iTunes 11.1.4.62 freezes while syncing with Outlook

Hi,

After installing iTunes 11.1.4.62 syncing my iPod Touch (4th gen - iOS 6.1.6) with Outlook 2010 no longer works (I'm using Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate). The syncing process hangs while "preparing to sync" or while "syncing calendars". Strangely enough, uninstalling / cleaning / reinstalling iTunes makes the problem disappears... for just one Windows session. After a reboot, the problem re-appears and there's no way to sync again until I uninstall / clean / re-install.

The device is always recognized by iTunes when connected. No problem.

When the synchronization process freezes (or waits forever) I can sometimes cancel the operation. Very often, I have to kill the iTunes process.

Any know fix ?

Thanks in advance.

iPod touch, Windows 7, 64-bit

Posted on Feb 24, 2014 12:59 AM

Oct 9, 2014 6:20 PM in response to mmetts

In my case you indirectly solved the issue as you helped me open my eyes, thank you!!

The Office update didn't fix the problem, it was solved modifying the "Path=" environment variable. In my case one of the paths didn't exist anymore and removing it from the environment variable fixed the problem even without rebooting. Bear also in mind that there are 2 Path environment variables: Path (system one) and PATH (current user one) which is concatenated at the end of the Path before the processes use it. This is how I did it:

Copy the contents of the system Path variable and the user PATH variable and put them in a text file converting each ";" (semicolon) into new-line
Prefix each line with "cd" and a space (blank) so each line looks like "cd {pathN}"
Save this file with .cmd or .bat extension
Open a "Command Prompt" from Start Menu / Accesories
Execute the file
Look into the results and find the ones that returned the message "The system cannot find the path specified." and those are the ones you need to remove from the corresponding Path or PATH environment variables.
Hopefully this solves your problem without even rebooting.