You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

deltamc15 Author

Level 1

22 points

Strange problem when copying files to NAS

Hello all. I have a strange problem when trying to copy files from my intel iMac to my Seagate NAS. I am copying files from my HD and when the file is nearly copyied i get an error message saying that the file can't be copied because it is already in use by another application. Well... it surely isn't. I try copying them by ftp (Filezilla) and everything works fine. I can then access them through my media server but !!!! NOT THROUGH MY iMac!!!! It is like the files are not there!!!! But they definetely are! I tried fixing the disk permissions, rebooting NAS, iMac etc but nothing seems to solve the problem. Is there any suggestion of what might be wrong? I am under Mavericks and i am pretty sure that the problem started after the update. When copying from my external USB hard drive to my iMac HD everything works fine. The problem is from my iMac to my NAS.

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 1, 2013 1:34 AM

109 replies

Oct 22, 2015 9:19 PM in response to yuliaree

I was initially skeptical on the recommendation to drag and drop for copying over files to nas.

However, never encountered the original issue with drag and drop copying so far. The issue seems to happen occasionally when I use the copy and paste menu.

Nov 4, 2015 4:14 AM in response to cobedy

Sorry to say that both (1) View options and (2) Drag and drop still bit me at times. However, they occur much less frequently than copy and pasting using the context menu.

So still be prepared for that bug 😁

RATM247

Level 1

8 points

Mar 13, 2016 4:46 AM in response to Dan in Nevada

great post. one thing I've discovered is that while apple is switching to SMB2 and deprecating AFP, AFP is still required for Time Machine. I use SMB for everything but Time Machine, even on my Macs. Im going to try your suggestion of forcing NTLMv2-only authentication and wait for Apple to use SMB for Time Machine.

wlayzell

Level 1

4 points

Apr 27, 2016 3:13 PM in response to mirmoor

I also had this problem and soon realised that it was due to file size. I could not copy and move folders and files that were over a certain size. I ended up copy and pasting from iMac to networked NAS folder by folder. Did the trick, just the long way round. Hope this helps anyone.

May 8, 2016 10:40 AM in response to deltamc15

I know this thread is years old, but I had the same issue and found this thread from google. I was copying movie files (MP4) from my Mac to a NAS drive and kept getting the error "cannot copy file x because file is in use." I tried unchecking the "display preview" from preferences after right clicking on the file, but that didn't change anything. Turns out it wasn't the icon being displayed on the host computer that was the issue. The issue was that when you copy to the NAS, the MAC tries to build a preview at the copy destination while it's still copying, so the Mac is already trying to use the file before it's finished copying it to the NAS. If drag the file onto the folder at the destination rather than to an open folder with previews visible then it works.

kpurcell

Level 1

22 points

May 24, 2015 7:43 PM in response to deltamc15

I recommend others submit a bug report at

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Maybe if enough do this, they can get Apple to fix the problem. Bad news. I'm running 10.10.4 and still not fixed.

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,649 points

Nov 1, 2013 8:21 AM in response to deltamc15

If you installed any vendor software to use with the NAS, remove it according to the vendor's instructions and see whether there's an improvement. Back up all data before making any changes.

deltamc15 Author

Level 1

22 points

Nov 2, 2013 1:29 AM in response to Linc Davis

Thank you for all your helo Linc. I believe it is time for a clean re-isntallation of my iMac too so thanks for the time you spent assisting me. Have a nice weekend.

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,649 points

Nov 14, 2013 11:33 PM in response to deltamc15

I think it's the NAS.

rohan3au

Level 1

5 points

Jan 4, 2014 8:45 PM in response to deltamc15

Hey,

I'm also having the same problem since upgrading to Mavericks, I've has this NAS for years and i'm getting the "Can't copy, file is in use" error.

Such a pain in the ***.

mirmoor

Level 1

0 points

Jan 12, 2014 10:59 AM in response to mbelleghem

Hello,

i could solve the same situation/problem by change the view mode of the folder from icon to list (in the source and in the target folder too)

Preview funcrion was also switched off.

Jan 13, 2014 4:41 AM in response to WiltsFox

So for multiple files, putting them in a local folder and trying the same Finder trick but on the folder instead of selecting multiple files... does that work?