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james_wright Author

Level 1

5 points

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

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to move some files off an external hard drive to my macbook pro. These are mostly video files.

However, there's a handful of files which are causing the following error:

"The operation can’t be completed because the item “XXX” is in use."

I've no idea what's wrong but would appriaicte some help. All the previous threads I can find with the same error are related to moving items to the trash and I actually followed some of the advice (shutting down etc) but it still didn't help.

Thanks anyone and everyone for the assistance.

James

Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on May 11, 2014 12:09 PM

Best reply

elleyh

Level 1

4 points

Posted on May 14, 2014 10:15 AM

this is a problem that's become a huge issue for a great many people since Apple's launch of Mavericks. I have huge problems trying to transfer files to a networked NAS drive. It would seemlessly for the past 3 years, but since Mavericks, I always get this stupid error. The above advice is completely useless. I've spent hours researching this with many workarounds touted, but none of which provide a solution.

Trying to transfer files now means that I have to do each file seperately, sometimes 10+ times to get it to actually complete copying. If you copy multiple files and one is "in use", the system then deletes all the others.

Apple.... good, until it's complete rubbish.

View in context

52 replies

Jan 9, 2016 7:39 PM in response to Johny5

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.

gxsolace

Level 1

0 points

Jan 23, 2016 9:11 PM in response to Michael Williams10

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.

Feb 18, 2016 6:52 AM in response to james_wright

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.

Mar 1, 2016 3:59 AM in response to james_wright

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.

Mar 8, 2016 8:15 AM in response to FrenchToast

FT --- Thanks, the terminal MV command with pasting the source/destination files/directory worked PERFECTLY. Major help moving 1000s of files.

dlnsoh

Level 1

4 points

Apr 7, 2016 8:54 PM in response to Johny5

It works! It's so simple and yet it took me so loooong to get it solved! Thank you so much Johny5!!!

May 18, 2016 8:35 PM in response to dlnsoh

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. 🙂

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