Strange dialog when trying to copy image files

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Strange dialog when trying to copy image files

I'm trying to copy a folder of duplicate images from my internal drive to an external drive to free up space. There are 36,000 image files in the original folder. Partway through the copy process I get a dialog popup that states The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access some of the items.

What causes this and how do I correct it? A "Get Info" on the original folder shows that I have read and write privileges, as does the receiving folder.

I'm familiar with Terminal commands but have no idea what to use to correct this.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

iMac 27″, macOS 12.3

Posted on Apr 26, 2022 8:37 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

MartinR

Level 7

21,448 points

Apr 27, 2022 7:13 AM in response to TodFromIndiana

The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access some of the items.

It means that you do not have permissions for one or more of the files you are attempting to copy. Even though you may have Read & Write permission on the original folder, some of the files inside that folder may have different permissions.

To fix this, select your original folder, then do GetInfo. Click the lock icon in the lower right corner of the GetInfo window and authenticate. Change the permissions for "Everyone" to Read & Write. Then click the Gear icon and select "Apply to enclosed items." Here's a sample screenshot:

This will apply Read & Write permissions to all the files & folders contained in your original folder. You should then be able to copy all the images to your external drive.

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Answer 2

Jun 13, 2022 6:28 PM in response to TodFromIndiana

Hi All,

I'm totally embarrassed for not responding to all your answers in a timely manner. I have no excuse.

The suggestions were helpful - the Sharing & Permissions answers were somethingI had already tried with no success. Likewise the analysis from Marcus_sean were interesting - the target drive was a 2TB with a lot of other files, so reformatting was out of the question. The permissions on the target disk were fine. Repair disk didn't find anything repairable.

In the end Just copied these images in groups of 1,000 until they were all copied. Strangely, I didn't get the permissions error while doing this.

Thanks all again, and please accept my apologies.

Tod

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Answer 3

Apr 26, 2022 11:12 PM in response to TodFromIndiana

Does this help:

Allowing file copy, duplicate etc in Find… - Apple Community

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Strange dialog when trying to copy image files

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