stuck on waiting for changes to be applied

The most problematic thing when stuck on "waiting for changes to be applied" is that canceling the process would make a mess of the information about the storage space on iPhone. iTunes report that all disk space of iPhone is "other", instead of specifyig the correct categories (audio, books, apps, etc.). It would not sync if I click on Sync button.

The only solution I found was to shutdown both iPhone and my MacBook, restarting them again. When connected again, iTunes give correct report about the storage space of iPhone.

Best regards,

Aleksandar

Worked for me. Maybe it was just re-booting both the macbook and the iPad. Also, after re-booting, on the mac, I did not sign in to iTunes. Got to step 5 and it started syncing as it should.

iTunes iPod Stuck on Waiting for Changes to be Applied

This fix does not require anything except an update to your iOS software.

Go to the App Store under the Apple on your computer

Under the Store Menu at the top of the screen, go down to select updates

If there are updates, they will appear in a pop-up window in the top right of your computer screen. Click on the window to update.

You will have to save any files (i.e. Microsoft Office) that are open and restart your computer

It will say that the iPod is syncing, do you still want to quit, say yes

Shut your iPod down completely by pressing the button on the top edge of the iPod

Disconnect your iPod from the USB port on your computer

When your computer restarts

Make sure that both your computer and your iPod are on the same Network

Make sure that both your computer and your iPod have the same Apple ID

Turn your iPod back on by pressing the button on the top edge of your iPod

Plug your iPod back into the USB port on your computer

Go to iTunes, and it will be syncing correctly

This issue is something I've been dealing with for months on my iPod Touch 64 GB and my PC running iTunes. I use it only to listen to podcasts and music, and it constantly gets stuck at "Waiting for changes to be applied" - and stalls there for a good 20 minutes before concluding. Then when I check the content on my iPod, album artwork goes missing and many of the day's new podcasts have not actually synced.

The only solution I have had is to do a full restore, set it up as a new iPod and then sync it all over again. That process takes over an hour, but it's the only way I have found to get all of my new content sync'd along with my old. After that first successful sync, any future attempts to sync again cause album artwork to get lost, podcasts fail to sync and I'm left needing to restore all over again.

I've followed pretty much every solution I can find - I've completely disabled iCloud on my iPod, tried to let it sync everything, tried letting it only sync selected tracks. Tried fooling around with disconnecting and reconnecting and attempting the sync over wi-fi. I've replaced the USB cable. None of these have provided me with a solution to the problem.

At this point I'm concluding that Apple simply doesn't care about support on iTunes, or support for people who listen to podcasts, or support for their older products. They want you to go wireless and use the data provided to your phone by your service carrier. I'm beyond fed up and have decided that if a solution doesn't present itself I'm giving up and removing all apple products from my life. I'll go buy a google pixel or whatever if it means I don't have to deal with this crap anymore.

After countless hours this past weekend with this same problem (iTunes stuck on "waiting for changes to be applied..." I finally have resolved it without having to completely rebuild my iTunes library (and losing my metadata in the process). For background, I updated my iPhone 4s while I was traveling, and when I returned home, I was no longer to update music in iTunes (it would hang).

The problem, it seems, is related to several factors:

1) you have enabled "Find My iPhone" in the iCloud settings on your iPhone

2) you have initiated a download of music through iTunes on your iPhone, and the downloads have not completed

3) you have a corrupted Voice Memo, causing duplication on each sync

Here's what I ended up doing:

on your iPhone / iPod / iOS device:

1) disabled "Find My iPhone" on the iCloud settings of my iPhone

2) gone to the "Downloads" section of the iPhone "iTunes" app and deleted every in-progress download

3) go to Voice Memos app and see if there are recordings in the list that may have been duplicated

you can also check the "Voice Memos" playlist on your iTunes library

- delete any duplicate Voice Memos; if some memos are gray and can't be deleted see below

4) do a cold reboot (hold down top bottom, power off, then on again) but do not dock your iPhone yet

on your iTunes:

5) change your iTunes -> Devices preference to "Prevent iPods, iPhones, iPads from syncing automatically"

you can now dock / connect your iPhone to iTunes

6) select "Manually manage music and videos" in the Summary tab for your iPhone within iTunes

7) go to the Music tab for your iPhone within iTunes

- you may see a list of music at the bottom called "manually added music"

if present, select all items in this list and Delete to remove them

8) uncheck "Sync Music" at the top of the Music tab and "Apply"

- this will remove all music from your iPhone

9) if the iTunes sync completes properly, perform a Local Backup of your iPhone (you may need this later)

10) re-enable "Sync Music" but uncheck "Voice Memos" and "Apply"

- if this fails, you have a corrupted memo - see below

11) if this sync completes, change your iTunes -> Devices preference to disable "Prevent iPods, iPhones, iPads from syncing automatically"

possibly optional steps needed:

a) make sure you have a backup of all of your Voice Memos (check iTunes)

you may want to copy off these files and then remove them from iTunes, especially if there are duplicates

b) if your Voice Memos database is corrupted, you may need to clear out the iPhone internal database

there are third party utilities (I used "iPhone Disk") that let you access the directory even on a non-jailbroken phone

b) remove all files from the "Recordings" directory

c) cold-boot your iPhone

d) repeat steps above

Again, this sounds painful (it was!) but after many tries, this is what finally allowed my iPhone 4s with iOS 7 to once again sync properly with iTunes 11.1. This process will preserve your iPhone settings, voicemails, Messages, etc. And, it will let you retain your iTunes library without rebuilding.

I am seriously irritated. My iPod touch version 5 was a fully functioning music player until I upgraded to iOS 7. I might take it to the a genius at the Apple store or wait for a fix. How could these computer programming giants screw up something SOOOO basic? SMH. Also, since I've had this darn thing the screen presses it's own buttons. They haven't bothered to fix that EITHER!!!

Sign Out of your appleID acount on Itunes Store > Sign Out

DONE

Close iTunes

DONE

Connect your iDevice (dont go opening iTunes just yet)

DONE

as defined in http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451

Quit iTunes.

DONE

Locate your iTunes folder (this is the folder that contains the iTunes Library and iTunes Library.xml files).

DONE

Open your iTunes folder.

DONE

Drag the "iTunes Library.xml" or "iTunes Music Library.xml" file to the Desktop. If neither is available, learn how to add files back to the Library (because the XML file is not available, playlists and other information will not be available).

DONE

Drag the following file from your iTunes folder to the Trash:

DONE

Open iTunes.Important: Do not add any content into iTunes at this point (such as by purchasing something from the iTunes Store).

DONE

Choose File > Library > Import Playlist.

DONE

Navigate to the "iTunes Library.xml" file on the Desktop.

DONE

Check the Libraries you want to sync

DONE

Click "Sync" and if it gets stuck again on "waiting for changes to be applied" click on the small cancell 'x' and your content will begin copying on your iDevice

DONE

Still broken, Help! 😟

1. ipad 4 serial DMPKL2ZNFCYG 128GB
2. SYNCING 109GB or less
3. I am not syncing photos
4. I am not syncing ring tones
5. I am not syncing apps, i download any app I need from the store once music is synced
6. I am not syncing books
7. I am not syncing audio books
8. I am not syncing tv shows or movies
9. I am not syncing voice memos
10. None of the tracks I have are DRM protected.
11. all songs are playable in iTunes
12. all songs are mp3 only
13. iCloud is turned off
14. no password is set on pad
15. airplane mode is turned ON, no wifi or 3g
16. i am using USB cable to sync tracks, not wifi
17. No usb hubs are in use
18. I have tried different apple branded cables
19. wifi sync is turned off in iTunes
20. I have tried different usb ports on mac
21. doesn’t make a difference if I am syncing 1 playlist or 40
22. I have tried different profiles
23. Doesn’t make a difference if I am using conventional playlists or smart playlists
24. I have done 16 full factory resets from itunes
25. I have done 1 factory reset with new firmware (deleted iPad3,4_7.0.3_11B511_Restore.ipsw, connected to ethernet hardwired, iTunes had to download it again, restored iPad, set up as New iPad)
26. I have downlaoded iTunes 11.1.3 from www.apple.com, re installed
27. makes no difference if i am on OSX 10.8 or 10.9 Mavericks
28. I have no problems syncing my iPhone to iTunes same library
29. I can not rely on manage music manually as I am changing the library constantly
30. I have done 1 factory reset with new firmware 7.04, installed from DFU mode

I AM SO UNHAPPY WITH APPLE, PLEASE HELP!

I just found this

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1627

Pretty much saying this (for Leopard)...

1. Open iSync.
2. Choose iSync > Preferences.
3. Click Reset Sync History.

Does it help? (sorry I really don't know anything about OSX so apologies if you have already tried this)

I tried doing what ever you said..

But dint work for me 😢

I just have 478 songs in my music library...

I am either stuck with this Waiting for changes to be applies issue or cancel sync issue...

I am so ****** 😟

I really dunno what to do to restore my music library..

Thank GOD other apps and data are intact...

Please check the image below... The music sync symbol is not loaded too

I have to update this. It looks like I actually am missing about 32GB of music. I have a 64GB iPhone. As you can see in the picture, the colored portions of the bar show that I would have about 9 or 10 GB free, but the text says I have 32.48GB free. The latter is more accurate, as I have found that - although my music shows up on my iPhone, when I try to play it, I get an error saying that it can't be found.

I have an iPhone 5s and have had the same problem where my iPhone gets stuck when I sync in "waiting for changes to be applied."

I was able to fix the problem by going into the Music tab of the iPhone and unchecking the box for Sync Music. When you sync after doing this, all of your music will be removed from your phone. I actually had to do this two times to get iTunes to remove the music.

Once all of the music has been removed (this will happen relatively quickly), you will have to select Sync Music to add your music back to your iPhone, which may take a long time. After doing this, I was able to get my new songs to be uploaded to my phone.

I'm having the same issue only, when I went to sync it, it randomly took off music and I can't get it back on because of the issue. I'm seriously irritated right now. Not a great way to enter into the new year. EARTH TO APPLE. IS ANYONE TRYING TO FIX THIS????

After hours of frustrations i finally found a solution and hope it helps everyone that comes across this post.

1. Disconect your iDevice

2. Sign Out of your appleID acount on Itunes Store > Sign Out

3. Close iTunes

4. Conect your iDevice (dont go opening iTunes just yet)

5. Follow this short support guide http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451

6. Check the Libraries you want to sync

7. Click "Sync" and if it gets stuck again on "waiting for changes to be applied" click on the small cancell 'x' and your content will beggin copying on your iDevice

hope this helped, i worked for me after hours and hours of trying diferent methods.

5. Follow this short support guide http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451

"Short support guide"? That involves nuking your music library and recreating it from an XML import, which is a huge deal for many of us who have large libraries, and don't want to lose metadata, dates, etc.

This "waiting for changes to be applied" bug has ruined the fun of a new iPhone 5s.

I've had a variety of issues with syncing music through several versions of iOS now. Sometimes the characteristics change a little, e.g., you can't sync all songs, syncing gets stuck, you can sync one song and it stops, music on the device doesn't match what it is iTunes, and grayed out "ghost" songs that you cannot get rid of. My sync this weekend also got stuck on "waiting for changes to be applied" just like many of you have indicated.

What I've not seen suggested here is a trick I picked up last year in another thread here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3909940?start=0&tstart=0

From what I've gathered, bugs in the iTunes software that have persisted over many versions seem to eventually corrupt the music library file on your device. I think the reason that some have been able to fix their problem by doing a full reset/restore of the device is that the corrupted library file is erased at the same time and then rebuilt from scratch.

Instead of going to that extreme, try what is suggested in the thread above. Basically, you use a file browser program like TouchCopy12 (what I use) to access the files on your device. You then rename the library file (MediaLibrary.sqlitedb) so that iTunes doesn't not recognize it when you sync again. iTunes thinks then you need one, and recreates it the next time you sync. Although this does result in your having to reload all your music, playlists, etc. again, it works like a charm and it fixed my problem this time, as it has for me many, many times in the past. NOTE: Doing a warm reset after renaming the file is CRUCIAL. I skipped that step once or twice and if you do, it won't sync properly.

I've done two of these today. The first time it worked to get music on, but I was still having some issues with my iPhone wanting to redownload songs I already had in iTunes. As I pay for data, I didn't want to have to do an unnecessary re-download of music I already had. Research in other threads suggested that downloads in iTunes that had not completed cause that problem. It took me two tries, but I was able to get those downloads fully removed. After that, I went through my usual routine of renaming the library file, warm rebooting, and resyncing with complete success.

I admit it was a little scary for me to do the first time (rename the file), but I also figured that if it didn't work I could always just do a full restore of my device. I've never needed to do that. Understand that you may need to repeat the process in the future if the library file gets corrupted again (it likely will unless Apple fixes the bugs). It really doesn't take long to do, though, although you should allow plenty of time to get music resynced to your device if you have a large library like mine (nearly 7000 songs, so about an hour or so). I've used this process on all my devices over the last year or so (iPad2, iTouch 5, iPhone 4s and now iPhone 5). Same goes for fixing similar issues on my husband's Apple devices.

Hopefully this helps some of you. I use a PC, not a MAC, but I know there are programs out there that work on either type of computer.