Extremely slow iPhone Sync

Hey all,

I tried looking through the forums for a similar topic-- I found several people complaining about an extremely slow iPhone backup. However, that's not the problem I'm having-- my issue is with syncing.

This started happening all of a sudden a few days back.

First of all, when I plug my iPhone 4S into my USB port, it takes a VERY long time to "mount" and appear in iTunes. Then, every step of the syncing process takes a very long time, such as "preparing to Sync," "syncing," and "finishing up." The "backup" phase isn't any different but it doesn't seem to be the problem. Syncing even a very small podcast takes a long time, as does any small app update. We're talking 10 minutes for small things. I'm currently syncing an app update that looks like it will take a couple hours at least.

Any suggestions? Should I try wiping and then restoring from backup? Or should I try removing all applications and then seeing if any of them remained "stuck" on the phone as some people suggested for fixing the slow backup issue?

Thanks.