iTunes 9 freezing / hanging on iPhone sync fixed

Problem: iTunes 9.0 / 9.0.1.8 on windows XP hangs every time you try to sync with your iPhone 3G / 3G S / 3GS ( this is with OS 3.0 ). iTunes works if you don't have your phone plugged in but the second you plug your phone in iTunes freezes. This isn't a hang for 15 minutes and it comes back. The window stops repainting and you have to kill the iTunes process. Things that don't work:

• Unplugging the phone doesn't make iTunes come back.
• Letting it do it's thing for 3 hours doesn't make it come back.
• Rebooting the computer and starting up iTunes and then plugging in the phone doesn't work
• deleting the configuration file and rebooting doesn't work
• re-installing iTunes doesn't work

OR

Event 1002

Hanging application iTunes.exe, version 9.0.1.8, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

Solution:

Delete all Podcasts

I found this solution somewhere last night but I forgot the page link. I deleted all my Podcasts and then restarted iTunes. Syncing worked like normal once again! I'm a happy camper. From my searching this bug can affect all iPhone 3.x OS

• 3.0
• 3.0.1
• 3.1
• 3.1.2

and it affects all versions of iTunes 9.x

• 9.0
• 9.0.1
• 9.0.1.8

UPDATE: If you are still having problems syncing, make sure you have at least 5GB free on your main hard drive. I've encountered hangs when there is less than 2GB free.