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The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8058).

Hi Everyone,


I am keep getting this error when I try to copy a file or folder to my desktop even though I can create a new folder on desktop. I have tried copying a single file and folder with multily files in it but still getting same error.


I have multiple machines (Mac Pro) which are giving me same error and all of them has same Lion OS X (10.7.4). I have repaired the disk permissions but that would not fix this issue.


Any suggestions/ideas/thoughts ?



Thanks,

Posted on Sep 6, 2012 10:22 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 2, 2012 11:46 AM

Quit all applications. Make sure you are in Finder Menu>Go and hold down Alt/option to reveal LIbrary. click Library and look for Preferences. Open that folder and look for com.apple.finder.plist and its Lockfile. Drag that out of the desktop. If it cant copy there then drag that on documents. After creating a copy and deleting tha file under Preferences Restart and try to copy on your desktop.

36 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 2, 2012 11:46 AM in response to rsharma55

Quit all applications. Make sure you are in Finder Menu>Go and hold down Alt/option to reveal LIbrary. click Library and look for Preferences. Open that folder and look for com.apple.finder.plist and its Lockfile. Drag that out of the desktop. If it cant copy there then drag that on documents. After creating a copy and deleting tha file under Preferences Restart and try to copy on your desktop.

Nov 29, 2012 11:47 AM in response to Paldeng

I agree that searching google should be everyone's first choice but look at it from another perspective.


I had this exact same problem today when I got into work. I searched google like a good techie and the very first link was this thread. Quite a circular condundrum, eh? The answer to my google search was to search google!?!


That's the reason why replying to a thread with search google is a waste. Saying 'search google' is fine but not in isolation. Provide an answer for the next person who did search google.

Jan 1, 2014 4:23 PM in response to jammyd26

Unlike the original Mac OS, Mac OS X has a system of preference storage that involves a programmer-friendly, user unfriendly construct, the plist. Plist is short for "property list".


With fairly regular frequency, these preference files or "plists" get corrupted under Mac OS X. Worse, the corruption is largely undetectable with plists. This means that the plist file can become corrupted, the operating system facilities can't tell, the application tried to read the plist and digest the data, the corrupted data gets into the app, the app malfunctions, no clue as to why except some crazy error code that was eventually generated within the app because of an operation that went bad because a long time before, there was undetectable garbage read in from the plist file.


Ok, here is the good news. The preferences or plist files can be deleted and the worst case is that you lose some of your app settings you modified, usually through the "Preferences" menu item under the menu named after the app. In this case the menu is named "Finder" and the item is "Preferences".


By deleting the file, you remove the corruption, the app (Finder) recreated a default plist the next time it is run (for Finder, that typically means reboot unless you do some command line work). New plist is clean, you can reset the preferences, Finder is ok until it happens again.


I posted my solution because it was the third time it had happened to me last year and figured others were having the same issue, and the same frustration with "google it" style answers ;-)


But before you go looking for an app that helps you detect corrupt plists, know that I have never had any of them work due to how the plist is designed. It has been a manual (and regular) effort since the inception of Mac OS X. This is one of the system's Achilles heals.

Jun 25, 2014 4:07 PM in response to rsharma55

I had this problem as well, and just wanted to let people know that at least in my case, I was still able to use the 'cp' command in Terminal to copy files when this error was popping up.


I know it's by no means a fix, but if you're in the middle of something like I was and don't have time to troubleshoot at the moment, it's a simple workaround that is effective because it takes Finder out of the equation.


Example in Terminal:


cp /Path/To/FileToCopy.txt ~/Desktop


(use 'man cp' for more info) Deleting the plist worked for me too btw, and I also agree that telling someone to search google is a useless response that comes across as slightly condescending, even if it's not intended to. It's safe to assume that a very high percentage of people do at least a small amount of research prior to posting a question, and regardless of the reason, they're seeking a helping hand that a lot of people are happy to give.


Just don't reply if you're response is 'search google'. Let someone else take care of them.

Dec 10, 2016 11:44 AM in response to watsont.cbc

Sometimes with the problems in the Finder straws and grasping thereof start to look logical.


I am currently looking at every file that the Finder opens and deleting them to see if one or more are the culprit. Here is a list of files that impact the Finder that are located in


~/Library/Caches/

  • com.apple.finder
  • CloudKit > com.apple.finder
  • CloudKit > com.apple.clouddocs
  • CloudKit > com.apple.CloudDocs.container-metadata
  • CloudKit > CloudKitMetadata
  • CloudKit > CloudKitMetadata-shm
  • CloudKit > CloudKitMetadata-wal
  • com.apple.icloud.fmfd
  • com.apple.iCloudHelper

Since the file system is Unix's achilles heel and since "cache file" is nearly synonymous with "corruption" on Unix, I would recommend whacking these files and logging out, then back in. Cache files get recreated by the apps that need them.


I have also found a utility called CleanMyMac which is is not adware and knows a great deal about the system cache files. Utility is not cheap but neither is the time I am wasting chasing these defects around instead of working on my projects. ;-)Recommend grabbing the trial and give it a spin. Macpaw.com Beware, torrents with CleanMyMac carry malware... get this only from the company and you are fine. Info here : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CleanMyMac

Mar 20, 2013 11:08 AM in response to rsharma55

Hi Everyone,


I have tried deleting plist lockfiles from preference folder and that has some what worked for me. It is bit hard if you have machine bound to AD and multiple users are experiencing this problem because you might have to go to each and individual user's profile and delete all the lock files in order to fix this problem.


Or you could delete all the lock files in your default profile and then delete user profiles. This way when they do login they will new sets of preference and plist lock files should not be there anymore.

Sep 23, 2013 2:18 AM in response to mparkerp

google search brought me here as well...


i'm glad someone had the decency to post a legitimate helpful answer. thanks


if as implied the answer is easy to find via searching, why not do the decent thing and relay that answer to the person asking? if even by just pasting the appropiate helpful link.


for any future visitors to this thread: deleting the plist and killing and restarting the finder process did the trick for me as well, no need to log out and back in.

Jul 19, 2014 8:32 AM in response to Paldeng

HI there,

I'm from Australia and I have eye tv el gate I transferred some movies but couldn't delete them from eye tv.

Well my verdict is that "YOU'RE A F#$#ING GENIUS"

Thank you for your help worked like a beauty.

For everyone out there listen to this guy he knows what he's talking about.

Good staff thanks again I could've never done it other wise.

kind regards

syztem1

Aug 20, 2015 11:08 AM in response to redesigned

"for any future visitors to this thread: deleting the plist and killing and restarting the finder process did the trick for me as well, no need to log out and back in."


How do you restart Finder? I was directed here like many people and tried the posted solution, but I had to restart the mac to launch Finder again. The fix didn't help me at all, in the end I found that if I wanted to save a file onto a networked computer I had to paste it into public > dropbox. This seems to be the only place I have "modify" permissions and other folders prevent changes.

Aug 21, 2015 12:10 PM in response to baltwo

Thanks baltwo! Though I must have had a mental blackout - just clicking on the Finder icon relaunches it, like it does for every other program that has a desktop icon. I'm sorry for posting such rubbish. 😊


When you say OPT-click, did you mean the cmd button?


Lastly, how do you format posts here? Since it doesn't like BB code.


EDIT: heathf, thanks for the terminal commands, I wish I was proficient in this as in the past the option to use terminal has solved quite a few issues, but I always have to ask someone what to type. However my problem isn't so much copying of a file, it's when I try to paste it I receive this pesky error message.

The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8058).

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