Can't move files - The operation can’t be completed because the item is in use.

Yes Johny5, a decent work around to an ancient and still nasty bug!

After copying the files to the local folder with the name I want it to have on the NAS, then dragging the folder into the NAS, it worked without error.

THen, I dragged the temp local folder to the trash and did Empty Trash. It asked me "There are some locked files in the trash do you want to delete them?"

I said yes and it worked fine.

SO both copy to NAS and delete from Trash problems are worked around with this.

Hi All -

I've been spending some time looking into this. The .DS_Store bug isn't anything related to folders, etc. It's a Finder bug and is due to the way you have chosen to display the sorting of your Finder folder, i.e.: Sort by Name, Sort by Date Created, etc.

Simply sort by Name in alphabetical order, where # is at the top and Z is at the bottom by clicking the "Name" column in the Finder window you're copying TO, and do your file/folder copy. You will not encounter the error.

Hope that helps.

MIGHT HAVE FOUND THE EASIEST SOLUTION!
I read through most of the comments and then when people started talking about ending processes, a random thought struck me. Why not close the finder window which you're using to copy the original file?

This worked for me every single time. I used Ctrl+C command and then closed the finder window of the source folder. Then I opened the destination finder window and used the paste command. Worked like a charm! The key is that the finder window shouldn't be 'seeing' the source folder at the time of copying.

No ending processes or fiddling with permissions. I guess this is one of the reasons why folders are copied and files give problems.

Turn on show icon preview for the source folder. View/Show View Options and then copy/move etc

The problem is the destination folder is trying to generate a preview icon from the 'middle' of the video and can't because it is a large file.

I ran into the situation that I could not move files to the trash (same error others got)... so I searched and found this thread. Nothing suggested worked for me so I was about to shut everything down and restart the computer (Mac Mini i7). Fortunately, before doing that I tried "relaunch"ing the Finder (Option-RightClick the Finder on the Launch Bar and select "Relaunch". THAT FIXED IT! Hopefully that does it for others too. 🙂

Yes, I've got read/write permissions on the files. I also have read/write access on the folders on my NAS.

Can you move those files from one directory to another on your Mac?

Yes, no problems there.

disabling "DiskUnmountWatcher" worked for me. Thanks, themarcolv!

I've did a force quit of the DiskUnmountWatcher. I'm still having the same results.

The operation can't be completed because the item is in use.

I'm not sure what else to try at this point.

Perfect work around works like a treat and now I will be happy as I can transfer to my media network without getting that stupid message... My hat goes of to you.🙂🙂

Great solution. THANKS!!!

MY SOLUTION:

copy entire folder not individual files

I've often used FreeFileSync for Windows (here's the link for OS X: https://www.freefilesync.org/), and it does a real fine job.

Doesn't work on SL anymore, though, and that's a shame.

Finally something helped me resolved this issue! Thank you!