stuck on waiting for changes to be applied

brmlburt,

No luck with my latest "trick." I have every box unchecked, and still the exact same problem occurred that you're experiencing.

Like I said, iChat support said I should create a new user and see whether my phone syncs there. But I can't really afford to sync to a whole new user for however many days it takes, given that my schedules and contacts must all remain current for work. I'm guessing you're in much the same boat.

Clearly this is a song/audiobook/movie issue, so the only acceptable next step is to wipe all the media off my computer and reinstall it all brand new. Ten years of playlists will have to be rebuilt from scratch. Maybe it's a good thing.

Meantime, you might want to consider deleting audiobooks off the iPhone itself, using the music app. I've started doing that with completed movies and audiobooks, and it's cut down on that yellow "other" bar in my storage.

I've tried everything except resetting my library. This only happens with my iPhone, not my iPad Mini or iPad Air. The only thing that seems to work is unchecking sync music, and then checking it again after it's off the iPhone. This is a pain, and I really wish Apple would fix it.

Most annoying thing - I subscirbe to podcasts from the iPhone. They all disappear during this process and I have to go get them again.

bravesirrobin33:

I've experienced the exact same problem with podcasts. In fact, for a while I thought podcasts may have been the cause, but I removed the app (and podcasts with it) and still experienced the problem, so you can skip that step, at least.

Reloading all your podcasts, though, is something you'll have to live with. I'd suggest subscribing in iTunes, downloading them and converting them into "music" through the "get info > options > media kind" tabs. It's a hassle, but at least you won't lose them every time this problem occurs.

Also, it's possible your Mini & Air haven't been synced often enough - I've been able to duplicate the problem on an iPad running iOS7, but only after syncing it many times. My iPhone is my primary iOS device, so it gets synced the most and, as a result, manifests this problem the most often.

I did go ahead and delete ALL my music, audiobooks, movies and epub books. After a number of syncs (no issue of course, since there's no media to reload), I reloaded all of them from a separate drive. No problems yet, but it's been only two days.

If I go more than two weeks without a problem, I'l check back in with this thread.

In the meantime, I get to rebuild 10 years' worth of playlists from scratch. Woohoo!

I found a solution that isn't "just nuke everything and reinstall, hoping it doesn't happen again."

This is what I did.

1. Turn off wi-fi sync (this may not be necessary).

2. On the iDevice (mine is an iPad) go Settings - General - iTunes WiFi Sync

3. Sync with USB cable. Watch the status on the iDevice.

4. I discovered that for some bizarre reason, it was trying to install Pages even though it was already installed and running fine with the latest update on my iPad.

5. Delete and reinstall Pages from the iDevice's App Store.

6. Initiate a backup via iTunes on my Mac, including transferring apps/other purchases that aren't on the Mac. (This may not be necessary, but likely is).

That fixed it. The key was to have settings up and running before sync'ing so I could see which app was crashing the sync. Note that the Pages warning message was replaced with the annoyingly unhelpful "preparing for sync" message that iTunes displayed if I hit the home button then launched settings again. Also, the iDevice status has more info than iTunes does.

Thanks! I sync often (daily?) all 3 devices, and not via wifi. I usually listen to the most recent segments from a few podcasts, so I may just sync my phone much less often. I mostly sync frequently so it updates the photos from my Mac to my iOS device. This problem is frustrating - I wish Apple would fix it.

Thank you so much for all of your brainstorming on this thread. My ipod touch 5 is FINALLY syncing music again. This is the 1st sync I've tried to do since I "upgraded" to IOS 7. Can't believe Apple didn't address this issue yet.

bravesirrobin33,

Well, sorry that wasn't it, but glad to hear at least SOME of your devices are syncing OK

As for me, zorking and reloading my entire media library worked ... for two days. At least I got to replace the library from a backup, so ten years of playlists aren't totally lost.

Next thing to try: iChat techs told me to create a whole new user. Luckily, I have a spare iPhone I can experiment with (which also exhibited the long sync problem), so it won't mean losing ALL my personal data.

Yet.

Well, I had this issue for about a week, then my iPhone started syncing again. It was ok for the last few weeks -- until today. I had to make some significant changes to my playlists today because iTunes was saying that I didn't have enough room for the four new albums and one new video I wanted to add (even though I know for a fact it had plenty of room). It stalled in "waiting for items to copy" for about 45 minutes. Then when it finished I checked the content and many of the songs that the phone said were there were no longer there. When I tried to play them, the phone brushed through all of them, and I just sat there watching the album covers slide on by.

It is definitely an issue with iOS7. Because after this I synced my iPod (that still has iOS6) with all the exact same playlists, and it worked perfectly.

I had heard so many just rave about how good Apple was - that they never have any issues. So I am shocked that Apple still hasn't addressed this issue.

Even after my iPhone started syncing again a few weeks ago, I still kept an eye on the posts here - just in case. I see all sorts of things that work for some but then the same fixes don't work for others. Or some will work for a time but then stop working later. The only consistent things I'm seeing is that the users are all on iOS7, that Apple hasn't been able to help, and that it appears that Apple is basically ignoring the problem.

I've asked about 10 or 15 of my iPhone-carrying friends if they've had any problems with this. Unfortunately, not one of them actually puts music on their phones. They all use a streaming service. It seems that there are few of us left who put music on our phones, and Apple doesn't need to care about the minority.

Final solution for me was not nearly as drastic as for many, and has been the solution every time I've updated (7.1, 7.2, 7.4):

After messing around for days and discovery "lost" music, uncheck 'Sync Music' [this is all I have and I imagine what failed to load during initial updating] and sync my phone to remove all music. Took just a few minutes as per usual.

Recheck 'Sync Music' [again, for you it will likely be whatever most of your used space is] and sync, readding everything. For 520p songs this took just about 40 minutes, so fairly normal burn/sync rate.

All play counts remained intact, as did playlists and track info, no nuking of libraries on my laptop, no XML files, no new users. Just letting my phone redo the last part of an upgrade by adding my files back.

- Dave

InstantRamen,

Thanks for sharing that - I really hope it works for you (and anyone else who tries it).

Unfortunately, I've removed and resynced my media (music/movies/audiobooks/epub books) many many times to no avail.

I've also rebuilt the library (losing "date added" and a lot of album artwork).

I've also removed all the media from my hard drive, period, synced a number of times, then added it back.

None of these measures worked, but my failures may at least prevent some of you from having to undergo the same hassle only to have the problem reemerge.

At present, my only response (not a solution) is to severely limit the number of songs and movies I keep on my iPhone, in order to shorten this now inevitable long-sync to tolerable levels.

RobertSch6

Yeah, isn't that "fast album scroll" a nightmare? It's like your phone is mocking you. At least it feels that way to me.

I've had long sync problems about twice a year since I got an iPhone. But with iOS7, it's now twice a week, minimum.

Given how similar all our complaints are, it's no question an iOS7 problem. The REAL problem is that there doesn't seem to be a fix forthcoming.

Apple just isn't interested in being a media company anymore, it seems.

for the first time since iOS7 on my iPhone4s I have managed to Synch more that two tracks ... managed 1176 tracks and one video... #Joy. Did it by again setting synch to manual again (although this is my normal setting), and allowing iTunes to think I wanted to clear all music. tunes and video.

But before I got too excited the synch process:

1. Still missed out random tracks, that I can happily play in iTunes

2. Tried to synch again to fee up a little space and it did not neither remove nor add tracks

3. Again on random tracks it thought it would synch without the album artwork

Please Apple fix iOS7

The synch of my mini iPod from the same library & iTunes works every time.

Running iTunes on Win8.1

jonathansc,

The irregular track syncing is exactly what several of us are experiencing

Thank you for posting this issue; I'm on a MacBook, so we at least know it's definitely an iOS7 issue, cross-platform.

One hopes that means it's more likely to be fixed

Have been having this problem on an earlier iPhone 4s and a New iPhone 5s, just purchased today. Called Apple. Turned out problem was I had a different ICoud account on my iPhone from account on my computer. Made the account on my iPhone the same as on my computer (the account I used to purchase music and apps), and everythiing worked fine. Have to say Apple could not have been more helpful.

Just to be clear: it is critical that we all continue to document our specific problems and attempted fixes on this thread.

Engineers have been alerted to this thread, which probably gives them plenty of useful information already.

More specifics from all of us can only help them ID the issue.