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User profile for user: macgebruiker
macgebruiker Author
User level: Level 1
19 points

can't be opened because the original item can't be found

Hi,


I am using a late 2012 iMac with El Capitan version 10.11.4.

I also have a older model Time Capsule in my network, and a Synology NAS. Both of them show up under Shared in Finder.

After not using my iMac for a short while, let's say 15 minutes or so, I cannot see the contents of my Shared devices and the following error pops up:


"disk name" can't be opened because the original item can't be found


Time Machine still seems to work and I can open excel files from my NAS directly from Excel.

It's only Finder that has a problem with the shared devices.


Workarounds so far are:

-relaunch Finder

-reboot Time Capsule


I have never seen this problem before until recently. My network hasn't changed. I'm using wired gigabit ethernet.

The problem is also described here:

http://www.cnet.com/news/fix-shared-computer-not-found-in-finder/


I don't think it has anything to do with Synology, since the Time Capsule has the exact same problem.


Any solutions or ideas?

Thanks

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Apr 24, 2016 1:51 PM

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User profile for user: soupytwist
soupytwist
User level: Level 1
4 points

Posted on Jan 6, 2018 2:49 AM

I had this "...original item can't be found" problem on High Sierra, but only with FAT32 volumes on an SD card or USB drive. The strange thing was that Disk Utility could see the volumes correctly, and via Terminal I could read and write to the volumes too. So it looked like it was just Finder that was unhappy with FAT32. I had to call Apple Support to finally sort this out: All I had to do was to reset the SMC (System Management Controller) using the process at

How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

There seem to be no nasty side effects from having done this, and now I can read and write FAT32 absolutely fine. My machine is a brand new 13" MacBook Pro with Touchbar, so I don't know if this fix will apply to other hardware.


I realise that the well known issue with files larger than 2.2GB on FAT32 still exists under High Sierra, but that doesn't worry me personally for now. I also realise that ExFAT will solve this problem, but my sole need to read FAT32 is because my SD cards are from a portable audio recorder that will only work with FAT32. The bottom line is: High Sierra does love FAT32 after all.

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can't be opened because the original item can't be found

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