stuck on waiting for changes to be applied

I use it primarly for photos, apps and browsing. No music or video content at all. I tried to remove all my photos but since the sync was taking so long and iOS cannot remove photos like it can with music, I had to load up one of those iOS device browsers and manually remove the photo directories. I haven't tried a sync since.

(I have noticed that the latest iTunes update has sped up the time it took for my iTunes library to be 'converted' when it booted up, since I use the exact same library for both OSX and Windows. So it appears they are trying to fix some of the other recently introduced problems! Now for this one...)

poikkeus1 wrote:

I just had the same problem. The only thing that fixed it, on my machine, was to reset my iPod Touch, and restore from the backup on my iMac. However, "waiting for changes to be applied" can refer to just about anything.

You might be able to find out what it's stuck on by going into Settings>General>Wifi Sync. Even when using a wired USB connection you can see what file it's currently transferring.

You're so right. As it happens, there was a problem with my iTunes library. Every iTunes library is a little different, so you just have to go hunting until you find the culprit. Restoring iTunes takes a while, but it fixes everything - or it should.

Worked For Me

Thanks

🙂

Well, after trying every suggestion in this thread, and after several tries with the "Waiting for changes to be applied" message staying there ALL #@!!! NIGHT LONG, I decided to smash up my iPad into small manageable pieces with a #17 ball peen hammer, and to then further reduce the thing in my Ninja blender, and finally to melt down the resulting powder and remold the melted plastic into a beany propeller. That way, on the off chance that some friend or relative should happen to give me a beany with a missing propeller, I would GET SOME USE OUT OF THIS ##!!!**##! IPAD!

But then... A SOLUTION!:

...accidentally discovered by trying a mix of various other suggestions. And I did NOT have to relocate or play with my library.

1. Do a full backup of your iPad by right clicking the iPad in iTunes and selecting "Backup."

2. When finished, unplug your iPad from your computer.

3. Uninstall iTunes completely (your library should be unaffected).

4. Reboot your computer.

5. Reinstall a clean version of iTunes from the Apple web site.

6. Run iTunes.

7. Reboot your iPad. (check Google if you don't know how.)

8. After it is finished rebooting, replug your iPad into your computer.

9. Do a Restore from the Backup you made way back in Step 1.

10.At this point, it shouldn't matter what you have checked or not checked, when you do a Sync it should work fairly quickly (but don't be impatient; the word fast is not in the iTunes vocabulary). Grab a soda or go to the bathroom. The next time you check your computer, the "Waiting for changes to blah blah blah" message should be gone, and your various things should be backing up.

11. When finished, unplug your iPad and exit iTunes (should be obvious).

12. If none of this works, your iTunes Library may be corrupted and you should smash up your iPad with a #17 ball peen hammer, and....

Tried everything in this thread....no luck. Finally found a fix of my own (just as I was about to resort to bashing the **** thing)....

While iphone is stuck on "waiting for changes to be applied", run a diagnostics test (help/run diagnostics/device sync tests). As soon as the test completes, things start happening! I have a 4s running ios7.1 on itunes 11.1

Nate

Where is that located? Would love to try it!

In help tab...run diagnostics.

Ah it's in Windows only. There's no option for that under OSX! Will give it a go later though, cheers! Hope this finally does it.

It worked 2 times...now it's back to not finishing sync regardless of what I do At least I got most of my music on my phone.

Well here's my latest:

Just made five weeks without a long sync that's actually disabled any media, although I've had a few that took a while (5-20 minutes) before actually uploading new media (ranging from a single song to a 5GB movie).

In those cases, the "waiting for changes" part took longer if the media was larger in size, which is about what one might expect.

This is the longest stretch I've gone without problems in the past eight months. So maybe my "fix" was indeed a fix (removing a bad playlist by exporting them all to plaintext, then importing them again). We'll see.

Of course, a big factor was my move to iCloud. I now sync maybe once every two days, where I used to sync at least twice an hour.

After 5 months of this problem with iOS 7 on and iPhone 5 and Mac OSX 10.9.2 and iTunes 11, it has been fixed.

The update today for iOS fixed the issue. I got stuck at the same screen that I've seen a million times and threw it to the background. After a few minutes I magically had music again. Then ran it again and it was supper fast.

I have tried everything on these forums and the only thing that worked was this update.

What is the number of the update? I am installing 7.1.1. right now, but it doesn't mention the "waiting for changes to be applied" bug. Then again, maybe they don't wish to acknowledge it exists! Will see how it goes because I'm trying another sync tonight to update music and playlists.

It is the 7.1.1 update that fixed it for me. Best of luck.

I'm still stuck at "waiting for items to copy". Hopefully after it does copy (see you all in 18 hours!) that will be it.