Sync is ineffective

I've got an iPod touch 5, and syncing this thing has been difficult ever since IOS 7 came along. Now with each update new problems arise.

As of now, I haven't been able to sync my iPod for months. I gave up for awhile, but now I'm trying again. The last time I was able to sync it, I had to clear all of the music off my iPod entirely, and then sync it. That worked, but it was a huge pain, and it made me nervous, because I was afraid after clearing the music it wouldn't sync back again. It did, but taking that route still makes me nervous, and it's still a pain. Besides, afterwards, I still had the same problems with regular syncing I was having before.

I've tried a variety of tricks I've seen from online discussions, including deleting all my voice memos and trying to set it up for wireless sync. What happens for me now is that it goes through the five steps of the sync and then when it's in step 5 of 5, it says "waiting for changes to be applied." It gets stuck there for awhile,nothing happens, and finally the iPod gives up on the sync and nothing has been synced.

I manage my music manually, syncing only selected playlists and artists. Does anyone have any advice for how to solve this problem?