Sync of iPad (1) to iTunes after iOS5 upgrade, getting "waiting for items to copy" message that hangs sync, lasts forever

I've seen this same problem in other posts, but the solutions seems suspect to me. People are seeing this on both Mac and Windows syncs. The "data" that is being sync'd seems to change for each person, and in fact is different each time I try. Sometimes it is "data" that is being sync'd, sometimes it is "Genius Data", sometimes something else. The common problem across platforms is that somewhere in the iPad sync process it gets "stuck" with the message "Waiting for items to copy". In my case, I ran this overnight -- for over 12 hours -- and the problem did not resolve.
Here is my situation: iPad1, just upgraded to iOS5. MacBook Pro just upgraded to 10.7.2. itunes 10.5. When I connect the iPad, iTunes does a synchronization automatically and seems to succeed up to the last step, in my case 8 of 8. Then, it "hangs" during synchronization. Sometimes it says it is Syncing Genius Data, sometimes it says something different. But, it always says "Waiting for items to copy" and then sits forever.
To terminate this I just eject the iPad and things seem to be working okay, but it is troublesome that the sync does not complete normally.

Hi TD,
You solved my problem awhile ago and I didn't post a thank here.  So thank you!  I was having a problem with a PDF that kept rechecking itself.  It was not the User guide.  Anyway, I posted your solution on another discussion board and it has solved the issue for several people. Here's the link. My post is on the last page.  https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3391000

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    Help here >  Apple - iCloud - Learn how to set up iCloud on all your devices.
    Message was edited by: Carolyn

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    Hi TD,
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    Hi maasailand giraffe,
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