I am running ventura 13.6.8
I tried to find all files > 1GB in finder (used the + option in finder search field.
I stumbled upon a number of files I cannot delete, which show no path, I cannot rename and who are openend before they were added. I thought they were broken aliases, but fixing them does not work/
Anyone a clue?
iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 13.6
Give the shareware app Find Any File a try.
Any files that are found can be dragged from the search results window to the Desktop or Trash bin in the Dock for deletion or you can Control (right) - click on the file in the search results window and select "Show in Finder":
FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.
If you get warnings that the file can't be deleted because it is in use or used by another app boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and delete from there.
Note: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will assure a successful boot into Safe Mode.
Give the shareware app Find Any File a try.
Any files that are found can be dragged from the search results window to the Desktop or Trash bin in the Dock for deletion or you can Control (right) - click on the file in the search results window and select "Show in Finder":
FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.
If you get warnings that the file can't be deleted because it is in use or used by another app boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and delete from there.
Note: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will assure a successful boot into Safe Mode.
Solved. I found an enormous number of files in the message attachments in Library. Deleted them and the above files are gone. saved me 154 Gb. why they were there? no idea. I very seldom use the messages app
Heed Barney's solid advice, and open the TV application. I am sure you will find them there.
Then use the shareware app Find Any File to search for the files.
FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.
They are likely in the TV App Library.
The Spotlight search results for audio and video is normally the title of the content, not the file name. Yours do seem to be file names, but they appear to be episodes in some TV series.
the TV app library is empty
I did not use the spotlight search, but the finder search
to clarify some more: the Bin icon is greyed out. so I cannot drag a file to the bin, or use the Bin icon.
L1C wrote:
I did not use the spotlight search, but the finder search
Same thing.
this did not help. files are invisible...
they were not
finder shows file without path, which cannot be deleted
