stuck on waiting for changes to be applied

I had this issue for a while after updating to beta 5 of iOS 8. Read a suggestion to authorize the computer in iTunes. I thought I had already done so, but I guess I didn't. Seemed like an odd thing that would fix it, but I did it and then clicked sync. It synced immediately, ALL songs and ALL playlists!! FINALLY

Hooray, it's all working on the iOS8 GM (installed to see if they finally fixed it) and the latest public iTunes build. After restoring my previous backup it just began sending all my music over. No waiting or delays.

With iOS7 and the latest public iTunes I still had the sync problem. So the fix was on the iOS side after all.

It appears my jubilations were premature.

iTunes is currently syncing all my music across. It's listing the files as they go over, as it used to before the bug. It's up to track 9,100 now. This bit looks good.

But on the iPhone the songs aren't showing up on the Music app. And if I go into the Settings>About page it says I only have 286 songs transferred. This number is going up very slowly compared to iTunes.

I've fixed the problem I was having, mine was to do with converted music it seems. (Or at least that's the remaining sync problem since updating all my devices)

Before the bug iTunes would slowly sync music, but after it would rapidly shoot through like it was sending over unconverted music. The song number iTunes was up to was way ahead of what the iPhone displayed but would eventually catch up on "waiting for files to copy" or "waiting for changes to be applied".

On iOS 8 and the latest iTunes I managed to remove all music (without deleting any folders using iExplorer, yey!), untick "convert higher bitrate music" and copied over a small number of tracks. They went over fine. Tried a few thousand and they worked too. The problem returns the moment I enable "convert higher bitrate music" again.

So I'm not done on this topic. I've still got an Apple Bug Report submitted and will provide as much evidence and logs as I can to Apple to help get it fixed.

I realized that my issues was this step.

Before I updated to iOS8 I ignored the alert that asked me to transfer my purchases from my phone to iTunes. After I updated iOS I couldn't sync until I manually transferred purchases as LeoGecko suggested. However I am sure there are other reasons why other people's phones aren't syncing but this worked for me.

"I disabled the auto sync in iTunes like in step 5 of cpaulPHL post. After that I connected my iPhone to iTunes and selected the Devices> Transfer Purchases from "my iPhone"."

This is what worked for me. I deleted music on my iPhone. But when I went to sync, it would hang incessantly. I noticed that iTunes showed over 11 GB of music on my iPhone even though I supposedly deleted the music. So instead of backing up my iPhone to my computer (back up to computer or iCloud is part of the sync process), I checked the box to sync to iCloud as iCloud did not recognize any music. After that I tried syncing again, and it worked (after about a 3 minute delay).

I spent several hours with Apple tech support today, and this is what *seems* to have worked for me:

1) Repair permissions on boot drive

2) In: /Users/MyUserName/Library/Preferences

delete all prefs files starting with "com.apple.iTunes"

I doubt that this is a solution for everyone, or even most of us. But it might be worth a try. There are still some non-trivial "Waiting for…" pauses, but it doesn't get completely stuck (for now).

Update! Everything is working fine. What was causing the problem for me was converting high bitrate music. It does not work still in iOS 8 or the latest iTunes on any of my devices (iPad 2, 3, iPhone 4S, iPhone 6) but does work on my iPod Classic and iPod Shuffle. I can't even trip it up by cancelling syncs or force quitting iTunes.

Interestingly on my final test I wiped my iPad 3, updated to iOS 8 and latest iTunes, on a fresh install (no backup restore) I had the same problem if convert music was enabled. I tried to restore an old backup with convert enabled and even copying apps over would be delayed and would freeze requiring iTunes to be force-quit. As soon as I disabled convert everything went over perfectly.

I think we need to keep a log of what works for people or at least bold it so it makes browsing this mega thread easier;

Disabling Convert High Bitrate music fixed mine

Well, the solution I outlined above doesn't work anymore. I can't even count the hours I've wasted trying to get iTunes to sync music.

To me, it looks like that for a certain group of iTunes users, sync is just broken — and can't be fixed. I have 10 more days to return my iPhone 6, and I am seriously considering it, because music is not an optional feature for my phone. On Android, all you have to do is identify the folder of music you want synced, and the music files will be copied over. There's no complication of an in-between program like iTunes. So I'm considering trading my iPhone for a Galaxy S5. I never thought I'd say that, but I've spent a year wrestling with iTunes (note that this thread is approx. a year old now), just get music on my phone, I'm tired. I want my phone to "just work."

I think you may be right. I struggled with this issue last summer and thought I had it solved, triggers seem to be iTunes Match and/or the number of songs you try to load. iOS7 was the issue and now iOS8 seems to have followed. The only reliable music device I have right now is my iPod 4G running iOS6. I have no other options, they are all too small and I don't want to use cloud music because I am not always around data or don't want to use it for music.

COME ON APPLE, WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LET ME SYNC MY MUSIC TO MY DEVICE LIKE IT WAS INTENDED.

b.b.

I am curious. I wonder if it is has to do something with how many songs you are trying to Sync? I am right around 11,000 that I am trying to put on my iphone. There are many times when it just plain screw ups and I have to restore the phone and reload everything.

I fixed it by first upgrading all my apps through iTunes. I had over 100 apps that need upgrading and they didn't show on my iPod. After letting them update I started the sync and everything went just fine.

I did this, as suggested, and when I tried to sync it once again stuck on waiting for changes to be applied.

I went into my iTunes library, found the one memo I had, and deleted (while it was still stuck in waiting for changes). At the moment I deleted it, the sync resumed.

In my case, the memo was clearly the problem. The mistake I made was that after trying to fix things the first time, I deleted the memo trom the phone but not from the iTunes library.

ETA: I forgot one step. After trying to wipe the phone from all music by unchecking the box, there were several items (like, over 100) on the phone. I had to delete those manually, because even though they showed up in the Info page, turning off Sync My Music didn't clear them.

At this point, it looks to me like my problem may be (at least partly) using the "Convert higher bit rate songs to xxxx" option. When I copied 12,000 songs to an 128gb iPhone 6 WITHOUT "Convert higher bit rate", syncing started to work.

Then I turned on "Convert higher bit rate songs to xxxx" (for 12,000 songs). 18 hours later, the sync was done. And playback was fine. Then, I selected two additional playlists to sync.

It took a half-hour for sync to even start. I had to cancel the sync, to take my phone with me to work. After canceling, all album art disappeared, and many songs didn't play. It seems that canceling the sync screwed everything up. Now, I'm trying to sync again, and it looks like the sync has to start from scratch. At least I only wasted 18 hours with both processor cores loaded to 80%…

The funny thing is, I'm not even very upset anymore. I have been forced to realize that iTunes sync is hopelessly ****** — at least for larger libraries — and there's little but suffering to expect. If I ever get it working again, I'm going to treat my library as a static collection. Maybe I'll risk a re-sync twice a year or something — when I have a couple of days to waste.

Kim Hill1's step 2 from higher on this page worked for me (with a bit of a modification)

In: /Users/MyUserName/Library/Preferences

delete all prefs files starting with "com.apple.iTunes"

I closed Itunes and Iphoto and disconnected my phone. Then deleted "com.apple.iTunes", "com.apple.IPhoto", "com.apple.IPod" & "com.apple.iPhone"

Hooked my phone back up and sync went straight through