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stuck on waiting for changes to be applied

Just downloaded itunes 11 and ios 7


Trying to sync iPad with iTunes. process is "stuck" on waiting for changes to be applied


Any ideas?

pro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Sep 18, 2013 10:10 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 23, 2013 1:40 PM

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.

630 replies

Oct 17, 2014 2:58 AM in response to Kim Hill1

I'm wiping my iPhone 6+ entirely and formatting as a new iPhone. Then I'll restore to the last-known good backup. I just don't want to **** around with 20 half-*** measures — I think I'll save time in the end by using the nuclear option.


Assuming I get to a position where I can re-load music, it will take three overnight sync sessions to reload 13,000 songs (because they're converted to 128k AAC during the sync). Three overnight sync sessions with my two processor cores loaded to 80%.


It's just absurd how utterly broken iTunes sync is. Still — in Yosemite. Why does Apple sell 128gb iPhones, if iTunes is incapable of managing that much media?

Oct 18, 2014 7:06 AM in response to rkstiens

I thought I'd just pile on. Got my new iPhone 6+ yesterday, and after two days of trying, still can't get my iTunes library to synch with the bloody thing. I've tried various combinations of the remedies proposed above, but none of them seem to have done the trick. I'm sick and tired of rearranging apps after I do it each time. Guess I'll just set it up over night and see if that works since there seems to be some suggestion that the large volume of music I'm trying to synch is causing the problem.


What a joke. This problem has been going on for a year, and I can't see a response from Apple - and I've seen about half a doze (completely different) suggested fixes.

Oct 18, 2014 9:02 AM in response to rkstiens

just curious if any of you have tried my post from above?


close Itunes and Iphoto and disconnected phone. Then go to /Users/MyUserName/Library/Preferences and delete all "com.apple.iTunes", "com.apple.IPhoto", "com.apple.IPod" & "com.apple.iPhone"

Hooked phone back up and sync

One additional thing that has helped me is syncing less items at a time. Instead of syncing everything at once add one playlist at a time (100-2000 songs on each) starting with one of the smaller ones and only add up to 10 apps at a time. Once you get the main library of items on your phone, the sync will be doing less each time and will sync faster.

Oct 19, 2014 1:05 AM in response to JJJ_Austria

Good morning,


after having read tons of forum postings I have found out, that the iTunes database on my iPhone was corrupt. Then I discovered this posting: Resolution Steps: iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch library corrupted and showing ghost entries which will not play or music that is on the device in iTunes but inaccessible.


After having deleted the database and reconnected my iPhone to itUnes everything was alright.


Maybe this might help other users too...


Joachim

Oct 21, 2014 2:43 PM in response to RobEm

36 pages of complaints & suggestions. Unfortunately, there all different. I've tried 3 of them, and no luck. WTH apple. I am using an iMac, that recently was restored as brand new. I had Mavericks installed onto this brand knew machine. Why the ... apple, won't it allow me to synch? I go through this problem 'every time" there is a new update, and apparently 36 pages of other people have also. Different solutions should not be responsible for correcting a synch error. Do you even test updates anymore before releasing them, and are you releasing several different kinds of updates? I thinking that you must be releasing more then one version of untested updates, and are then waiting to see who complains first. That is the only logical answer to why there are 36 pages. If you want to remain as a computer King, then I suggest you stop doing that. No one will be recommending an apple to friends, if you continue to do that.

Oct 26, 2014 2:39 PM in response to greenmind

I am by no means an expert but after struggling with this issue myself I figured out something that worked for me. First and foremost the issue seems to be with HOW MUCH MUSIC you are trying to sync at a time. I have my Macbook Pro and my iPhone 6 updated to all of the latest software versions. I do not use iTunes Match, it just doesn't make sense for me to use, I don't have an unlimited data plan on my phone. When I had my iPhone 5 the brief period of time I used iTunes Match it totally messed up my Music Library.


Here is what I did.


1) I had a mix of music that uploaded and didn't upload so I deleted everything off of my phone. You can do this by going into Settings>General>Usage>(under storage)Manage Storage>Music -- Hit "Edit" then delete all of your music.


2) With your iPhone plugged into the computer, go into iTunes, select your iPhone. There should be a bar on the left that says "Settings" at the top, highlight "Summary". Under the options box in the main screen for the summary of your iPhone make sure the only box that is checked is "Sync only checked songs and video".


3) Check "Sync Music" at the top, ensure that "Selected artists, albums and genres" is selected, don't select music or videos yet. Apply the changes.


4) Eject your iPhone and unplug from computer.


5) Sign out of iTunes on your computer, then close iTunes.


6) Plug your phone into your computer, open iTunes.


7) Select your iPhone in iTunes, under the "Settings" bar on the left-hand side of the screen highlight music.


8) GRADUALLY add music to your iPhone, no more than about 250-350 songs at a time.


I know that selecting Artists, Albums, Genres and Playlists that you want on your phone may be annoying but the problem seems to be with the quantity of music that is uploaded at a time. You may notice that some songs and albums don't show up the way you think they should. The problem is often the Metadata associated with your songs and albums. You may have an album that has a mix of artists or an artist has an album that has other artists performing with them on some songs. When you are trying to select that Artist or Album it may show multiple artists or repeat the Album for every artist. To fix this go back into you music library, highlight the song or album and open "get info". Check to see what is listed as the "Album Artist", it will help to set that as the primary artist for the album. Also, check the box for "Album is a compilation of songs by various artists. You basically have to clean up the crap on your library so iTunes knows what is what.


I am guessing that once you pretty much get your entire library loaded onto your phone a bit at a time you can probably just go over and select "Entire music library" under the Sync options. Don't quote me on this, I haven't tried it because I don't want my whole library on my phone. Again, the issued seems to be how much data you are trying to load onto your iPhone through iTunes as a batch.


Let me know how this works!

Oct 26, 2014 4:18 PM in response to rkstiens

I defend my Apple products as the media constantly uses them for "click bait" on their websites with stuff like "bendgate" and "hairgate" (which were proven to be less than a dozen complaints out of millions of phones sold). Yet, here we are with a widespread LEGIT problem and Apple is silent.


I just encountered this problem in the past week after updating to Yosemite on my MacPro and updating to iOS 8.1 on my iPhone 6. I ran all updates (including iTunes) on both machines and noticed that most of my 14,000 song library went missing during this time. I have tried syncing and it will only sync songs that I have purchased from iTunes which is about 10% of my library. I don't use iCloud or iTunes Match with my music library.


I've combed through the hundreds of posts on this thread from others facing the same problem and none of the suggested fixes worked for me. What say you, Apple? This thread has more than a quarter-million views and there are many more just like it. Google "itunes waiting for changes to be applied" and you will see this is a major problem people are facing when syncing their iPhones.


I know this "syncgate" doesn't have the great visual of a bent iPhone but when will the media start reporting on this flaw so that Apple will make it a priority fix?

Oct 26, 2014 8:56 PM in response to radiospike

My post was just removed by apple.inc because it was considered speculative, and not asking or answering a question. I've read comments saying apple 'does not' read this forum. Well apple.inc removed my post. Alright here is my question. Why do so many different users, have problems when they have installed Yosemite, but not all? Also why are there 36 pages of posts, and why are the problems all so different in nature, even when a clean install was done? No speculation at all in this post.

stuck on waiting for changes to be applied

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