On May 28, 12:37 pm, Dan <[email protected]> wrote: > At 12:16 AM -0400 5/27/2012, Melvyn & Edith Halbert wrote: > > > > > > > > > > >I often use the Finder to Copy a bunch of files from my iMac's > >internal hard drive to some external device. Occasionally an error > >message pops up that says 'An item named "" already exists in this > >location. Do you want to replace it with the one you're moving?' > >The error message sometimes includes a dot for the name of a problem > >file ("."). > > >When this error occurs with a bunch of files, I have found no easy > >way to determine what the real filename is or which application > >created that file. Some of the files being copied were created from > >webpages saved from Safari, but most of them are text files created > >by Text Edit in its rtf mode (but without the extension .rtf). > > >I never saw this error before I started using Lion. > > >Has anyone seen similar behavior in Finder Copy? Does anyone know > >what to do about it? > > Could be that you're grabbing some invisible files too. You can set > Finder to display most invisible files using a tool such as OnyX. Or > you can just use the "ls -al" command in Terminal to view them all. > > In Finder's preferences, set it to show all file extensions. > > If you haven't been giving files appropriate extensions, get in the > habit of doing so. This will reduce the possibility of odd name > collisions. And Apple has depreciated the old creator/type code > system anyway. > > - Dan. > -- > - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth.
Dan, Thanks for the suggestions. All of the files that are copied to an external device are ones I produced myself, for which I did not set the invisibility flag (at least not intentionally). I checked whether such a flag was set for any file by listing the source directory in Terminal by "ls -al". I found no invisible files (i.e., filenames with a dot as first character). As for filename extensions, they are all there -- for example, it is always .rtf for files created in TextEdit's Rich Text mode. The extensions do appear in the Terminal listing and also in the Get Info window of Mac OS X. However, in Mac OS X I chose (in Finder Preferences/Advanced) to let them remain hidden, which is Apple's default for most Kinds of files. Next time a filename disappears during a Finder Copy, I will try harder to find out what Kind of file is showing the problem among the many others created in a similar way that don't behave this way. -- You received this message because you are a member of the iMac Group, a group for those using Apple iMacs and eMacs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist
