I suddenly cannot drag and drop any files or documents. I cannot drag anything anywhere. I cannot drag into other files. I cannot drag into trash. There is no dragging going on. What do I do?
I have already tried "safe reboot." Nope, didn't help.
Help!!!
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
Hi, in the Finder do a get Info on the folder you're trying to drag one to that doesn't work... is it Locked? What rights do you have?
None of my folders can be moved. None of my documents can be moved. Nothing moves. Copy and paste is also affected, but don't know if it's tied in. P.S. Nothing is locked.
P.P.S. I am on the verge of nervous breakdown, since my MacBook that has ALL my work on it just turned up with either a faulty back light module or a fried power inverted board. I managed to transfer data to my backup MacBook but now have THIS problem. And - of course - I'm on deadline, with multiple programs for my job beginning on Monday. So, yes, I'm creating new words of frustration and profanity.
Oh Geez,
See if the Disk is issuing any S.M.A.R.T errors in Disk Utility...
Thank you, BDAqua. I have no S.M.A.R.T. errors in Disk Utility. I have repaired permissions, just in case. I also verified disk and it says disk is okay.
The only thing I did before this happened was that I installed MS Office. My backup computer (the one I'm using now) has very little RAM - less than MS Office recommends.
However, MS Office seemed to function normally. The problem occurred hours later, after I had quit the application. There is no question that I need to go down to the Mac store and add some memory. But could a memory shortage mess up basic functions like drag & drop and cut & paste?
To be more clear: Could a memory shortage mess up basic functions like drag & drop and cut & paste - even when the application in question is not open or active?
T1nk3r wrote:
To be more clear: Could a memory shortage mess up basic functions like drag & drop and cut & paste - even when the application in question is not open or active?
Yes, if 'memory' is defined as free space on your hard drive. (Memory is actually RAM).
Drag/drop relies on swap files etc and needs space to breathe! Too little free space and your operations will slow to a crawl and you risk data loss.
Never go below 5GB and 10GB is better.
I have more than 10GB of storage space available on the hard drive, so that shouldn't be a problem. Earlier, I mis-wrote "RAM" when I intended to write "ROM." Huge difference, of course.
To clarify: With the understanding that I have plenty of available storage space on my computer ...Could a ROM memory shortage mess up basic functions like drag & drop and cut & paste even if the programs that demand more of that type of memory are not currently open or active?
If not, then, my issue with not being able to drag & drop or cut & paste would not be related to memory but to something else.
Are there settings/preferences that I should check that might have accidentally been changed?
As stated earlier, Disk Utility confirmed that the disk itself is okay.
Just to note, 10 GB of free space on the drive is cutting it close to minimum. Shortage of RAM/Memory will slow it to a crawl, but won'y prevent these things.
To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...
Open System Preferences>Accounts, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.
Does it work in the new account?
Thanks, BDAqua ...I opened a guest account, logged out then logged in as the guest. The problem persisted. Should I have deleted myself as Administrator and created a new Administrator identity, instead?
I read on a different thread to try an Archive and Install. Is this a good option for me?
If I do this, will my data be in jeopardy or will the "Archive" feature save it.
I have backed up all my data on my other MacBook, but I have not backed up all the data on my backup MacBook (oh, the irony). And now, of course, I cannot drag & drop - so not sure if backing it up is even possible.
Should I have deleted myself as Administrator and created a new Administrator identity, instead?
Not delete your old admin account, just make a new admin account & try that one.
I read on a different thread to try an Archive and Install. Is this a good option for me?
10.5.x does an Atchive automatically by itself, in theory you won't loode anything, but without a backup, as well as a problem, there's no guarantee.
Try this if you haven't...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
Thank you, BDAqua. I did all of the above. At least I know my disk is okay ... unfortunately, I still am not able to drag & drop or cut & paste. *sigh*
Here's a Hail Mary question: Is there a way to save files onto an external drive (i.e. thumb drive) if one is not able to drag & drop?
It would be nice to back up this data before walking into repair shop. It seems that getting a diagnostic test for this may be the only option left?
Unknown, first we need to find out what is happening.
In Finder, do a Get Info on the whole drive, is it Locked & what rights do yoes it say?
Then Get Info on Users folder.
Have you tried saving/copying anything to an external drive?
Okay, a few things.
First of all, the dumb question. when I went to Finder -> About This Mac, I saw nothing about anything being locked. When I hit More Info, I got info on Hardware, Network and Software, none of which said anything about something being locked. Am I looking in the right place to find this out?
Also, I saw nothing about rights or lack thereof. But again, I don't even know where to look on that.
As for Get Info on Users file, what I found was it is neither locked nor shared, it is 1.55GB and has 13,711 items.
As for saving to a thumb drive, something interesting happened. While the thumb drive appears on the desktop and also in the File menu (Quick Look, Eject, Burn to Disc) - and while I can double click the thumb drive and open documents - when I went to save an individual document to the thumb drive via Save As, the thumb drive was not shown as a possbile destination for Save As. Nor was it shown in Preview, Text Edit, Appleworks or from the internet.
In addition, I have a promotional movie for my business that I distribute to potential accounts. When I opened the quicktime file, I was told that "The movie could not be opened: Operation could not be completed. (OSStatus error -1407.)"
Hoping that code number provides some sort of clue.
Thanks again for your help with this. Frustrating as it is, I'm learning.
I suddenly cannot drag any files anywhere. I cannot drag files into other files. I cannot drag files into trash. There is no dragging going on. What do I do?
