Can't drag folders from external hard drive - 'The operation can't be completed because an item with the name " " already exists

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Can't drag folders from external hard drive - 'The operation can't be completed because an item with the name " " already exists

I am trying to copy my itunes folder from: my mac air laptop > to hard drive > to new imac.

BUT - there are similar named files and instead of just ignoring / giving me options, the operation stops as soon as it finds a similar named file.

I have 60gig of music. I have tried 'duplicate finding' software, but it doesn't work properly (similar named songs 7" and 12" versions come up as 'same name' etc)

It doesn't occur just for music - but other folders, files, photos as well...

So the pop in says: 'The operation can't be completed because an item with the name " " already exists'

Any one know how to solve this one?

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Nov 25, 2015 1:14 AM

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Answer 1

mrlevy Author

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Nov 25, 2015 1:36 AM in response to mrlevy

On my Mac Air (Still on Yosemite) I get the dialog:

'A folder already exists etc... Do you want to replace it with the one you are copying?

SKIP STOP REPLACE (options)

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Answer 2

Mythycal

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Jan 3, 2016 3:34 AM in response to mrlevy

I am having this same issue. Have been trying to copy 1TB of files from a Seagate 1TB external, NTFS formatted, to a Seagate 5TB External, exFat formatted. Each folder comes up with a file that stops the transfer due to the, "The operation can't be completed because an item with the name " " already exists" error. I can transfer the individual file and then transfer the rest. Only started happening when i started using El Capitan. Would appreciate any solutions, and an actual Apple solution to this issue would be nice, as it becomes utterly ridiculous to try to transfer that much data one folder at a time.

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