How to delete zero byte files

I tried the above, and remembered to include a space. The terminal window's response was: No such file (and then it quoted back to me the file and directory structure to it). It's a zero byte file, but it's not greyed out.

When I try to just delete it, I get "you don't have permission, but the file itself in Get Info says "You have custom access" and there is no lock icon to unlock the file permissions and adjust them. Perplexed. Can you offer a suggestion? Thanks in advance.

TomEagles

I tried the above, and remembered to include a space. The terminal window's response was: No such file (and then it quoted back to me the file and directory structure to it). It's a zero byte file, but it's not greyed out.

When I try to just delete it, I get "you don't have permission, but the file itself in Get Info says "You have custom access" and there is no lock icon to unlock the file permissions and adjust them. Perplexed. Can you offer a suggestion? Thanks in advance.

Linc no longer participates in the forums.

If your file name or the directory path to the file has a space in it, you will need to put quotes around the path to the file.

/bin/ls -dleO@ "/path/to/your/file name"

should work

This ls command should tell us everything about the permissions on the file.

Hi again, Bob, and thanks for letting me know about Linc.

I tried the solution you suggested, but still got the "the file or folder does not exist" error message.

Looking at other options. Will report back when I have something that worked.

Thanks everyone. 🙂

Yep, that's what I did. Still getting "No such file or directory." <sigh> This file and its folders don't want to be deleted, even though after trying this several times, the folders allowed me to rename them, but the file didn't. But because the file is in the last branch (folder) in the tree, I also can't delete any of the folders. Perplexing. I love my Mac, but problems like this didn't happen on my PC.

It's a network drive (Seagate GoFlex). Disk Utility won't work on that drive (or am I mistaken?). That said, I did format the drive for Apple rather than Windows.. wait (that was a local USB drive)... now I can't recall whether that one was formatted for Apple. Is there a way to confirm that? And since the problem file is on a Seagate network shared drive, would it matter anyway what the filesystem is?

Network drives are a totally different story. What access you think you have local on your Mac is different from what the remote server thinks you are allowed to do.

If the network drive has an issue, you need to address this on the actual server, not your Mac.

If you a control - click on them, do you get an option to move them to the trash?

Back up all data before proceeding.

Select the text on the line below by dragging across it. Don't include the blank space at the end of the line. Only the text should be highlighted.

xattr -d com.apple.FinderInfo

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V, then press the space bar.

Now switch to the Finder and and select the item(s) in question. Drag into the Terminal window. More text will be added to what you entered.

Click in the Terminal window to activate it, then press return.

Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear. You can then quit Terminal. Try again to delete the files.

You didn't enter a space after the command. Please review the instructions and try again.

Perfect , it resolved my issue. Thanks so much

Thanks Bob. I'll give that a try when I get home. Will report my outcome. Cheers, Tom.

/bin/ls -dleO@ ...drag.and.drop.the.file.from.the.Finder.on.to.the.Terminal.window...