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EJW Tas Author

Level 1

51 points

Error message "The operation can't be completed because an item with the name .DS_Store already exists"

Major headaches with copying files and folders between drives. I constantly (and I mean constantly) have to resort to copying files across in small batches (fewer than 10 works best) because anytime I try to copy lots of files and folders from my mac to an external hard drive (or from one external HD to a second external HD), I ALWAYS get the error message "The operation can't be completed because an item with the name .DS_Store already exists".

The files and folders are all Mac-generated, so hint or trace of foreign OSs in the mix.
All file types are susceptible
the HDs are all Mac OS X formatted, no foreign file formats involved
the HDs are all journal-enabled, OS X extended formats

have looked on here for previous posts, past suggestion was to disable creation of DS_Store files - not really a solution and realistically, defeats the purpose of their creation

any ideas anyone?

would appreciate any thoughts or sugestions, this has got me beat

the context is that I have a lot of image files that I am copying (trying to...) new external 3TB drives for backup and the job appears endless if I have to do this in batches of 10 or so..!

many thanks for any suggestions

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion, (mid-2012) 8GB RAM

Posted on Nov 13, 2012 10:53 PM

Best reply

rotopenguin

Level 1

5 points

Posted on Apr 14, 2013 1:40 PM

Another handy way to copy is with Terminal.app. Open up a Terminal window, and type in 'cp -r '. Charlie Papa space dash Roger space. Switch to Finder, and drag-n-drop your source folder into Terminal. Back to Finder, take your destination folder and drag that into the Terminal window. Press enter in Terminal to start the operation, and cp will silently go to work. It should only produce text as it comes up with problems, either mentioning that it skipped a problem or asking you for a y/n. If cp is still asking you too many questions about overwriting stuff, you might want to up your game with 'cp -rf ' instead.

The title bar of Terminal will have 'cp' in the name while copying, that will turn back to 'bash' when the copy is done. This is much more visible in Terminal's tabs, you might want to open a second tab(Cmd-T) just for that.

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25 replies

deadlee_

Level 1

0 points

Mar 30, 2015 1:40 PM in response to gaiagraphics

I encountered the "operation cannot be completed because a file with the name "blahblah.avi" already exists"......when the file actually didn't exist. This problem started happening suddenly for some reason. I have always been able to copy files of any size from my mac to my Drobo.

I read all the fixes and nothing worked for me.

Finally I tried opening a second finder window....so now I have two of them open. Then I would drag the file from my mac over to the second finder window that was opened to the destination folder on my Drobo and it worked perfectly and quickly. Now I just open two finder windows and drag and I don't have any trouble.

SW4747

Level 1

12 points

Apr 5, 2015 6:29 AM in response to EJW Tas

I've been having the same issue when trying to copy files from a external drive onto a new iMac running Yosemite.

Has anyone reported this to Apple.

Dec 23, 2015 9:57 PM in response to rotopenguin

Using a late 2013 Macbook Pro 15" Retina.

I tried copying files from an external Transcend Hard Drive and got the error message "The operation can't be completed because an item with the name Microsoft One Note already exists". Looks like the Finder bug is still alive and well in OS X El Capitan version 10.11.2!!

Copying through the terminal command cp -r <source folder> <destination folder> worked for me. To disable any further questions from Terminal when doing the copy instead of cp -r, in used cp -rf.

d_oracle

Level 1

4 points

Jan 3, 2016 5:47 PM in response to anandthirunellai

same problem here on macbook pro mid 2012, osx 10.9.1

my solution:

copy the folders, suddenly the error appears.

copy again, same folders, you get asked "to replace".

Say yes, replace all and all goes well

Dovey007

Level 1

0 points

Jan 25, 2016 4:24 PM in response to EJW Tas

I need help to because when i go into All My Files a message pops up saying. "The operation can't be completed". Every single time why? it just pops up.

Thats all it says any ideas????

Feb 11, 2016 5:44 AM in response to EJW Tas

Late 2011 iMac running 10.11.3 El Capitan. I agree that the Finder copy bug is alive and well. I purchased an external drive to copy my media files from my NAS to take to work. It's a 1.5 TB Folder with 40,000 files and I get the can't copy because such and such file already exists, including the .DS_Store one from time to time. I'll try the Terminal cp-r or rf tonight when i get home. So frustruating, particularly when using slow, non-thunderbolt drives with files of this magnitude.

Mar 13, 2016 4:18 AM in response to EJW Tas

Thanks a million. My problem was solved. I used "Carbon Copy Cloner". It was so fast and user friendly. I wish you all the best.

Mar 13, 2016 4:21 AM in response to EJW Tas

Thanks a million. My problem was solved. I used "Carbon Copy Cloner". It was so fast and user friendly. I wish you all the best.

Apr 22, 2016 1:33 PM in response to EJW Tas

I had the same problem

I was able to copy using the terminal command .

disabling DiskUnmountWatcher through activity monitor worked briefly as well but not permanently.

Another solution that I found is copying through network !! I copied files through another macbook over network it works fine but works with the network speed which in my case was extremely slow

Sep 28, 2016 11:36 AM in response to rotopenguin

This solved my problem. thanks so much!

Error message "The operation can't be completed because an item with the name .DS_Store already exists"