iphone sync stuck at "preparing to copy items"

One of your Macs must be running OS X v10.9.5 Mavericks or later and the latest version of iTunes > Get the latest version of iTunesin order to backup your iPhone.

If you aren't sure which OS X is installed on your Mac, click your Apple menu  top left in your screen. From the drop down menu click: About This Mac.

The OS X version is noted there.

I had the same problem - stuck on preparing to copy. Fixed it by going to Settings > General > iTunes Wi-Fi Sync on iPad and selecting Cancel Sync - then selecting Sync Now. My iPad synced with no problem after that.

As per this article : iTunes for Mac: Sync contacts, calendars, and other info with iPod, iPhone, or iPad

Note: If you use OS X v10.9.5 or later, you can sync only contacts and calendars. Other types of info are updated on your computers and iOS devices via iCloud. For more information, see iCloud Help

So , use a different method , Set up iCloud Drive - Apple Support

What's next

After you set up iCloud Drive, any documents that you've already stored in iCloud are automatically moved to iCloud Drive. Your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and iCloud.com keep your files in the iCloud Drive app in addition to the iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) that you're used to seeing. If you don't see your files in these apps, they might be on a device that doesn't have iCloud Drive turned on.

Finally! Thanks so much! Seems like Apple would fix this issue - it's been a problem for years. Other problems need to be addressed to, such as iTunes randomly deletes and re-loads all my music on my iPad. Not a disaster, but adds a LOT of time to a sync. I find that iTunes has become so complicated and over-engineered, it's not really worth the trouble of using any more. Unfortunately, I need to use it to copy music, movies and TV shows from my private library (not downloaded from iTunes store) to my devices.

Cancelling (sp) when it hung-up and then restarting the wi-fi sync cleared it up for me. I'm quite curious about what is happening that this simple fix is working. Any answers for that?

Cheers,

Terry

HOLY BATMAN! It works! It also took care of "waiting to copy". I have since synced my iPad and iPhone several times today just to make sure it wasn't a fluke! I have been having this problem for several months and this is the first answer that has taken care of the issue!

Problem: Itunes won't complete a sync with iphone / ipad, and is stuck on "preparing to copy items" indefinitely.

The fix is ridiculously fast and easy:

Go to your PHONE / IPAD, click settings, general, itunes wi-fi sync, click sync now.

Now go to itunes and sync, and it works as intended!

Hope this helps someone - like the people at Apple Support who had no clue how to resolve this.

I have a very similar problem. iphone 7, itunes 12.6, ios 10.3, macOS 10.12.4.

It always gets stuck on (Step 5 of 5) "Preparing to copy items". It pretty much never finishes.

Hi. I have this problem too. tygb - I use iCloud drive but iTunes still sticks on 'preparing to copy items' as per the original post.

Make sure that iTunes is not scheduled to make an Encrypted iPhone backup.

Thanx. Helped me out 🙂

also helped me - thanks!

Thanks a lot! Helped!

Helped me out also! THX!🙂