Cannot Sync or Backup iPhone 5 iOS 7.0.4 with iTunes 11.1.4

Hi everyone,

Like countless others, I've been having some serious battery drain issues on my iPhone 5 since I upgraded to iOS 7.0.4 several weeks ago. A comment on this thread made me hopeful that the latest update to iOS, i.e. 7.0.6 would at least partly tackle the issue.

I usually perform a full backup of my iPhone to my PC, so as is good practice, I figured I'd perform a back up of the current settings, apps and data before updating the iOS.

Well, that was about 24 hours ago. I am still unable to sync or back up my iPhone 5 on iOS 7.0.4 connected via USB cable to a Windows 7 (64 bit) machine running iTunes 11.1.4. Each time I try, the progress bar in iTunes gets stuck at "Transferring Purchases".

The only thing that has changed since my last successful sync and backup is the version of iTunes, to 11.1.4.

Is anyone else having this issue?

Among what I've tried to get this to work are:

1. Uninstalling iTunes and related components from the Control Panel (exactly as suggested in the official Apple help article at http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1925) and re-installing the latest version of iTunes with the default settings.

2. Performing step 1 above and installing directly under 'C:\'iTunes and not under 'C:\ProgramFiles\iTunes'

3. Trying to 'Not backup apps' while performing a full backup to PC

4. Trying 3 different original Apple lightning cables

Other relevant info:

1. I do use iCloud backup for a subset of my docs/settings, and have saved the most important items for me (i.e. Camera Roll photos) via Windows Explorer.

2. I could not care and try to directly update the iOS via Settings -> General -> Software Update, but that gets stuck at 'Checking for Update' for several minutes each time I try, so the only option appears to be to update iOS via iTunes (connected via USB).

3.. I'm not too keen on trying to update without first getting the sync to work. The last time I tried to update iOS this way (for 7.0.4) my iPhone died mid-way through the update despite being fully charged and connected to a power source (i.e. the PC). That experience doesn't inspire much confidence for this task.

4 .I don't have an executable for the previous iOS7-compatible version of iTunes, and it doesn't look like I can get one that's > 11.1 but < 11.1.4 from http://support.apple.com/downloads/#itunes, so I'm likely stuck with the latest iTunes.

5. I always 'manually manage music/files, so that's set to manual

6. I never auto sync, so that's disabled

7. I've never encountered this issue in now 9 years of using iTunes and Apple products.

8. I am U.S. - based, purchased this phone in the U.S., and use a U.S. - based carrier.

Another Issue I've had since updating to iOS 7.0.4 is that iBooks simply doesn't work for me on iPhone 5 anymore, but I've stopped caring since I'm more of a Kindle person anyway.

I can't believe I'm having all these issues with some very basic functions. I'm in the market for a smaller tablet now, and there is little doubt in my mind now that this whole experience has at least opened me to the idea of buying a Google product. But that's beyond the scope of this discussion.

To summarize.. all my problems with iPhone 5 started when I upgraded iOS to 7.0.4, and now I can't sync nor backup before I try to upgrade to the latest iOS version.

Any help would be much appreciated! Remember, I can't directly upgrade on my iPhone due to #2 under 'Other Relevant Info' above, otherwise I'd take the risk of losing my saved app data.