Unable to delete an invalid download file

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Unable to delete an invalid download file

MacBook Air, OS X version 10.9.5

Safari 9.0.1 (9537.86.2.7.2)

I'm not sure of the sequence of events that caused this condition, but I have a "Safari download" file that occupies zero bytes on disk (according to Finder/Get info) that neither completely downloads nor can be deleted (aborted). The file's icon shows a progress bar that is 75% but won't complete as it is now invalid. The file can be put in the Trash, but cannot be emptied from the trash. The Trash message indicates, "The operation can't be completed because the item "8Nov15_2.pptx.download" is in use." Regardless of whether I press the Stop or Continue buttons, the file remains in Trash. It appears that the file will never finish downloading because the operation cannot be resumed on an invalid file.

MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), null

Posted on Dec 1, 2015 3:15 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 1, 2015 3:27 PM in response to RandalCh

Usual workaround: quit Safari, and try the deletion again. If that fails, reboot, and try again.

Alternatively, there are some command line commands — lsof — that might help identify what has the file open.

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Answer 2

RandalCh Author

Level 1

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Dec 1, 2015 3:59 PM in response to MrHoffman

Quit Safari - no effect

Reboot - no effect

lsof doesn't show it as being open, but that is perhaps because in .Trash, the item shows as a directory. Is it a directory because it is a Safari download?

In Terminal, I've tried removing the directory, but the response is "Directory not empty". The directory only has . and .. in its file listing, and the . has extended file attributes, but I'm uncertain how to interpret those.

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Answer 3

Dec 1, 2015 4:31 PM in response to RandalCh

See what Disk Utility.app verify has to say about the drive, to start with. See if flags anything relevant, or if it wants a repair.

Then see what ls on the 8Nov15_2.pptx.download file reports. Try the following three commands, and some combination of these should show the directory file settings, and the directory contents.

ls -aled@ ~/.Trash/8Nov15_2.pptx.download

ls -ale@ ~/.Trash/8Nov15_2.pptx.download

ls -aleR@ ~/.Trash/8Nov15_2.pptx.download

With ls -al or equivalent used to show the leading-dot "hidden" files, the . and .. are the current and parent directories, and are always present.

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Answer 4

RandalCh Author

Level 1

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Dec 1, 2015 5:31 PM in response to MrHoffman

Disk Utility indicates the disk appears to be ok.

the ls commands respond with the following:

total 0

drwxr-xr-x@ 3 randal GLOBAL\Domain Users 102 Nov 9 09:22 .

com.apple.metadata:kMDItemDownloadedDate 53

com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms 129

com.apple.progress.fractionCompleted 5

com.apple.quarantine 21

drwx------ 4 randal GLOBAL\Domain Users 136 Dec 1 17:22 ..

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Answer 5

Dec 1, 2015 6:15 PM in response to RandalCh

That's definitely a directory. A pair of nested directories, by the look of it. I'd try — quoting the target file specs as there are spaces, or using a backslash to escape the spaces — using rm and rmdir on the files in that directory.

Don't delete the . and .. files.

To test the path and the access before issuing the rm or rmdir commands, use ls...

ls "~/.Trash/8Nov15_2.pptx.download/GLOBAL\Domain Users"

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