Cannot Copy Folder because it says "one or more busy items......"

I have a similar problem - same error report of "one or more busy items that cannot be changed". I am simply trying to copy my iTunes library to an external drive as a backup - as suggested Here. So I figure there shouldn't be any reason it would not normally work.

Does anyone have an easy solution to copying large folders without the Finder getting in the way with busy, locked or permissions lacking files? Is there anything analogous to Carbon Copy Cloner for a Folder level rather than drive? Is there a terminal option? RSync? Anything else?

As Terence will tell you (see My Other Recent Question) - I had similar problems backing up my iPhoto library and tried reseting permissions including some ACL type on a number of my individual .jpg files. This just led to iPhoto refusing to open the library entirely, and Terence had little sympathy for me given I had fiddled with permissions! He and I can't see any other way to do it mind you, and I remain unable to fully duplicate my old iPhoto library - I have now constructed a new one, only losing a few photos, and unlike the old, I can just drag and drop to backup the new. The process took me all weekend mind-you.

I agree with Bioinformatics entirely - this has been a recurrent gripe of mine. Whenever I have try to copy or move anything like a large folder there invariably evolves a series of problems with files in use, locked, incorrect permissions, and more recently a new entity to me - ACL permissions. The default response of OS X is just to dump the whole operation mid-way and give no helpful feedback on the offending file. As I have told Terence before, I have often wound up piecemeal copying folders by finding how far (seems to progress alphabetically) the process got, skipping the next file and continuing from there. This really is a joke - it takes long hours of user attention and loses the offending files forever - and rarely can I see why these files have caused a problem.

Yes, but can you give me a more specific answer? What is the name of the folder you are copying to and where is it on the drive? It's possible that you are trying to copy something that will overwrite a file actually in use. Or you may have a permissions related problem. The more information you can provide the easier it is to diagnose what's happening.

Have you tried simply removing the files in the destination folder that would be overwritten, then do the copy?

Well, if it's a system folder that has special permissions attached, then that would be important. I wouldn't ask if I didn't think it was important. Have you tried restarting the computer?

If the destination folder is empty what happens if you open a Finder window on the folder, then copy the individual files to it from the source folder.

When you get an error about a "busy" item it frequently means that a file lock failed to be freed. Restarting the computer is the simple solution to that problem.

Asking you about copying individual files separately is to determine if the problem may be limited to one or more specific files in the source folder or limited to the destination folder.

Checking permissions will determine if there may be some privilege problem either in the source or destination folder.

These are the most likely culprits and don't require any "higher-level diagnostics." Since you haven't yet related whether you've tried any of these nor related the results if you did, then the least you can do is try them. Diagnosing problems starts with the simplest probable solutions before advancing to "higher-level" ones.

I haven't mistaken you for anything. I have no way of knowing whether you're a newbie or a geek. There's nothing in your post to indicate one or the other. I simply look at the problem and attempt to find possible solutions. That means you begin with the basics. If you're not q newbie then you should know that.

I've run into this in the past for a variety of reasons, including "broken" files, no read permission on files, file ownership issues, etc.

One annoyance is that Mac OS X won't tell you what the offending files are! My solutions to date have been either to try narrow it down by elimination or check some things through the Unix level. Its annoying but, the possibilities usually narrow pretty fast, but regardless it is silly in "this day and age"! In fact, I've just finished doing just this on an older machine running 10.4: it took me about quarter of an hour to locate the offending file.

In some cases using the Unix 'find' command can help locate the offending files quickish if the issue is permissions or ownerships, or you have a hunch about the file type (I find tar archives and compressed files are the more likely to be broken, long story). You need to know the 'find' command reasonably well for it to be a time-saver (it has a unique approach that's needs a little learning the first few times you use it) and you're still doing "try this, try that" really.

I would really like to see Apple report the names of the offending files, perhaps opening something akin to a Spotlight search result window. Its one of a number of pet peeves of mine and I keep meaning to file a feature request on it.

I wonder if some of the Finder replacements can do this? (Anyone?)

(I'm running 10.4 thus far: looking ahead to see what I might be in for. I doubt this has changed from 10.4.)

Ron

You can get this message if you're trying to copy two files of the same name into the target folder.

Regards

TD

What are you copying and where are you copying it to?

What is the name of the folder? What specific files are you trying to copy?