You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

subcrapper Author

Level 1

1 points

operation can't be completed because an item of same name already exist

Hi, my first post. I've search the net for similar problems but nothing exact.

I have a Maxtor OneTouch 4 (1TB)that just returned cos I got it exchanged. While it was being exchanged, I used a Maxtor OneTouch (640GB). I had transferred everything from my 1TB to the 640GB.

Now that the 1TB's back, I want to transfer everything back. But when I try to transfer anything from the 640GB to the 1TB, an error message appears saying "operation can't be completed because an item "(of same name)" already exist."

After I click OK on the error message, only the folder gets copied over to the 1TB but NONE of its contents.

This only happens when I transfer folders. If I were to transfer individual files, e.g a picture, it's successful.

Things that do work:
- transferring files and folders from computer to both HDDs
- transferring files and folders from either HDDs to computer

So the only problem is transfers between both HDDs.

I read some thread that repairing permissions might help but when I enter Disk Utility, "Verify Disk permissions" or "Repair Disk Permissions" are both greyed out.

Does anybody have experience with this problem? Please help, the 640GB is exploding!

Thanks in advance!

Macbook (white), Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Nov 12, 2009 10:13 AM

Top-ranking reply

iBerzerker

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Mar 30, 2017 3:51 PM

Hello, I'm Dragon Berzerk.

There is a problem when you copy files from a Mac to a NTFS Disk, after time when you connect any NTFS Drive to a Mac, macOS make an index to entire disk, (When you can write a NTFS disk on macOS) so macOS make the invisible .DS_Store file type.

There is the problem the .DS_Store have a bug or something in NTFS file system…

The solution is on Terminal.

Open up Terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal or press command + space and type "Terminal")
On Terminal type: cd
After cdpress space bar, drag and drop your folder you wish to copy into Terminal window. Hit enter/return

Like this example:

User-Mac-Pro:~ User$ cd /Volumes/SpecialDisk/Not\ is\ P0rn

4. Now type: find . -name '.DS_Store' -type f -delete

Would be look like this example:

User-Mac-Pro:Not is P0rn User$ find . -name '.DS_Store' -type f -delete

5. Press Enter… Wait some seconds.

6. Now in Finder close the window with your files and open it again, is just to update folders.

And thats all the .DS_Store files are deleted. Copy your files on Finder as normal.

macOS will create new correct .DS_Store into Mac Disk it's normal.

View in context

134 replies

Jane Knox

Level 3

691 points

Jan 1, 2010 3:14 PM in response to baltwo

join the Apple Developer Connection ...

Excellent, Baltwo! Thank you for sharing that info. I'd give you Points if I was the OP. 😉

moveson

Level 1

0 points

Jan 16, 2010 8:57 AM in response to subcrapper

I have discovered why this happens. In every case, the folder that generates this bug has items inside it that have identical names except for differences in capitalization. For example, the folder "Metallica" has one subfolder called "Master of Puppets" and another subfolder called "Master Of Puppets". Apparently iTunes is (or some former version was) case sensitive in creating folder names for albums. That case sensitivity seems to confuse the Finder, causing this confusing error. In the case described above, the error would be, "The operation can't be completed because an item with the name 'Metallica' already exists." As you can see, this makes no sense at all, since it is actually the subfolder that has the same name, but the parent folder that the finder references in the error.

So the solution (for me) was simply to open the folder that is referenced in the error, make sure you are sorted alphabetically, scan through the list of subfolders (in my case it was always a subfolder) to find the duplicates, consolidate the items into one of the folders, and delete the errant folder.

It would be cool if someone technically inclined could build a script that would do this.

Thanks

jptan0

Level 1

0 points

Jan 17, 2010 1:58 AM in response to subcrapper

Abstract: my problem was solved by renaming a file that had a tilde ('~') symbol. Presuming that this is a special or reservered character that cannot be handled by OSX.

Hi everyone!

This is my first post here, and I have to admit that I am fairly new to OSX having only recently migrated to a Mac.

I was having similar issues as the OP described in trying to move some files onto my Kingston Data Traveller 16GB USB Stick. I even tried formatting it in FAT32 but it still came up with the same error which was puzzling.

Finally, my issue was solved when I discovered that Windows had truncated the filename of one of my files with a tilde '~'. I'm assuming that this isn't exactly a standard character in file naming, or is a reserved character. When I renamed that file, the files transferred without an issue.

clavere

Level 1

6 points

Jan 17, 2010 6:51 PM in response to jptan0

How did you find the ~? Just scan all the files? I am trying to move music from one drive to another and I am getting this error. So a lot of files to look thru if that is the case. Just want to confirm. Thanks.

baltwo

Level 9

62,374 points

Jan 17, 2010 7:14 PM in response to clavere

Click on the Desktop, CMD+F, enter ~ character into the search window, click File Name, and add Sytem Files included to the search criteria. I have 39 such files on my computer out of 75 GB of files and folders, numbering over 600,000 items.

clavere

Level 1

6 points

Jan 18, 2010 6:10 PM in response to baltwo

Thanks! I will try this.

Jan 22, 2010 9:40 AM in response to subcrapper

I can report that the problem exists with NTFS as well. I have a 1 Tb Lacie drive and another 640 Gb Lacie as well. Both are NTFS for Windows compatibility. I was trying to copy files from the 1 Tb drive to the 640 Gb and I get this error. Strangely, I can copy my entire Music folder from one drive to the other, but I get the error when trying to copy my Videos folder.

Jan 22, 2010 9:49 AM in response to Jimmy Chang

Forgot to mention that I use NTFS-3G and have no problems writing to either drive. The problem occurs when trying to copy files between them.

Feb 2, 2010 12:23 PM in response to subcrapper

I'm having the same error message "operation can't be completed because an item of same name already exist" come up when trying to move data between one FAT drive to another FAT drive.

happens on Drag and drop
happens on copy and paste.
there are no Tilde (~) symbols to be found.

finder works for copying.

trying to acquire forklift or chronosync now but this is rediculous.

This plus many other bugs in Snow Leopard have made me REGRET UPGRADING.

Thanks Apple. Way to go.

MattLTH

Level 1

0 points

Feb 4, 2010 9:43 AM in response to subcrapper

I'm just adding my voice to the chorus. I get the "operation can't be completed" error when copying files between 2 different FAT32 volumes. It only happens on my MacBookPro 5,2 on 10.6.2.

When I move both drives (and the Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard 3/4) controller card) onto my MacBookPro 2,2 running 10.5.8, the file copy operations work without error.

Grrrr....

MattLTH

Feb 9, 2010 1:24 AM in response to MattLTH

Yeah, it seems to be related to transfers in Snow Leopard between two Windows formats (either FAT32, NTFS, or a combination of the two.)

I've just acquired Forklift, and it works great. Plus, with Forklift you can MERGE FOLDERS. Basic file system functionality, care of a third party. Thank you, Forklift!

Mike3456

Level 1

0 points

Feb 13, 2010 3:07 AM in response to subcrapper

Boy am I really stuffed, I share files that matter between a pair of windows machines and a mac, many files saved after a wincrash years ago, so I have ended up with over 1500 files xyz~n.abc format. Any tips on programatically converting them?

I cant do a blanket replace on the whole machine as some MAC osx files have a tilde at the front or end.

Mike

Mike3456

Level 1

0 points

Feb 13, 2010 3:39 AM in response to subcrapper

Further to my last post, Using USB memory sticks or an external HDD of several makes it is the same thing, Finder barfs on copying out of the filesystem the first file it finds of the 8.3 format, "123456~8.abc", giving the cryptic message that is the title of this thread. I seems to copy inwards OK, but the moment you want to export it goes pearshaped.
Apple's finder is atrocious, crashing if you have more than 4 windows open, very limited views of the files etc, easier to do it through emacs. I actually prefer explorer.exe to finder.

Mike

Feb 15, 2010 3:39 AM in response to Chris Lingard Photographer

it happens to me in the exact same situations... but my workaround has been a bit different. i've been using automator: actions - get files from finder - copy files, or either: action - sync folders

painful, but it does work until apple comes with a fix in 10.6.3.
PLEASE APPLE!, listen to us!!

fhall1

Level 1

9 points

Feb 18, 2010 11:12 AM in response to Jimmy Chang

Ditto for me with two NTFS network drives. I was trying to back up my NAS by copying files to a network hard disk via drag and drop. Last time I tried this was with 10.5.x and it worked fine. I'm now at 10.6.2 and got the errors. I'll try getting Forklift and see if that fixes it like everyone says it will. Hopefully Apple fixes this bug in 10.6.3

operation can't be completed because an item of same name already exist