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How do I stop this from copying Folders of files? If I right click and copy a 128gb folder form am SD card and paste to my iMac Desktop, it tries to copy ALL those files on my MacBook Pro's clipboard. This is causing ALL kinds of problems!

How do I stop this from copying Folders of files? If I right click and copy a 128gb folder form am SD card and paste to my iMac Desktop, it tries to copy ALL those files on my MacBook Pro's clipboard. This is causing ALL kinds of problems!


In the example below it is copying 15gb of data on my MBP when I tried copying a folder form my desktop to a backup drive.


I love the Idea for most everything, but NOT files and especially not folders!


MacBook Pro

Posted on Sep 28, 2022 2:04 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Oct 12, 2022 8:51 AM

Guys, I am not sure how I could have been more clear?


I have since found out this what's cauing this is something called Universal Clipboaed (Handoff).


But it's very simple; when on Computer A and I select a folder and click Copy. Unified Copy is trying to Copy everything in that folder to Computer B via Bluetooth. If that folder contains 100GB of video files, then 100GB is trying to be sent to ALL apple devices within BT range with Handoff turned on.


That's an absolutely crazy amount of data for BT to try to deal with and constantly crashes.


Apple knows this and because they know problems will happen, UC is supposed to only allow (1) item.


Per Apple:

Universal Clipboard doesn't let you copy multiple items or see what's on the clipboard and manage it. It just extends the basic copy and paste function to all of your compatible devices.


When I brought up that when a Folder is selected to be copied, everything inside that folder is sent to the clipboard.


The tech's response, "hmm, that's interesting. Yes, that will cause multiple problems."



More about Universal Clipboard:


What Is the Mac Universal Clipboard? 

Universal Clipboard is a feature that Apple has built into the macOS and iOS that makes a copy and paste clipboard accessible to all of your compatible devices.


Think of it this way: When you copy something on one of your Apple devices, it's actually copied to all of your Apple devices, giving each of them temporary ability to paste that item.


With Universal Clipboard, you can copy and paste from aiMac to an iPad, from an iPhone to an MacBook, etc, from an iPhone to an iPad, and from a Mac Pro to a Macbook (or any other combination you can come up with). Pretty cool, right?


7 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Oct 12, 2022 8:51 AM in response to cas2tgdfgdtrghrgew53gtdgfrhfge

Guys, I am not sure how I could have been more clear?


I have since found out this what's cauing this is something called Universal Clipboaed (Handoff).


But it's very simple; when on Computer A and I select a folder and click Copy. Unified Copy is trying to Copy everything in that folder to Computer B via Bluetooth. If that folder contains 100GB of video files, then 100GB is trying to be sent to ALL apple devices within BT range with Handoff turned on.


That's an absolutely crazy amount of data for BT to try to deal with and constantly crashes.


Apple knows this and because they know problems will happen, UC is supposed to only allow (1) item.


Per Apple:

Universal Clipboard doesn't let you copy multiple items or see what's on the clipboard and manage it. It just extends the basic copy and paste function to all of your compatible devices.


When I brought up that when a Folder is selected to be copied, everything inside that folder is sent to the clipboard.


The tech's response, "hmm, that's interesting. Yes, that will cause multiple problems."



More about Universal Clipboard:


What Is the Mac Universal Clipboard? 

Universal Clipboard is a feature that Apple has built into the macOS and iOS that makes a copy and paste clipboard accessible to all of your compatible devices.


Think of it this way: When you copy something on one of your Apple devices, it's actually copied to all of your Apple devices, giving each of them temporary ability to paste that item.


With Universal Clipboard, you can copy and paste from aiMac to an iPad, from an iPhone to an MacBook, etc, from an iPhone to an iPad, and from a Mac Pro to a Macbook (or any other combination you can come up with). Pretty cool, right?


Sep 29, 2022 6:42 AM in response to HWTech

While we all know that will stop the initial process, it does not solve the problem, which is to not have it happen at all.

Copying Gigs of folders is ridiculous and seems to be an "oversight bug" on Apple's part.


I (we) should not have to:


  1. Copy from SD Card, Paste on the Mac, and Cancel on the MBP
  2. Copy from SD Card, Paste on the Mac, and Cancel on the MBP
  3. Copy from SD Card, Paste on the Mac, and Cancel on the MBP
  4. Copy from SD Card, Paste on the Mac, and Cancel on the MBP
  5. Copy from SD Card, Paste on the Mac, and Cancel on the MBP


Just to copy files from a video shoot.

Oct 12, 2022 1:46 PM in response to HWTech

Well, you had to go there...


  1. I did. Right after I asked the question, I said if I copy and paste...
  2. Shen I posted, I did not know what a Universal Clipboard or Handoff was - therefore I could not have known that it was using Bluetooth. I clearly stated I did not know what was going on.
  3. No one is expecting you to read minds. But all are expecting those who answer have some knowledge of the problem before answering. That said see #2 - I clearly stated I did not know what was going on.
  4. If when you saw the screenshot and didn't know what was going on, probably should not have guessed the answer...
  5. Apple support has stated that copying the whole folder is outside of the scope of the Universal Clipboard, and it should not be doing that - for the reasons I am experiencing.
  6. I did not ask how to copy files, only why were they showing up on a second device. I do appreciate the sentiment, but am fully aware of how to transfer folders & files - I am a software engineer and have owned my company since 1994.
  7. Actually, I provided the problem/solution to you guys above, no need for you to rack your brain over something (as you stated "I havenever had occasion to use HandOff so I am unfamiliar with all the little details...") it;s all good and hopefully if somone else looks at this it will help them to understand what's going on.


Enjoy the rest of the day,

Chris

Sep 29, 2022 7:35 AM in response to cas2tgdfgdtrghrgew53gtdgfrhfge

Your original post was not very clear which is why I also asked what your intent was.


If you only want to copy certain files, then just select the files you want to copy. If you select a folder to copy, then all items within that folder including subfolders will also be copied. Usually within the Finder I will either highlight a range of items to copy or I will select them individually by holding the Command key and clicking on each file I want to copy. Then drag & drop the highlighted items to the destination folder. This will allow you to select multiple items which may not be next to one another in the Finder window. See this article which may explain things a bit better as it also includes pictures to showcase the examples.

https://www.makeuseof.com/select-multiple-mac-files/



Oct 12, 2022 10:30 AM in response to cas2tgdfgdtrghrgew53gtdgfrhfge

cas2tgdfgdtrghrgew53gtdgfrhfge wrote:

Guys, I am not sure how I could have been more clear?

Well for starters you never mentioned copying & pasting to another computer or over wireless/Bluetooth. Your posts only mentioned copying from an SD card to the Desktop. Obviously you left out a lot of information. The answers you get will only be as good as the information provided to us. Most of us are not mind readers, nor can we see your computer setup.


I have never had occasion to use HandOff so I am unfamiliar with all the little details on how HandOff works. However, I would expect selecting & copying a folder would do exactly that, copy the entire contents of that folder including every file & subfolder within it. I would actually be concerned if it did not behave that way. If you only want certain files within that folder to be copied, then manually select just those items you want transferred as we have already mentioned in earlier posts. If you want to transfer files located only in the immediate first level of the folder and to ignore subfolders, then your only other option would be to change the organization of your folders so there are no subfolders.


I'm going to bow out of this thread because I'm obviously not going to be able to provide the solution you want since macOS does not work the way you want it to work (unless of course I'm still misunderstanding the situation again). Keep in mind that only two contributors have replied to this thread and both have asked similar questions and provided similar solutions.


Good luck.

How do I stop this from copying Folders of files? If I right click and copy a 128gb folder form am SD card and paste to my iMac Desktop, it tries to copy ALL those files on my MacBook Pro's clipboard. This is causing ALL kinds of problems!

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