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The operation can’t be completed because the item “ " is in use.

I'm Trying to delete Files on my USB drive that is connected to the Apple base station..


But get a error message saying: "The operation can’t be completed because the item "xxx.jpg" is in use."


I tried all the files the same thing. I plugged the drive directly into the mac to do a disk utility app the only thing I can select is Verify disk and it was okay.. But could not select repair permission option??


Have tried -> Please see for more info: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3987969?tstart=0

Posted on May 29, 2012 3:03 PM

Reply
29 replies

May 29, 2012 4:01 PM in response to William @ Quebec

If you have a disk attached to an airport extreme and are experiencing this problem, then it means a service on the airport extreme or one on another computer connected to it has the file opened (as I described in the other thread). Your best bet here would be to reboot the airport extreme to clear any file locks on files contained on the disk, and then try deleting the file.


You cannot repair permissions on a secondary drive because permissions repair is only for the main boot drive. Permissions repair has nothing to do with this issue.

May 29, 2012 4:20 PM in response to William @ Quebec

if you know the exact name of the file in question, then open the Terminal utility on your system that shows this error and run the following command:


sudo lsof | grep xxx.jpg


Make sure the name "xxx.jpg" is the exact name of the file and extension, including capitalizations, and then see what the output in the Terminal is. If the file is opened by a program on your system, then it will list information about this program. If so, copy the output contents from the Terminal to a posting here and we can better see what is going on.

May 30, 2012 7:40 AM in response to William @ Quebec

I did a ls -l command


-rwxrwxrwx 1 imac_willie staff 327140 8 May 16:56 facebook rehab.jpg

-rwxrwxrwx 1 imac_willie staff 326814 8 May 17:09 farmvilerehab.jpg

-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 imac_willie staff 69772 9 May 18:20 funny.jpg

-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 imac_willie staff 97430 9 May 15:39 grizzly.jpg

drwxrwxrwx 1 imac_willie staff 264 5 Apr 19:37 justsaying main

-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 imac_willie staff 57900 13 May 05:46 mothers_day_mkh.jpg

-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 imac_willie staff 35125 23 May 09:56 motivation-images.jpg

-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 imac_willie staff 23286 11 May 13:24 oops.jpg

-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 imac_willie staff 18001 9 May 15:26 pez2.jpg

-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 imac_willie staff 82597 8 May 16:36 post-110028-1255794433.jpg

-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 imac_willie staff 9479 6 May 09:32 profile_blank.gif

-rwxrwxrwx 1 imac_willie staff 141490 30 Apr 21:17 puzzel.jpg

-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 imac_willie staff 44483 6 May 17:17 redneck alarm.jpg

-rwxrwxrwx 1 imac_willie staff 76793 6 May 17:31 redneck alarm.jpg.jpg

-rwxrwxrwx 1 imac_willie staff 1662541 11 May 08:16 rehab.pxm

drwxrwxrwx 1 imac_willie staff 602 29 Nov 2010 ringtoness

-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 imac_willie staff 20984 9 May 16:28 serenityzz11.gif

-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 imac_willie staff 8936 13 May 23:33 sigh.jpg

The operation can’t be completed because the item “ " is in use.

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