Can't delete some fake files

Question

Can't delete some fake files

I've got a folder full of about 80 files with this filename

.OUunh!␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀␀.AcVG6n

where the difference among them is the extension.

They all have zero bytes so it's just an empty filename. My backup software (Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper!) both have trouble dealing with these files and often won't complete their scheduled backups.

I've tried various ways of deleting them, force-emptying the Trash, even the CLI "rm" doesn't work. I can't change their names, I can't remove the "." denoting invisibility, in short, aside from moving them from here to there, they can't be renamed or deleted.

I would really appreciate any advice on this. Terminal commands are not new to me. See attached screen grab for a detailed look at some of these puppies.

Thanks!

-Tod

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11), 10GB SDRAM 740 GB fusion drive

Posted on Aug 20, 2016 8:13 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Aug 20, 2016 8:25 PM in response to TodFromIndiana

Since these are all invisible files you may need to turn off invisibility in order to remove them:

Enable Finder to Show Invisible Files and Folders

Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following command line then press RETURN.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

killall Finder

To turn off the display of invisible files and folders enter or paste the following command line and press RETURN.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE

killall Finder

Alternatively you can use one of the numerous third-party utilities such as TinkerTool or ShowHideInvisibleFiles - VersionTracker or MacUpdate.

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Answer 2

Aug 20, 2016 8:55 PM in response to TodFromIndiana

Invisible or not, you will not be able to remove these files in normal boot mode. This has been tried before in the community and all of the UNIX command line remove tools, and system calls will not do the job. The nul character in file and folder names is UNIX kryptonite.

There has been success removing this type of file by booting into Recovery (command+r), launching Terminal there, and applying the UNIX remove command. If you can't remove the quoted folder name and all of its contents in one go, then you will have to remove each quoted filename with the UNIX rm -f command. Other incantations may be needed.

Look at the green Solved in this older post on this subject. I believe booting into Recovery is a substitution for creating a bootable USB stick.

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Aug 20, 2016 8:57 PM in response to VikingOSX

Or one might remove them in Windows.

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Answer 4

Aug 21, 2016 10:15 AM in response to Kappy

Or just remove Windows itself. 😉

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Answer 5

Aug 22, 2016 1:18 PM in response to VikingOSX

@ Viking OSX

Thanks for the suggestions. Sorry to have been so long in responding.

I tried your suggestion of booting into Recovery but I had no luck using the rm command there.

I looked at the thread you suggested and tried the USB stick solution using DiskMaker X 5 and a copy of the Yosemite installer. On restarting by holding the opt key, that USB stick didn't even show up.

I created a small partition on one of my external drives and again used Diskmaker. At least at the end of creating that volume I was asked if I wanted to boot from it, to which I affirmed. However, after a lot of grinding gears and steam whistles, my Mac booted into my original boot volume. I do wish there was a way to disable a particular volume from booting like there was in pre-OSX.

I've also tried using CCC to copy my boot volume to an erased volume, specifying to not copy the offending folder, but for some reason, when it was finished, I couldn't even boot from the cloned volume it created. What's the point of "cloning" a drive if you can't even boot from it? I was hoping that the cloned drive wouldn't have the offending folder/files on it and I planned to copy it over to my main boot volume.

If you happen to think of any way around my difficulties of creating and booting from a Yosemite volume, I'd love to hear about them. BTW, my Mac is old enough that there should be nothing in the firmware to prevent a Yosemite boot, though I keep getting messages saying that my Mac is not old enough to use that OS when I tried to create bootable volumes. Only after using Diskmaker was it even possible. Sheesh.

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Answer 6

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,302 points

Aug 22, 2016 1:40 PM in response to TodFromIndiana

If you run the Terminal command noted by Kappy to show all files, you can then just drag them to the trash. All normally invisible items will display "grayed out", but you can do anything with such files and folders as you would normally visible ones.

Once you can them, run the other command to put invisibility back to where it should be.

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Answer 7

Aug 22, 2016 2:15 PM in response to Kurt Lang

@Kurt Lang,

Unfortunately, as noted in the thread referenced by VikingOSX, filename incorporating the <null> character, shown in the illustration above as a tilde (~) can't be dealt with in El Capitan; i.e. you can't delete them or change their name using either the Finder or CLI commands. The first thing I did was to drag that folder and its invisible fikes to the trash. Can't empty the trash now without getting some cryptic error.

Thanks for reading my post and for trying to help. It never hurts to mention an obvious fix as sometimes we can be to smart and forget the easy things.

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Answer 8

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,302 points

Aug 22, 2016 2:46 PM in response to TodFromIndiana

D'oh! I did see VikingOSX's post, but without clicking on your screen shot to see that the majority of the characters are named NUL, I thought they were just some sort of standard character.

Here's an old trick that might work. Create a new folder. Name it anything. Put the nuisance folder in that. If you can rename the folder full of the odd files, name it something simple, like just the letter a. Now create another new folder, also named a (not where the folder you want to get rid of is). Drag that new, empty folder into same folder where you put the one you're trying to get rid of. When the OS asks what you want to do, choose to Replace.

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Answer 9

Aug 22, 2016 3:00 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Kurt and Tod,

I happen to have a 2011 Mac mini that has El Capitan and Mountain Lion as dual boot on separate internal drives. When I booted into ML 10.8.5, and then attempted to remove a nul byte file within a folder in my El Capitan user account — I was successful. I believe booting into any OS X release prior to El Capitan will achieve the same result.

Disabling SIP, or gaining sudo, or root privileges do not resolve El Capitan's blocked removal.

Kurt, hope your folder renaming mischief works for El Capitan.

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Answer 10

Aug 22, 2016 3:09 PM in response to Kurt Lang

@ Kurt Lang,

I'm game to try anything. Unfortunately this trick also didn't work. Even though Finder gave me to option to replace, which I selected, when I took a look, the SOS was still there. :-(

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Answer 11

Aug 22, 2016 3:17 PM in response to VikingOSX

@ VikingOSX: I'm really at a loss to explain the differences in our ability to boot. I can't boot from my 10.10 install volume, whether it's the USB stick or a separate hard drive partition. I can't even boot from my backup drive, which was created using CCC. I was off the air yesterday because somehow my original and the only blessed system volume went haywire and I had to do a Time Machine restoral, which took 18+ hours. Even the clone of this restoral won't boot. If this were something greater than these pesky files, I'd seriously think of doing a clean install over my boot volume - maybe somethings really hosed therein.

BTW, is it possible to do a partial restoral from TM such that only the /Applications, /Library and /System are restored? That way at least I can then manage a manual copy of files from a backup that will avoid the fake files.

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Answer 12

Aug 22, 2016 3:46 PM in response to TodFromIndiana

Tod,

You cannot boot a Mac with an older OS X release than it shipped with.
Suggest you get the latest version of Diskmaker X 5, a fresh 8GB USB stick, and the full OS X Yosemite 10.10.n installer (or an OS X release that will still boot on your Mac) that you downloaded from the OS X App Store.
Cold boot from this USB stick while holding down the option key, until you see the presentation of boot media.

I believe that the answer is not in Time Machine restores, as much as it is the ability to temporarily reboot into a release of OS X older than El Capitan — so the Finder or UNIX utilities will actually remove the problematic files.

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Answer 13

Aug 22, 2016 4:51 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks.

I understand that. I have a late 2012 Mac Mini. I can't recall what OS came with it. At the moment I can't even download 10.10, 10.9, or 10.8 from the MAS. I get the warning that I can't install (or download) an older OS. I happened to have a 10.10 installer on another volume, which I've tried to use to create a bootable installation medium - both a volume on an external USB 3 drive and on a USB stick. Neither would boot when I tried from a cold boot while holding down the opt key. Tried and tried. While the external HD shows up, after I select it, the Mac grunts and grinds before finally booting into the internal boot volume. The USB stick doesn't even show up during a cold boot.

My comment about TM restores comes more from frustration than anything else.

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Answer 14

cdhw

Level 4

3,588 points

Aug 22, 2016 5:30 PM in response to TodFromIndiana

Most of the relatively high level (rm, find, rsync, by inode, etc.) unix-style methods for getting rid of such files don't work on OS X's HFS+ disk. IMO, low level methods are simply not worth the risk and I doubt the Hosts would want them posted here in any case. So, you are left with two options:

1. Make careful backups and reformat the disk.

2. Sweep them under the carpet and ignore them.

My advice is to try 2, e.g. rename the folder something suitable, e.g. 'Files from Heck'. Ideally, move it to somewhere you won't see it so you'll forget about it. Change its permissions to ones that prevent anybody reading its contents. Then add the folder to the exclusions lists in your various backup methods.

C.

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Answer 15

Aug 22, 2016 7:11 PM in response to cdhw

Good grief. I have no idea how your reply was flagged as "solved" and my earlier reply disappeared.

Thanks for your suggestions. Unfortunately when I try to exclude them with SuperDuper, it halts execution. I've opened a trouble ticket with the dev. CCC sometimes throws up warnings or outright halts execution, plus it no longer creates a bootable clone.

Reformatting the internal boot drive is an interesting idea - it's a fusion drive for one thing. I don't know if booting into recovery mode will let me reinstall 10.11 - I'll have to try, then migrate all my user data using Migration Assistant.

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