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Level 1

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Folders not showing up in Finder?

I've recently bought an iMac (21.5") and have been transferring all my music from the old PC to it via an external hard drive (format: MS-DOS (FAT32), 1tb).

I've noticed that some folders just don't show up in Finder. I have no idea why - they are exactly the same as every other folder on the hard drive ie. a folder containing an album with mp3s (same format of audio as all the other folders). It's definitely not a space problem.

It's a real nuisance as there may be more folders that haven't showed up that I'm not aware of (I only found out by chance that some were missing when I was specifically looking for them), I have a LOT of music.

Note: the folders show up when plugged into the pc.

Some help around this issue would be great. I have tried verifying/repairing the hard drive via Disk Utility, and deleting & re-adding the albums from the pc to the hard drive again. They still don't show up. (they're not hidden either). I also googled but couldn't find anything.

I wasn't sure whether to post this under the iMac or the OS section.. I'm running Lion 10.7.1 if it helps. Hopefully someone will be able to help me!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.1)

Posted on Sep 21, 2011 1:25 AM

20 replies

Oct 3, 2011 3:05 AM in response to christinacn

This is a wild guess, but do any of the 'missing folders' have names that include a ':' (semicolon) character or a '/' (forward slash) character?

Mac OS X has roots both in Classic Mac OS (which used ":" as a directory separator) and Unix (which uses "/" as one). If you tell it to copy a folder that has a ":" in its name, it should do something to avoid including a "directory separator" in the Mac folder name (e.g., changing the ":" to "/"; or deleting that character; or maybe just refusing to copy the problem folder).

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,102 points

Oct 3, 2011 7:17 AM in response to christinacn

Christina, I did find an app Batch Renamer (Windows), I don't know it, but there is also in Windows Explorer a possibility to batch rename:

select all the folders you want to rename,

right click on them,

change the filename and enter,

all selected folders are renamed and have a sequence number added.

The problem with this is that they all have the same name and not just the characters changed in it.

But now you can retransfer them to your mac if you avoid the "special" characters.

Then on your mac you can rename them per character with "a better file rename".

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,102 points

Oct 3, 2011 7:20 AM in response to christinacn

And also there is a free utilty called "Bulk rename Utility" for Windows that can rename per character, but I am not sure that it renames folders as well, I have not tried it.

christinacn Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 6, 2011 12:22 AM in response to Servant of Cats

Nope, no colons, semi colons or slashes. Just text! I wish that was the solution but unfortunately not haha. Thanks anyway 🙂

christinacn Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 6, 2011 12:25 AM in response to Lexiepex

At this point I give up. That requires too much time - I would have to rename each individual track and then each individual folder when transferred onto the mac. I just wish this was a simple fix! It certainly should be.

Folders not showing up in Finder?