The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “filename.m4a” can’t be read or written. (Error code -36)" Can't fix

This has been asked before and nobody replied. I am hoping somebody does this time as this is causing me hours of wasted time and I can't solve it.


I am running OS Sierra and I am trying to move my iTunes music folders onto a Sandisk 64GB SD card (micro SD actually, in an SD adapter).


I have tried around 15 times, each time trying some tip I read about online, mainly the dot_clean function (on the source folder, destination volume, iTunes folder and dragged them out again etc). Nothing works, every time I get the error "

The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “filename.m4a” can’t be read or written. (Error code -36)"

N.B. THE FILE NAME CHANGES EVERY TIME. What I did the first few times was just delete the file, I can go without one track in the car! I did this many times and every time, the file transfer runs half the day then fails on a new filename unlike one seen before. I could go on forever like this so I tried to solve it using dot clean and this hasn't helped or changed any behaviour at all.


The SD Card is formatted to EXFAT, but I tried MSDOS too and that did the same thing.


Would greatly appreciate any ideas. The only thing I know of which I have not tried is the dot_clean terminal command which deletes ALL .DS_Store files on the whole machine. That seems a bit drastic to do before asking for advice on the forums, so I am waiting on that, also I am not sure it's actually a problem with .DS_Store files, as the filename is always an xxxx.m4a file.


Hoping someone can suggest something? thanks

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4), 12 Gig RAM, 3.1ghw i5

Posted on Mar 25, 2018 2:56 AM

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Posted on Mar 25, 2018 4:42 AM

Here are some things worth trying:

  1. Run Disk Utility : First Aid on that SanDisk microSD card.
  2. If you have the ability to perform the Finder copy to an SD card not in the microSD adapter, try that too. Sometimes, and it happened to me, that micro to SD adapter causes write issues.
  3. The dot_clean(1) utilty says nothing about removing .DS_Store files. It is after “._” files on the target media — if they exist.

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17 replies

Mar 25, 2018 5:50 AM in response to Barney-15E

Excellent thanks. Ditto in Terminal - hmm that's a new one on me.

If the destination directory if the root of SD card, I assume I just need /Volumes/SDcard in there?

Thanks, I am running it again at the moment but when it fails (99% sure it will!) I will try that, as I wouldn't care if it just skipped the bad file and carried on, it's a real pain with Finder quitting on me!

thanks again

Apr 17, 2018 6:26 PM in response to joeyjohnson

The permission denied lines on your screenshot seems to indicate that it fails because where it needs to write doesn’t have write permission (for you).

Either the SD card is locked or the SD volume or your source files and folders have permissions that block it.

A read-only locked SD card would show a pencil with a slash through it in one of the corners in the Finder window.

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The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in “filename.m4a” can’t be read or written. (Error code -36)" Can't fix

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