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"All My Files" saving multiple duplicates of files

Hey guys,

I recently upgraded to MacOS Sierra and after enabling "Upload Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive", I realized that I didn't have enough space to get them completely uploaded.

After getting frustrated watching them endlessly trying to upload with no avail, I disabled this feature and in return, my "All My Files" folder in Finder began duplicating the files that it tried to upload.

Now I have anywhere from 3-6 duplicate files in my All My Files folder, all of which are the have the same size, location, and name (Except the duplicates have a timestamp as well).

However, the files only appear once on my Desktop instead of also having the duplicates.

In summary, the files I tried to upload to the Cloud, which I then cancelled, have duplicates in the All My Files folder but not on the Desktop/Documents folders.

Is there anyway to delete these duplicates?

When I tried deleting one of the duplicates, all of those said files moved to Trash but only appeared as the original file. When, I then moved them back out of the trash, they reappeared with all the duplicate files back into the All My Files page.

The files don't add any more space to the drive, so while it doesn't harm my computer's storage, it is still very annoying.


Let me know if you guys have this same problem.

Thanks!

-Jett

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), macOS Sierra 10.12.4

Posted on Apr 16, 2017 5:13 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jul 17, 2017 1:13 AM

I've had phantom duplicate files listed a few times on my laptop, after it died when I closed it (have this down to bluetooth or wifi stopping sleep mode).


Relaunching finder from the force quit applications window (Option+Command+Escape) fixes it for me.

7 replies

Apr 17, 2017 1:40 AM in response to thejettproject

In general there are a lot of duplicate files on a mac, also in the System software.

Never delete duplicate system files!!

When you have duplicate user files, decide first then delete.

(do never use a "tool" app for it, it creates havoc).

In my opinion the "all my files" display in Finder is useless. If you search for a file use Spotlight, or the search function in Finder.

When you want to free up space you better look at Music libraries, Books libraries, Movies and such, move then to an outside disk. To find large files/folders you can use a third party app that sorts by size, Omnidisksweeper, at https://www.omnigroup.com/more

Use "move to trash", not "delete immediately".

Empty the trash can regularly.

enjoy.

"All My Files" saving multiple duplicates of files

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