Impossible To Delete Corrupted .plist File

Two with the same name?

Can you post a screenshot of what you see in Finder (list view)

I have two "com.apple.TimeMachine.plist" files in /Library/Preferences.

one is normal and the other one is corrupted and I cannot get rid of it.

Try to move both out of the Users/Library/Preferences folder and onto the desktop

Select both of them and "Get Info" from the Finder menu and change their permissions to yourself and everyone to read and write.

Reboot the machine and open TimeMachine to remake the .plist file again in the Users/Library/Preferences folder reappear, reset your TM preferences.

Trash the two desktop files, by holding command key and dragging to the trash and deleting.

Hmmmm.... Can't have two files with same name, but looks like you do.

What do you see in Terminal with:

ls -l /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.*

I get 3 files.

Why do you think you have a corrupt file?

Anyway, to delete all three files, enter:

sudo rm -i /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.*

To delete only one, replace .* with *.plist, or whatever ext of the file to delete

Why Apple made /Library/Preferences hidden in 10.7.2

montcley.jean wrote:

I cannot grab and drag the corrupted file ....

Use Terminal. See my reply above to delete.

To Move to the Desktop instead of deleting:

sudo mv -i /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.*  $HOME/Desktop

ds store wrote:

Why Apple made /Library/Preferences hidden in 10.7.2

Actually, ~/Library is Hidden, /Library is not

montcley.jean wrote:

I cannot grab and drag the corrupted file ....

I can just use get info option

or open option leading to nowhere.

Likely it's the original .plist file that the second one is copied from. 😉

If TM is saving your preferences then don't bother.

Perhaps you need to explain why your feel you need to delete your .plist files?

Are you having trouble with TM?

It appears that something is wrong, in his screenshot he has "unknown access"

montcley.jean wrote:

the terminal shows only one com.apple.TimeMachine.plist

and one com.apple.TimeMachine.plist.lockfile

Then that's all there is (2 not 3)

I had a similar problem and it turrned out to be a spotlight issue.

Try re-indexing spotlight