Copy folder items hangs on preparing to copy

I am trying to copy the contents of a folder from one place to another and it gets stuck on "preparing to copy 2 items" forever. I can't even stop the process, have to force Finder to quit and then restart. Then I have the same problem! Help!

I'm copying my website domain file, which is very large, to another empty folder on my desktop. But even when I try to copy the individual files one at a time, "preparing to copy" gets stuck even on the much smaller files. I haven't had this problem before with copying and pasting files to folders. I just did an update to the OS tonight, could that be the problem?

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Preparing to copy hang on iPhone6+

Syncing with iTunes and restoring from my old iPhone 5S, all my apps move over seamlessly, but on photos and music, VERY little has moved. Randomly selecting songs/photos to copy over. Syncing hangs on Step 7, Preparing to copy items stage, with no progress bar, just the barber shop spin. New playlists will show up on iTunes on the phone, but only 1 song, or 0 songs in the new playlists. Photo stream, or whatever it is called now, doesn't seem to be working either back to the phone.
I've restarted my latest Macbook Pro retina, and the iPhone a couple times. Nothing seems to be pushing like normal. I even left it plugged into the Mac all night hoping something would move. nothing.
Should I clean wipe it and start the whole process over again??? Ugh, 1st world pain.

Just got off the phone with Apple Level-2 and here's what worked for me:
1. Backup to iTunes (NOT iCloud)—be sure to backup Apps
2. Reset/Delete all content on device (so it's left "as new")
3. Set up as new—doN't restore from backup
4. Restore from iTUNES backup (NOT iCloud!)
5. Then re-add your content.

'Preparing to copy' hangs

I'm trying to transfer files directly between two external HDDs hooked up to my Mac.
When trying to transfer either of two folders - full backups of my MacBook and Mac - the 'Preparing to copy' item value eventually hangs.
For further detail, in case it helps, please see this post.
What might be causing the hang, and how can it be resolved safely and easily?

I'm having similar issue. Drive is a 2 TB Seagate, partitioned into 4 or 5 partitions.
This partition is 250 GB storage.
No issues with drive.
Disk Utility verified and repaired this partition.
I'm trying to copy and back up two large files.
iPhoto library of 110 GB
Aperture library of 70 GB
This is unacceptable. Come on Apple!
SuperDuper works fine for backups to other partitions. What's up?!

Maximum file/folder size for Copy Finder Items?

As I mentioned in another recent post, I used Automator a while back to set up a workflow that would Get Finder Items and then Copy Finder Items. Set it up as a iCal plugin. Worked fine for a long time, but I just checked and saw that the largest of the three folders (1.8 GB) was not being completely copied. The other two folders, much smaller (20 MB or so) were fine, but several folders within that large 1.8 GB folder were being skipped. I opened the workflow, and ran it, and it came up with an error that just told me to check the workflow. Is there a maximum size on this type of workflow? Seemed to work fine before . . .

The *Copy Finder Items* action will not make duplicate copies. If you want multiple copies of the same item, you will need to rename or duplicate the item before copying, since the copy action doesn't have an option to rename, and the duplicate action doesn't duplicate to a different location.

Copying Finder items into same folder as Action

I want an Action that can copy Finder items directly into the same folder the Action resides in, i.e. without specifying where or asking the user where.
Is this possible? All I've been able to create so far is an Action whereby I need to specify the folder or get the user to specify it.

OK, I am now going to try to teach you to fish
It might be a little bit easier to visualize if you think of the values passed along in your workflow as a stack of playing cards. Some actions do something with the cards and then just pass them on, some take all of the cards, and others add cards to the stack. The Set Value of Variable action takes the current stack of cards (the results of any previous action(s)), assigns it to a variable that is named whatever you want to name it, and passes the stack on to the next action. The Get Value of Variable gets the value of one of your previously named variables and adds it to the stack. You can also use a previously named variable in input fields of various actions, such as locations to copy to. I'm not sure why you are getting the path to the desktop (unless that is where your workflow application is located), but here are some additional comments for my previously posted workflow:
1) Run Applescript (with the Applescript posted earlier)
- if your workflow has been saved as an application, the results of this action will be a path to the folder that it is in (if not, the path will be to where the Automator application is, which isn't what you want)
2) Set Value of Variable
- this action will take that path, assign it to a variable with your specified name, and pass it on
3) New Folder
- this action makes a folder with the specified name in the specified location - you can drag variables into these fields, in which case their current values are what will be used
- the result of this action is a new folder, and the path to the folder is added to the current stack of cards (if any) and passed on to the next action
- since we just want the path to the new folder (and none of the previous cards), first we throw away any cards we may have (with the "ignore input" option) so that our results don't get mixed up.
4) Set Value of Variable
- same as (2) above, except that the value is now the path to the folder that got made in the previous action (3)
5) Ask for Finder Items (Type: files, Allow Multiple Selection)
- the results of this action will be whatever items you selected, and of course, they will be added to our current stack of cards unless we throw them away first with the "ignore input" option
6) Copy Finder Items
- this will copy Finder items (the ones we selected in the previous action) to the location that is specified - you can drag a variable into the To: field, in which case it's current value is what will be used.
- the result of this action will be the paths to the items that were just copied, but since this is the end of the workflow it doesn't matter
You can use the View Results action to see what the current stack of cards is, so you can see if what is going in and coming out of your actions is what you expect, and tweak accordingly.

ITunes/iPhone stuck contacting update server preparing to copy items

Why is Preparing to copy items stuck?
Why is Contacting the iPhone software update server stuck?
I have an iPhone 6 Plus running 8.1. I have not updated to 8.2 yet. My phone was syncing normally until 7pm lastnight but now it is stuck at Preparing to copy items Step 5 of 5. For background information; I am a DJ and use my phone to screen songs so I regularly sync songs on/off and use iTunes Grouping and Comments to organize tracks. I may listen to songs and sync the phone multiple times a day and this was done without problems on 3/24/15 at least 4 times until after 7pm.
I have done a hard reset on the phone. I have restarted my Macbook Pro, done a Force Quit. I have tried to uncheck Sync Music to remove all music and start over. I let this sit for over an hour with no success. Today (3/25/15) I attempted to update the phone to iOS 8.2 but the computer sits at Contacting update software server and no progress is made. There are multiple posts online with this issue as well.
I did allow some Apps to update yesterday but I do not recall which ones. So, whats the deal?

Watashi mo wakaranai! Each time I reset my iPhone 5 and then I get one go after that to re-sync new data to the unit before having to reset again. This morning I reset and began to start loading everything from scratch again, only to realise this afternoon that the sync had deselected a number of PDF's that I need to access from my iPhone regularly throughout my working week. When I re-ticked those files and asked the sync to resume, iTunes stopped everything and left my iPhone without all its data synced. I have had to asked it to sync a third time now.
Oddly, the amount of space indicated at the bottom of iTunes doesn't seem to relate to the amount of data being loaded in a coherent or reliable fashion, as more space is showing now that when the PDF's were (unbeknownst to me) deselected. Also, even when there is as much as 9GB showing as free on my 64GB unit, iTunes tells me that there is insufficient space available on my unit to sync: This forces me to reset again! It takes more than 24 hours for the iPhone 5 to load 50GB odd of data... I remember when we were told how computers saved us time.

'Preparing to copy' halts

I have two external HDDs hooked up to my Mac, one via USB and another via Firewall 800, and I'm trying to transfer files directly from one to the other.
It has mostly worked out, but there are two folders, roughly 100GB and 124GB, 163k items and 204k items respectively, that are not copying over. These folders coincidentally are full backups for my Macbook and Mac, respectively.
When trying to copy the items over, the process seems to halt during the 'Preparing copy to' stage, at which the 'Preparing to copy' item value appears to not change. For example, for the Macbook backup, the 'Preparing to copy' item value usually halts at around 41,760 items or so, and after several attempts on the same session, sometimes even less (e.g. around 23,000 items or even around 1,000 items).
There are also two folders that are full backups for two Windows PCs, that transferred just fine. They are roughly 50GB and 147GB, 130k and 306k items respectively. Transfer of the larger latter folder was attempted after attempting the 'halting' transfers above.
I would have tried to initiate the transfer on other computer devices, but unfortunately the Mac, not the older Macbook nor the Windows PCs, seems to be the only one that is enabling access to the corrupt HFS+ partition of the external hard drive of which I am trying to transfer files from. I have also tried first copying the folders to the Mac Desktop folder first, but the halt occurs in that case as well.
Based on my experience, my initial guess is that there is some Mac-permission-based issue with one or some files that is causing the halt, but I'm not sure, and even if that was the case, (a) there doesn't seem to be a way by default via the normal transfer method to see which file(s) is/are causing the issues, and (b) it might be a tedious process to resolve the issue if there are a large number of issue-causing files.
(1) What might be causing the halt?
(2) More importantly, how can it be bypassed safely and as easily as possible, so that the transfer can be completed?

Hi Pat,
While it's possible that Permissions are at play, I suspect Disk corruption.
Have you Verified these two Disks in Disk Utility, (not Verify Permissions), & tried Repair if needed?
What brand drive is the problem one? Is it AC or Bus powered?

Copy Finder Items - how to generic for multiple user home directories?

I am creating an Automator workflow to allow my networked users to be able to copy certain files from a central location to their local home directory and overwriting their local copy. How to I make the destination of the Copy Finder Item to be generic home directory (something in the like of "~/Document/MegaSeg User Data/MegaSeg Database" instead of a fixed user home directory)?

Hi
It may be easier with an appleScript (which you could incorporate into an Automator action if you wanted).
--start script
set the_file to -- path to the file you want to copy goes here
set docs_folder to path to documents folder from user domain
tell application "Finder"
set target_folder to folder "MegaSeg Database" of folder "MegaSeg User Data" of docs_folder
duplicate the_file to target_folder with replacing
end tell
-- end script
This will replace existing files of the same name in the target folder. Hope it helps.

Error message: File can't be opened right now because it's being used by another task, such as moving or copying an item or emptying the Trash. Try again when the current task is complete.

I recently transferred some data from my external hard drive to my desktop, but there was an error transferring some of the files and it couldn't respond, and eventually i simply removed the external hard drive. However, the folder/files are still on my desktop, and when i try to move them or delete them, this error message appears:
“-folder/file name-” can’t be opened right now because it’s being used by another task, such as moving or copying an item or emptying the Trash. Try again when the current task is complete.
Since I removed the external hard drive before the files were finished transferring, there is no way for the current task to be completed. How can I resolve this and delete the folders/files from my desktop?

I just managed to resolve this by going to the apple sign in the top left, choosing force quit (or you could do option+command+esc), then i chose finder, and i clicked relaunch. After relaunching finder, the error message doesn't appear anymore, and I could move these files/folders, and delete them just fine.
Hope this will help other people who encounter similar problems in the future!

Copying Folder to Multiple User Document Folders

I can't find anything in the forums which exactly covers my situation, so I apologize if I am covering old ground.
Is it possible to copy a folder and it's contents to a users document folder on multiple computers via ARD 2.X?
In other words, I want to take a folder and use ARD 2.x to copy that folder to say fifty unique users' document folder over the network without having to enter a new command for each user the folder is copied to.
Does anyone have an idea as to how to do this?

You might try copying it to Users/Shared. That way it is available to everyone on the machine and you only have to copy it once to each computer. What kind of a folder is it? Some apps (like Word) have template folders that all users get when they load the app, so you could just copy your items to that folder, depending on what kind of file it is.

Automator 2.2 "Copy Finder Items" Action Error

Hello all,
When I try to create an Automator workflow that finds a type of file (pdf) in a nested folder structure and copies those files to another folder - essentially extracting the pdfs from their nested folders - I get an error message.
1) I use the "find Finder items" action. I specify the top-level folder and set the kind to "document"
2) It returns 56 items
3) I use "copy Finder items" action and specify a new folder
4) The copy action fails stating that a given file "couldn't be saved in the folder". It does not always error-out on the same file. Changing or creating a new folder doesn't help.
I have tried this under two user accounts with the same result. I have tried deleting preferences. The same error results.
Any ideas?
I am running 10.7.1 on a 15" MacBook Pro, early 2011.

I was having the same issue.
I found another solution: instead of copying files, you could move files.
1) Duplicate your original folder (unless you want to move/extract your files entirely to the new folder) (right click the folder and select duplicate)
2) Create a new folder as the destiny folder
3) Open automator and use the following actions (in order) on the workflow
- Find Finder Itens (browse to your source folder; select "any"; select "extension"; select "end with"; type "pdf") (you can do the same thing with the actions "get specified finder items" combined with "filter finder items")
- Get Folder Contents (and mark repeat for each subfolder found) (use this action if you have subfolders)
- Move Finder Itens (browse to your destination folder, that you created previously)
Now you can delete the duplicated folder.

Automator: Copy Finder Items Question

Hola,
Quick question about the Copy Finder Items action in automator: the "replace existing files" option, how is sameness determined? In other words, according to what criteria does Automator determine that two files are the same, and so eligible for replacement in the destination folder when that option is chosen? For example, would file Mydog.doc, modified 10/14/05, 230k be viewed as the same thing as Mydog.doc., modifided 2/21/06, 150k?
Cheers,
stu

As far as the Finder is concerned, the comparison is based on file name only.
It doesn't care about file size or modification date. If the name is the same the existing file will be replaced.

Automator Copy Finder Items - file couldn't be saved error

I have a simple automator sequence that suddenly stopped working for no apparent reason. Copy Finder Items has started returning an error "the file xxx couldn't be saved to the folder yyy" Happens for different files and folders. Can't see anythng that's changed. Any ideas?

I'm currently having the same issue, and have had it with mulitple automator scripts on multiple computers, but it's not fixing itseltf. Anyone know what this error could be?
I've noticed that I get the above error most often after getting and then correcting permissions errors in the same workflow. Any help would be most appreciated.
Thanks!

Copy Finder Items

I have a workflow that is reading images names & pathways from a text file, and copying the images in the text file into another folder. My problem is coming with the "Copy Finder Items" action. If I have the same image that I want copied into the folder, it will only copy it once. Actually, when I run the workflow, all of the images appear in the results section of the copy finder items. However, any duplicate images are not actually in the folder that it is copied to. Is there any way to correct for this, so that I can copy an image into a folder more than one time?
Thanks

The *Copy Finder Items* action will not make duplicate copies. If you want multiple copies of the same item, you will need to rename or duplicate the item before copying, since the copy action doesn't have an option to rename, and the duplicate action doesn't duplicate to a different location.

How to Copy list item attachment to document library in SharePoint 2010

Hi,
How to Create a folder ("List Item - Title Name") in Document library and copy list items Attachments to the same folder in SharePoint 2010,thanks in advance.
Regards,
Selvan.J
Selvan J

Hi,
You should first check whether the folder exists in the library, if the folder not exists, then create it.
I had modified the code, you can use the following code snippet to achieve it.
private void EventCopyFileWhenItemCreatedOrUpdated(SPItemEventProperties properties)
SPSite site = new SPSite(http://YourSiteName);
SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb();
SPList doclibList=properties.Web.Lists["YourLibName"];
bool foundFolder = false;
if (doclibList.Folders.Count>0)
foreach (SPListItem fitem in doclibList.Folders)
if (fitem.Title.Equals("FolderA"))
foundFolder = true;
break;
if (foundFolder == false)
SPListItem folder = doclibList.Folders.Add(doclibList.RootFolder.ServerRelativeUrl, SPFileSystemObjectType.Folder,"FolderA");
folder.Update();
string fUrl = doclibList.RootFolder.ServerRelativeUrl+"/FolderA";
SPFolder myLibrary = web.GetFolder(fUrl);
if (properties.ListTitle == "YourListName")
SPListItem sourceItem = properties.ListItem;
properties.Web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;
//get the folder with the attachments for the source item
SPFolder sourceItemAttachmentsFolder =
sourceItem.Web.Folders["Lists"].SubFolders[sourceItem.ParentList.Title].SubFolders["Attachments"].SubFolders[sourceItem.ID.ToString()];
//Loop over the attachments, and add them to the target item
foreach (SPFile file in sourceItemAttachmentsFolder.Files)
if (CheckFileNameExist(file.Name , properties) == false)
byte[] binFile = file.OpenBinary();
myLibrary.Files.Add(System.IO.Path.GetFileName(file.Url) , binFile);
private bool CheckFileNameExist(string fileNameInFileAttach, SPItemEventProperties properties)
bool flag = false;
SPList myDocumentLib = properties.Web.Lists["YourLibName"];
SPQuery spQuery = new SPQuery();
SPListItemCollection items = myDocumentLib.GetItems(spQuery);
foreach (SPListItem item in items)
if (fileNameInFileAttach == item["Name"].ToString())
flag = true;
break;
return flag;
Thanks & Regards,
Jason
Jason Guo
TechNet Community Support

Copy folder items hangs on preparing to copy

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