Hi, There's likely either a permission error or some other error with specific files within the folder that is causing them to appear "in use" to the system. Yes, you could go one by one, or two by two in attempts to finish things and determine the culprit or culprits, but that would indeed be tedious at best. Usually, the root user can bypass these sorts of issues. There is also ways in the Terminal whereby we could copy things over, but lets go with the root user method since it uses the GUI. We will enable the root user, then disable it after you're done so that your computer doesn't have a vulnerability with root enabled.
1. Go to System Prefs to the Users & Groups pane. 2. Click the padlock to unlock it. You'll need to enter your Admin password. 3. In the table of users, go to the bottom to the Login Options item. 4. Find the Join button and press it. 5. In the new dialog, press the Open Directory Utility button. 6. Click the padlock to unlock again. 7. Up to the Edit menu and down to Enable Root User. 8. You'll need to enter and confirm a password for the root user. Don't make it the same as your Admin though. You can quit everything now and logout of your current user. In the Login window, VO-space on the Other user then enter "root" in the username field and your password in the password field. It will probably go through some setup steps, don't set up any iCloud stuff or Siri stuff here, just tell it to "Don't Sign in" and/or Skip depending on the dialog. You'll also need to turn VO on in this user as it won't do it automatically. Now, you should be able to do the copying without problems. Once finished, log out of the root user, log back in as yourself and go through the steps listed above to get into Directory Utility. In Directory Utility, choose Disable Root user and quit things. You should be good to go now. Later... Tim Kilburn Fort McMurray, AB Canada On Oct 14, 2017, at 03:58, Caitlyn Furness <caitlyn.furn...@gmail.com> wrote: Hi, So, after going through my computer coughing and spluttering, I now have it back and it’s working great! I am having problems copying a folder of files from one external to another, though. when I try and copy the entire folder, I get an error that says the operation can’t be completed because one or more files are in use. they are not in use. If I copy smaller chunks, I can, but I still am often getting the same message as above, about the files being in use. I really really want all my books in one place, and am trying to free a drive for time machine back ups. I have done a disk utility on the disk where the books folder resieds, and supposedly everything is fine and dandy.. Any help? I can copy things one by one, two by two, but that’s gonna take ages! Thanks Cait -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach mark at: macvisionaries+modera...@googlegroups.com and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach mark at: macvisionaries+modera...@googlegroups.com and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
