Ever since updating my iPhone to iOS 5, I was unable to complete a sync.
It backed up fine (thankfully), it did the majority of the syncing, it just got to the last ‘stage’ of the process and hung there perpetually. I saw messages such as “Waiting for items to copy”, “Waiting for changes to be applied” and so on.
It wasn’t a complete showstopper, since I could sync the majority of content, make sure I was backed up, and then just cancel the sync at the last stage, but it was something that needed a fix.
I had read various threads on Apple Support Communities — it seems that many people are having this issue.
I get the impression that this symptom is caused by various syncing issues and that some solutions have worked for some people, and not for others. Bear this in mind — this solution worked for me, but it might not work in every case. 🙁
I believe I have now solved this problem on my iPhone.
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Delete All Copies of Voice Memos
I deleted all of the synced Voice Memos in my iTunes library, then also went into the Voice Memos app on the iPhone and deleted each and every one there. Upon the next sync, the locking up at “Waiting for items to copy” did not happen, and the sync completed successfully.
This suggests that one of the causes for this issue is Voice Memos. If you are experiencing this issue, try backing up and removing all the Voice Memos from iTunes, removing them all from the Voice Memos app on the iPhone itself, then syncing again.
(The iPhone does still sync Genius Data each time it syncs, but this does complete successfully. Perhaps this is normal — I am not really sure!)
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I had the exact same problem on my 3gs, deleted the three voice messages I had forgotten were on my phone and tried the sync again. This time it worked perfectly.
I owe you man! I mean, I owe you a big time. This sync problem was annoying me as hell! Removing voice memos resolved that issue superbly.
Cheers,
Alek
Didn’t work for me unfortunately 🙁
Wow! This worked perfectly.. I wonder why.
Some random guy’s blog advice for the win.
Don’t know how you figured this out but it worked for me.
Ding-ding-ding-ding… That did it for me, too… THANKS!
Thanks. I will try it when I get back home.
Peter, thanks for sharing this. I spent quite a bit of time researching this issue and trying many of the suggestions I found elsewhere. In the end, your simple solution is the only one that worked. JE
This solved my problem. I didn’t realize I even had voice memos. It turns out the kids had been playing with my phone. Thanks for posting this Peter!
Mark me as another bitten by iTunes’ poor handling of voice memos.
And more importantly, mark me as one more helped by Peter’s suggestion.
Since I haven’t been syncing voice memos for many months, I initially dismissed this as a possible remedy, but after recalling how it fixed a similar problem six months ago, I thought I’d give it a try.
So, many thanks, Peter. Let’s hope Apple gets their act together to fix this for good.
To paraphrase Randy Newman, if Steve Jobs were alive, he’d be spinning in his grave at the inability of AppleCare to come close to diagnosing this.
After reading hundreds of similar complaints about this, an AC “senior advisor” advised me that he’d never heard of this. I introduced him to Google and suggested he search for ‘Waiting for items to copy’.
His remedy remained doing a restore. First from a backup then from scratch.
Thankfully, Peter’s web page drew me in and I’m a happy boy again.
Thanks again, Peter.
Regards,
Maurice
Exact same symptoms – unfortunately didn’t work for me! I had no voice memos to begin with. It still does the sync, but it gets stuck on either “Waiting for items to copy” or “Waiting for changes to be applied”. So I guess it doesn’t matter if it’s doing the job, but a glitch Apple need to fix!
Interestingly enough, I tried syncing to another laptop – same OS, iTunes version – everything and it synced perfectly – just not on my laptop? I wonder if there is a software conflict going on with iTunes?
Thanks you so much! I was very close to getting a droid phone. Thank God I found you.
Deleting voice memos did not help at first. Then noticed that deleting them from library and device through iTunes did NOT remove them from PC:s iTunes library and iPhone. When deleted OUTSIDE iTunes, the problem vanished.
Peter, you are GOOD!! Thankyou very much for posting this, much appreciated.
wow … this “waiting to copy items” have been driving me nuts ever since iOS5 update! It’s finally gone!!! whoo-hoo!
You rock man! Glad I found your post. Thank you so much.
Tried loads of other solutions from other blogs & forums to no avail – then found this – and it works!
To the contributor who said it didn’t work – I had to delete voice memos from both inside iTunes and also on my phone (and I didn’t think I’d got any either!).
Thank you so much, Peter
THANK YOU! I too removed my Voice Memos on my iPhone 4 and in iTunes. It worked like a charm. My iPhone can now sync with iTunes. It could be because I had a lot of them. 1.5gb of memos. I use my voice recording features to record long lectures. Thanks again.
You are awesome!!! Brilliant! My syncs are now completing!! Thank you!!
+1. Solved the issue.
Despite having no new voice memos in weeks, this fixed my sync issue as well. Thanks!
THANKS. Working perfectly after this annoying bug.
Deleting voicememos from both phone & itunes music folder worked at first and then the problem mysteriously came back. After 4 days of scratching my head, I decided on blitzing & restoring the phone but no joy. I then thought to have a look unders the itunes folder in music & found an unknown album/unknown artist and low & behold, more duplicate copies of the voicememos I had previously deleted!
Deleting these fixes the problem (unless the voicememos come back again!)
Dude… I’m shocked that this worked, but it did. UNREAL! How did you figure this out???
I deleted voice memos from both my phone and my iTunes and the problem is still happening for me.
I checked my iTunes folder under “Music” and there doesn’t seem to be anything else there.
Disconnecting my phone during this process doesn’t seem to harm anything but the ringtone I purchased via my iPhone isn’t showing up in my iTunes library and I’m thinking it’s because it’s not fully finishing the sync process. Up until today my syncs went flawlessly and it’s quite frustrating. The only thing I did differently was delete my ringtones from iTunes (in an effort to solve another problem) and now I have this sync problem. Lovely.
Thank you SO much! I just had this same problem tonight. First rebooted my iPhone and Macbook but to no avail. Then googling led me to your site. After reading your blog, first I tried turning off “include voice memos” under “Music”, which did not solve the problem. Then I deleted the voice memos on my iPhone, and that solved it! I did not end up needing to delete the many voice memos that are copied in iTunes. Problem solved. You are a savior!
Boom. Fixed. Thank you!
THANK YOU!!! I’ve been struggling with this for hours and this did the trick – you’ve saved me a lot more pain and frustration…
Hi Folks,
I backed up all voice memos and deleted them from iTunes and iPhone. But the problem didn’t solve.
How can I move those voice memos back into the iPhone voice memo app?
Thanks! It worked for me too!
Wow – you, my friend, deserve an award. I was just about ready to rebuild this phone, and came across your post. Friggin’ voice memos caused the issue… how dumb. THANK YOU for the info and for sharing!!! Saved me a helluva lot of free time still chasing this lochness. 😀
Hey guys. I deselected (unchecked) the voice memos in iTunes, then deleted about 6 or so of the most recent voice memos in iPhone 4. Then I went back into iTunes at sync’d again, and voila, no more “Waiting for changes to be applied.” I noticed that the number of voice memos being sync’d was about 396. Could it be that there’s a limit of 400 voice memos in the “Voice Memos” app?
I’ve had the same probe, tried various web suggestions but as of 12/11/2011 this method worked for me. Delete the iTunes voice memos, then delete them on your phone and the sync should work. Thanks Peter, good man
thanks for the tip. However, as you mentioned the possibility, it did not work for me. I think Apple is in a spot now, because there are many many people having this kind of issue. In my case, my iPhone has this problem, but not my iPad. And looking at the solutions offered elsewhere, it looks almost like works of magic: step into the hoop from the right side, skip twice on your left leg, restore your prefs, put on a green hat, delete his library item, close your eyes… Apple people are making us waste almost as much time as Bill Gates in his heydays. Thanks for all the great posts anyway 🙂
thanks man
Thanks a lot. It really works!
Worked for me too, thanks so much. Should I be shocked that the solution came from a blogger and not from Apple who seems loathe to even admit that their products ever have any defects? Steve is gone guys, quit the shady stuff. By the way the fix worked in iOS 5.0.1.
Wow, thanks. It worked for me. How on Earth did you discover this ??
Add me to the list. Thanks so much.
Is there a way to get the voice memos back into the voice memo app after deleting them on the phone? It’s much easier to play individual memos from the vm app than from the music app.
Didn’t work for me. iPod photo cache wasn’t the culprit either.
I think my dodgy files were some PDF books I was syncing.
Upgrading to the recent iOS and iTunes versions did fix it though.
thankuuu very much………………….. it worked fa me
Worked for me, too! Thanks a lot!
Don’t know how you figured it out but it worked like a charm. Thanks for saving me hours of frustration.
I wish this worked for me – I have the same problem, but on an ipod touch. And because it’s a touch, I have no voice memos whatsoever. Anyone have any ideas? Absolutely nothing works, including restoring my ipod.
Thankyou! I had this problem, im on a windows laptop, and i have ios 5.0.1, you would of thought they would of fixed it by now 😛 but thanks to you its fine for me!
THANK YOU
What’s the solution if you’re getting this message but don’t have any voice memos on the device, as in, I’ve never even launched that app?
Thank you very much. even though I didn’t have any voice memos on my iPhone 4, but turning off the include voice memos in iTunes solved the problem.
Worked for my iPad also.
Thank u again.
Worked for me as well! A BIG THANK YOU!
thanks a million. spent some time researching and trying to find a fix. resoring to factory setting didnt seem to help and then saw this!!!! Problem solved. thanks again.Just curious how did you discover it?:)
I don’t have any voice memos still i am the same problem please help me… I can’t tolerate that waiting for items to be copied…
Wow. Amazing. Thanks so much! That was really annoying to try and get around.
This helped me too… it came from a voice memo that was recording when the phone died. I guess it was corrupted and iTunes couldn’t handle that.
Thanks!
Worked, thanks! Now, do you have a solution for the Exchange password and Cannot Connect To Server errors, please?
Dude, that worked — thank you so much!!!
God bless the internet!
But I don’t have any voice memos.
OMG..It work for me too.
Thank you so much!
Awesome! it worked! Thanks man!