seen on the iTunes Library that I think may have been the problem (it had the ! before it when I clicked on it).
With my phone connected, I made another backup (right click on the connected device i.e. iPhone). Then in Settings / General / Reset option hit Erase All Content and Settings. I called this the "Nuclear Option" and prayed it would not take too long to recover. I then started phone and restored from backup and most everything came up right except a few setting changes (default ringtone, no passcode lock) that didn't take too long. Big hurrah: it went through the normal sync cycle okay without hanging on either message.
Hope that helps. I wasted a lot of time like a lot of the rest of you including a trip to the Apple Store Genius that was limited by the rarity of this (his words) though he did find the Voice Memo "fix" that helped a lot of people (not me!) and suggested the above pathway. It may be related to the phone coming off midsync with a in-process writing of a file that left it corrupted (per the Genius).
