Problems moving folders to external drive on a Mac

I am having the hardest time moving pictures in lightroom to an external drive. I can select pictures and move them one by one, or in bulk, but if I select a folder of pictures and drag and drop them to an external drive, they won't move. It appears they have moved, but when I select the picture, and select show in finder, it shows they are being copied from my MASTER drive with pictures to my SSD boot drive root.
I have an SSD boot, a MASTER with all the pictures, an SSD scratch with the catalog, and an external drive for old pictures all running in Yosemite, Lightroom 5.7, on a Mac Pro.
Is there a way to reset Lightroom settings so I can start from scratch? Or is it possible it could be a permissions error. I tried setting all permissions on all drives to Read & Write for all folders and files with no luck.

You can start from scratch by creating a new catalog from the menu:
File >> New catalog
Choose a new name for the catalog and save. When the empty calalog launches you are ready to import.
A safer way to move folders is to drag your folder using Finder to the external hard drive. That will make a copy of the folder and files. Then in LR you right-click (or control-click) on the folder name in the left-hand panel and choose update folder location. Navigate to the external drive location and LR will re-link everything automatically. The beauty of this method is that you can ensure everything is OK before deleting the folder from your internal drive.

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Problem moving folders with Lightroom 4.4 on Mac OS 10.7.5

I am trying to move a folder of recently edited files from my desktop to an external drive where I keep all my processed files using Lightroom but I keep getting a message that the folder can not be moved.
If I try to create a new folder on the external drive using Lightroom I get a message saying the folder could not be created.
This has just happened for the first time. I have never had issues with this in the past and have successfully moved many folders over the years.
I tried rebooting Lightroom to no avail.
Any suggestions?

Make sure you have write permissions on the destination disk. You may need to repair permissions.

Can't save multiple folders to external drive. Get: "The operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items." when dragging large folders to mac os extended journalled external drive from OS 10.6.8

Hi
I am feeling VERY desperate!
After losing an external drive [dont ask....] -   I got another one : 2TB WD formatted properly [ OS extended journalled for mac ] ready for action to move my thousands of files and images and ppts in hundreds of folders across from the laptop to this drive because I travel a bit with the laptop and this is too risky not to back up at home.
But this message came up after starting on moving folders across [** and not straight away, sometimes after moving a folder when 4 of 6 gb of files across then the message comes up = very frustrating]:
"The operation can’t be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items."
I am dragging mixed sometimes large complex folders to this os extended journalled external drive from my mac book pro OS 10.6.8 - it would take decades to move items one by one or even folder by folder and really confusing.
I have dragged-copied various small folders and files across successfully, but it is only working 50:50 and I can't leave machine with the idea of things copying eg: overnight - it just won't work....
I have been browsing google and find some people describing in CODE how they overcome this 'message'   .... but I [and I guess some other viewers of this in future & also in desperation] would need instructions for beginners.... to try this type of thing. I don't know any code.
How can this be happening - I feel ANGRY at APPLE !!!! for not posting easy fix instructions yet re; this, or better still updating software so it doesn't happen [ that I can find at least !!! ] .   There seem to be hundreds of people stuck with this stupid message and inability to back up their projects etc.
Can anyone help ?
Many thanks
Julie
15 August 2011

hi Samberl
thanks a lot for the fast reply.
I was dragging folders from main folders on the laptop-desktop onto the external drive icon - to copy them across....
Your suggestion sounds very promising - I didn't know about 'cloning'.
Yes the idea is to backup the laptop -    I thought I would just move it all now, new - and then keep saving/dragging physically   across to the new drive myself each day or two...
Would this be the sizeof the internal hard drive = c.500 gb ?   =   under the HD icon on desktop is written :
" 499.76gb , 311.5 gb free "
I can erase and start agin on the new external drive - so this plan is to make two partititions, rather than the one at present, and make one of them 500 gb ?
I have found CCC [carbon copy cloner] googling - looks good.
When CCC site says it backs up the hard drive - would this mean all my files [over 100 gb] that are mostly in folders on the desktop, plus the others in itunes, iphotos etc found in the HD icon, would all copy across successfully [wherever they are in the computer ] ?
thanks again, hope you can clarify these things and then I will go for it.
It would be great and amazing if this 'lack of permission' message doesn't show up in the process of doing this ccc transfer - hopeful!
Julie

Moving folders to ext. drive--photos still showing on library page

I've moved a couple of years of photos to an external drive to make more space. However, when I open Iphoto, I'm still seeing these photos on the main library page. When I double click on a photo, I get a blank image with a question mark, which I know means a source can't be found.
My questions are: Should I delete the photos showing in the Iphoto library that I have moved to the external drive to prevent confusion? Or is there a certain file with this information that I can delete and rebuild from the photos now on my Mac HD?
If I move the photos from the external drive back to the computer hard drive, will they reappear in the library again?
Thank you!

There's no need to post again, and it's only important because the answers vary for different versions - for instance it's perfectly possible to have a referenced library in v6.
Here's what I would do now. Because you've moved these files around and putting them back isn't working, we have to regard the database as corrupted. I would rebuild the Library and then import any that are still missing after the rebuild.
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
Regards
TD

Are you having problems with the Lacie external drive after upgrading to the new operating system

Are you having problems with the Lacie external drive after upgrading to OS X Mavericks?

See here for everyone discussing the issue you are having:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5475136?tstart=0

I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

In the Mac side of things, backups usually come in two flavors: clones or incrementals.
A bootable clone is a bit-for-bit copy of all essential files in the startup volume. If using the Lions, clones can be made using CarbonCopyCloner or just plain old Disk Utility. These backups represent the safest protection of your info, but take the longest to do. Recovery is an inverse process: you copy the clone back into the internal drive.
Incremental backups start with a complete backup of the startup volume and only copy whatever changed from the previous run. OS X includes the fully integrated Time Machine backup utility to do this. It is extremely easy to do and takes the least amount of time. Recovery is another matter altogether since you have to start with a freshly installed instance of the OS and have to apply all intervening backups to bring the result to the latest saved version.
As for where the backup takes place, the recommended media is an external dedicated drive or drives connected via the fastest interface available on your Mac: Thunderbolt, USB3, Firewire, or USB2. Network-based backups, wired or wireless, are attractive but may not offer the same performance and hence take longer. Also important to note that the entire drive need not be completely dedicated to a single backup. The Mac's EFI firmware infrastructure allows for an unlimited number of partitions on a hard drive and each can be used for either type of backups.
Holler if you need specifics on how to do each. This was just an executive summary.

Viewing external drives on a mac cpu from a cpu running xp

Trying to see external drives on a mac from a xp computer any tips?

should of wrote:
ntfs, fat 32, or hfss. I have mac drive installed on the pc so it should not matter? Macdrive I believe would extend its functionality to a networked drive?
Currently the drive I have attached is hfss
I didn't catch that, Do you have sharing set on both computers? See if any of these help.
Mac OS X 10.5: Setting up a Mac computer to share files with Windows users
Mac OS X: Sharing your files with non-Apple computers

Help - moved itunes folders to external drive and now my itunes is totally

A few months ago, in order to free up space on my c drive, i had to purchase an external drive - everything i installed via itunes since that date has been on the hard drive and everything was fine.
Last night i needed more room on my C drive so i stupidly moved the remaining itunes folders from my C drive to my F drive - unfortunately, when i opened itunes it was blank.
i've tried a few things - including adding the folder from the F drive - and that retrieved about 80% of my music/videos and the last playlists i had - however, they were all missing songs - even if all the songs that should be included remained on my itunes
i began the tedious process of manually adding files back in but soon realized this doesn't help itunes consider this the same ipod as what's still on my actual ipod.
*What I'd like to do (if possible) is to wipe itunes clean and somehow restore everything on my ipod into itunes so that i retrieve not only the songs and videos but also the playlists that i've spent way too much time building. At this point i fear that the various components to my ipod are in too many files on my external drive to be easily restored another way (though if i'm wrong please let me know)*
sadly (as this story might suggest) I am borderline computer illiterate - I've read a few posts suggesting some sort of software online (something the apple help line also made an "off the record" remark about) - but I can't for the life of me figure out which i would use or how to do this without risking the contents of my existing ipod (which has the playlists and songs/video I want to reestablish).
*Can anyone possibly suggest how to best handle this and walk me through it in painstakingly basic and specific detail? I would be forever grateful.*
Thanks

iTunes uses the iTunes Library files - in particular the iTunes Library.itl file - to keep track of where your song files are located as well as playlist and related information.
Most likely in moving your folders around iTunes has been confused to such an extent that it created a new Library file. With a bit of luck you might still be able to find the old file which would restore your old Library.
So the first thing you want to do is look around your computer and make a note of any iTunes Library.itl files you can find. Generally speaking you'll find them in the iTunes folders on your system and depending on how you've been moving the folders - i.e. whether you "cut" them or "copied" them - you may still find at least one one on your F: drive and some on your C: drive.
Having noted where they are you know want to check each of them out as described in this article in the Apple Knowledge Base. In following those instructions you want to select the Choose Library option and use the pop-up window that appears to zero in on the various .itl files you've located.
Remember that each Library file will show a different Library in iTunes - perhaps slightly different, perhaps completely different - and if the first one isn't what you're looking for you'll have to close iTunes and repeat the procedure by selecting one of the other .itl's.
Post back for any clarification.

Problem with project after upgrading to 10.1 and moving libraties to external drive

I need to make some updates to a project I created over a year ago prior to upgrading to 10.1. Also since creating, I moved my Final Cut Libraries off to an external drive. The only about 25% of the clips in the project appear to be linked to the original media even though all appear to be in the Original Media folder. I have tried as a test to put the original video files into a folder outside of any FCP files and used that to use the "Relink Media" function under "Edit" The attached link to a pdf doc shows the error message I get. I have no idea how to proceed from here to recover this important project.
Running Yosemite
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/96zy244yeh3mjb7/AADGTQRjeJPBlRmQ4L5f9Xcna?dl=0

Russ
I copied the Original Media folder to a new location and then relinked to the new folder. The process ran without error. However that did not fix the problem. The clip content isn't there for 80% of the clips. The system was rendering in the background for hours. I went to bed. When I got up and checked using the view background tasks it stalled at some point. I tried exporting the XML and importing into a new library. I got a waring message about an unrecognized cross dissolve transition. When I opened the project in the new library the time line looked exactly the same and it behaved exactly as the original project. Thoughts?

Problem Moving Files to External Hard Drive

I am trying to move two large video files and one large iMovie file onto a WD Passport external hardrive. I have no problem moving most files but with these three I get an unspecified error message part way through the copying process. All three of these files are uncorrupted. Anyone know why I might be recieving this message when copying these three files and/or how I can rectify this problem?

Sounds like your external hard disk is formatted in FAT32 which has a 4GB file size limit.
You should reformat that hard disk to Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Moving from one external drive to another

Hi,
I've had a lot of difficulty having all my music on an external drive. iTunes keeps trying to localize my files on my local disk's music folder.
Anyway, I have all my music on one external drive, which I've just done a complete copy of to another drive. All the files are in the same place.
Is there a way to get iTunes to see all the new files without removing all the songs from my iTunes library and re-adding them from the new drive?
Thanks

I keep all my iTunes content stored on an external drive myself. Over the last few years, I have swapped that drive out a few times for a larger capacity drive with no problems. With iTunes closed, I copied the contents onto the new drive, then ejected the old one. After doing that, I renamed the new drive to have the same drive name/label as the old drive, so to the OS it looked like it was still the same old drive. One that was done, iTunes just treated the new drive as if it was still the old one. One other thing I have done is that I have moved my iTunes library file onto the external drive as well. This will cause iTunes to give me an error message about not being able to open the library if the external drive is not attached for some reason, and therefore it never writes to the internal drive. I haven't tried this myself, but I would think that you could get similar results by using aliases to point the iTunes folders off to the external drive as well.

Problem with copying to external drives 10.8.3 "the operation can't be completed because an item with the name .ds_store exists"

After upgrading from 10.7.5 to 10.8.3 I cannot copy certain folders to any external drive. the operation can't be completed because an item with the name .ds_store exists. I have seen this problem in discussions for many years with no real solution. Does anyone have a resolution? Please help. This is very frustrating as I work in two locations and copy folders back in forth all the time.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, or by a peripheral device.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including Wi-Fi on certain iMacs. The next normal boot may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin. Test while in safe mode. Same problem? After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

Move Users folders from external drive to a new internal drive

Hi All,
I have a white Intel iMac running Snow Leopard. I have kept the Users folder (4 users) on an external hard disk (too many photos and movies). The internal hard disk recently died, but since all user data was on the external, I wasn't too worried.
The iMac now has a new hard disk, and I've installed the system back, starting from the original System Install DVD so that all the iApps are also reinstalled.
What I want to do now is to move the user folders to the internal drive, and use the external for backups. It seems that I can't use Migration Assistant because it only works when moving data from another Mac or another startup drive. I've looked around the forums and on the web, and the only thing I found was a post on TUAW in which the writer talked about eventually having to do this but without giving much info about how to do it (http://www.tuaw.com/2009/05/14/tuaw-tip-moving-your-home-folder-to-another-disk- or-moving-it).
Does anyone have any experience moving the user folders from an external drive to an internal drive, (or even just having a Mac recognize user folders on an external drive from another machine)?

Hilal Malawi wrote:
Thanks, but that site doesn't have a clear answer.
Correct. As it clearly states, there are too many variables to have detailed solutions for every possible situation.
In the 'pink' box, which best matches my situation, the instructions begin with: "•You must be logged on to the account being moved...".
That's not clear at all. How do I log in to an account that doesn't exist yet? Connecting a hard disk that has a home folder to a new Mac doesn't allow me to 'log on' to that home folder's account, because it doesn't yet exist on the new Mac.
You may have to set up user accounts "from scratch." Then change the ownership and permissions on the old home folders so you can copy the contents of the sub-folders from the old home folders to the new ones.
If you're comfortable with permissions and Terminal, this may help: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20013630-263.html

Moving files to external drive - need Mac and PC compatibility in future

Hello -
I'm moving a client's video files to an external drive so they have the original files. I'm moving both the DV files (always usable with program that accepts DV files) and the Mac project files in a separate folder (in case they ever work on them in a mac - includes all the referenced files). I know they won't be able to open the latter on a PC but I'd still like to include.
BUT, can they get any external drive? If I plug it into my computer and move files, are they going to run into problems if they use then on a PC? Thinking about getting this one for them (they are paying but want a good price for them):
http://www.buy.com/prod/western-digital-500gb-my-book-essential-usb-2-0-external -hard-drive/q/loc/101/206409667.html
Thanks for your help -
Alexa

Don't have a solution for you, but I did encounter a very similar bug.
I was moving files from one iMac's external drive to another's internal drive, using a drag'n'drop move command on a directory. The move generated an error message, maybe the same as what you saw (I'm not sure), then aborted the move. Only one small file had been moved, and the source directory was gone! Not in the trash. Mac OS X 10.4.8 on both systems, an iMac DV and an iMac 24. The external drive was formatted as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)."
This sure seems to be a basic programming mistake. So, for me, it's back to doing 3 steps: copy, verify, delete. It's lousy not to be able to rely on proper execution of a basic command, but I've never won an argument with a computer.

Moving iTunes from external drive on PC to external drive on Mac

Hi can anyone help getting totally confused with all the different help topics!
My iTunes currently runs of an external hard drive (I://) via Windows 7.
I've changed to an iMac and want to move my iTunes to here using a new PC & Mac compatible external HD (J:// via the PC/Samsung via the Mac).
I've followed the instructions on here but iTunes doesn't seem to be picking up the library or playlists, and not sure where I've gone wrong.
Can anyone help at all please?

Those instructions tell you how to move media (as they say). A library is more than just media. For people using regular iTunes settings it is everything in the iTunes folder which includes the critical iTunes Library.itl file. This file generates the structure you see in the iTunes application. You need - Moving a library: Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its sub-folders and files) intact to the other drive. Hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) and open iTunes. At the prompt to create or choose a library choose the copied iTunes folder.
Note, I am leery about your "PC & Mac" compatible drive, whatever that is. While it is possible to use a FAT formatted drive with a Mac you have to realize that it has file size limitations and cannot be repaired with any Mac based tools.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847 - plus supplemental information about organizing to new structure https://discussions.apple.com/message/26404702#26404702
Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7392 and making an iTunes library portable.

Problems moving folders to external drive on a Mac

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