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

Hi

I've had the same problem but only since I upgraded to the latest El Capitan version. Tried about everything anyone suggested to no avail and guessed it had to do with one of the programs I recently bought. Still a nuisance. The programs concerned were quit, the files closed and saved, everything as it should be.

Finally found an easy solution.

Open trash, ctrl click on the offending file and on "delete immediately". Should this line be grayed out, first ctrl click on "put it back", pull it once again into the trash and then ctrl click on "delete immediately".

Still a bother to use a work around but at least it's easy and quick.

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.

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

B

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

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.