Using Finder to delete desktop files?

Why does finder not allow me to delete (drag to the trash or use command/delete) items off my desktop? Finder asks for permission and when I put in my password, it makes a clicking noise and the permission box disappears, but the file is still on the desktop.

Select the item, choose Get Info from the File menu, ensure it isn't locked, click on the desktop, and check that isn't locked.
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HT1338 Application "FINDER"not responding,Desktop files disappeared & " also "Trash" not working svn after relaunching several times.

Application "FINDER"not responding,Desktop files disappeared & " also "Trash" not working svn after relaunching several times.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Step 1
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.
Enter the name of the crashed application or process (Finder) in the Filter text field. Post the messages from the time of the last crash, if any — the text, please, not a screenshot.
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into a message.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Edit it out by search-and-replace in a text editor before posting.
Step 2
Still in the Console window, look under User Diagnostic Reports for crash reports related to the process. The report name starts with the name of the crashed process, and ends with ".crash". Select the most recent report and post the entire contents — again, the text, not a screenshot. In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.) Please don’t post shutdownStall, spin, or hang logs — they're very long and not helpful.

Find and delete duplicate files on my macbook pro?

How can I find and delete duplicate files on my macbook pro. Just that i have so many and i think it is wasting a lot of memory etc on my mac! is there a simple and easy way to do so. Like i know in itunes you can just go to one of the opitions and show duplicates, is there anything like that with finder for my whole macbook?
Thanks in advance!:)

Decloner will compare the files themselves, not just by name or size.
For the latest version and faster updates, also to give the developer a extra 30%, choose the developers site version, simply hold control or option key to temporarily turn off Mountain Lion's annoying Gatekeeper to run the app.
http://www.pixelespressoapps.com/decloner/

Finding and deleting duplicate files

I apologize in advance if I didn't search effectively enough, but having found no discussion of my problem, here it is:
Is there a way to find, select and delete duplicate files on my hard drive? I know they exist, and would like to see them listed so I can delete This would be text, photo and movie files. Thanks in advance.
Peace,
SredniVashtar
P.S. I'm using ilife 08 which has produced a lot of occult duplicate clip files. If anyone knows why mac eliminated the "create a still frame" option, I'd love to hear it...

Go to http://macupdate.com/ and search "duplicates". There are some different utilities for photos, movies and tunes. Although Spring Cleaning will do all, I would stay away from that one or be VERY careful what you delete. Make sure they are only user files in your Home, not system files or Library files.
-mj
[email protected]

How can I find and delete duplicate files in Mt Lion?

As a competent, but self-trained mac user for 30 years, I'm totally baffled by the sudden appearance of multiple duplicate documents and .jpgs in my imac files. How can I find and delete them?

Duplicate Annihalitor - http://brattoo.com/propaganda/ - or Decloner - http://www.pixelespressoapps.com/decloner/
LN

Network User Can't Delete Desktop Files

I'm not sure if this is a server or dekstop question because I'm not sure where the problem is, but I'll start here.
I have a user that cannot delete files on his desktop, and now can't change his desktop background. He is a networked user on a 10.6.2 iMac. His account is on a Mac OS X 10.6.8 server. When I try to delete the file, it prompts for administrator authentication. I enter it in, but nothing happens. No errors appear and the file doesn't delete. When I look at the details, it says "com.apple.desktopservices". I have done the following things:
1. Reapplied rights to his folder in the Get Info Box
2. Deleted him from Workgroup Manager and re-created his account
3. Checked that the file isn't locked
4. Checked that the desktop folder isn't locked
5. Verified his permissions are correct on all folders
6. Ran Disk Utility on his machine
7. Tried his account on another machine (same result as on his machine)
Based on another forum, I moved the com.apple.desktop.plist file out of his library and logged him in again. The only thing that I noticed is the background picture changed back to default. I moved the file back, but the desktop picture is still back to default and if I go into System Prefences, I can't change the background or screen saver.
Something is messed up somewhere with his desktop settings, but I can't figure out where. Does anyone have any ideas?

Today I backed up my Open Directory master on the server, deleted it and recreated it from the backup. No change unfortunately and still the same message:
"The document xxx.yyy could not be saved. You don't have permission."
Any good suggestions available?

How to Find and delete Duplicated Files

When i bought my iMac 18 months ago, most of the files from my old G5 where transfer in this iMac.
Also, at this time, the G5 was connect in target mode to the iMac and I was copying files to my iMac when ever a files was needed.
I now realise I have lots of duplicted files.
How can I find and delete all thosew duplicates items? Is there a fast solution? Automator?
How about mail import, I also have lots of duplicate email. Is there a solution to all this?
Than you for your help.
BigBlaze

You can find programs to do what you want by going to Google and post the same question you did on here. One I noticed was GEMINI by MacPaw. Good Luck.

When using Excel "microsoft Office" I find on my desktop files that I am unable to task, move or relocate. How can I get rid of them ? on my desktop files that I cannot trash, move

I find files onmy desktop that I am unable to move ,trash or relocate. How can I clear my desktop?

Ongoing problem with Excel on Macs - it's been around since at least 2004 or earlier. For some reason some of the temporay files don't get deleted when you save.
Re-launching Finder sometimes works, but otherwise restart.

How can i modify or delete desktop files and folders in Mac OS 10.6.8 ?

i have Macbook pro running on Mac OS X, Snow Leopard ver. 10.6.8 . I am not able to delete rename and modify my desktop folder and files. even through the admin account and all previleges i cant move them to Thrash. as i try to delete them it asks for password and then no action takes place. i have even used repair permissions from disk utility, used the terminal window method but nothing happened. the "get info " shows read and write permision but still i cannot even rename them there.. can anyone please help me ?

Is the Desktop folder inside the Users -> Yourname folder with the same contents of your Desktop? If it isn't, then you've moved the Desktop folder to a place that can't be accessed by the account called Yourname.

Find and delete .DS_Store files

I have a 2008 server where some mac clients connect. They create .DS_Store, ._.TemporaryItems and other files that starts with "._".
I want to find them and delete them every night.
What kind of script can I run.
Thank you so much for your help.

I know this is an old thread, I just came across this problem myself when I was moving my files back to PC from Mac. Here is the approach I took:
# Check to see what files are in the directory, you may want to save this to a variable or CS
ls -Recurse
-force |
Where-Object {$_.Name
-like "._*"}
| Select
Name, Directory,
Length
# See how many files exist that meet the criteria
ls
-Recurse
-force |
Where-Object {$_.Name
-like "._*"}
| Measure-Object
# Use the -Force switch to get past the permissions restrictions on the hidden files
ls
-Recurse
-force |
Where-Object {$_.Name
-like "._*"}
| Remove-Item
-Force
# Rinse and repeat for the .DS Store files
ls -Recurse
-force |
Where-Object {$_.Name
-like ".DS*"}
| Measure-Object
ls -Recurse
-force |
Where-Object {$_.Name
-like ".DS*"}
| Remove-Item
-Force

How do i find and delete duplicate files

I know that I have many duplicate downloads (particularly Adobe Reader Files) that I would like to trash.
Is there an easier way to find duplicates other than opening them all and comparing them?

In unix you can use a combination of ls and diff.
Unfortunately Apple is notorious for creating crippleware, so they have only provided this function in iPhoto and maybe iTunes. There is no easy Finder solution, such as would make sense as part of Smart Folders!
Stupid Apple

Can't find unfinished & deleted .torrent files

A friend installed a bete version of a torrent client & tried downloading. The torrents started then stopped & wouldn't continue so I clicked the remove option. Now, I'm missing at least 20 gigs of drive space. The problem is, I can't find the files anywhere, yes I unhid all the hidden folders & files. I'm told that the .torrent file creates a disc image which explains the missing space. Another problem is my Time machine backup has those hidden disc images, so a full restore just puts them back on. So, do I need a full reformat of my drive & reinstalation of my OS or is there another way to find them?

See if you can find any useful suggestions from Apple Support Communities contributor Pondini's FAQ:
OSX Tips
Where did my Disk Space go?
He recommends a couple of apps that may help find large files. It's anyone's guess where your torrent client may have stored them, and I assume you looked in all the obvious places already.
A deeper concern is that the torrent client, or something it downloaded and you subsequently installed, may have corrupted your Mac's file system resulting in an erroneous accounting of disk usage. If you are unable to account for the missing space, boot OS X Recovery and use Disk Utility to repair the disk. Make note of any errors it reports.

How can I find who deleted my files?

Hello all.
In my local network, A user see my share partitions and files then removed them, How can I find who did it?
THanks.

This question is duplicated (and answered) in:
how can track who deleted file/folder from Windows Server 2008
regards

Lumia 620 How to find or delete "other" files?

I need find other files to delete it, cuz i need more capacity on mobile, and i dont know how i do that... Please help someone.

There is an application in the store called "Shrink storage" that allegedly helps with your very problem.
If it doesn't then what you need to do is to make sure you have updated to Amber / GDR2 and then carry out a factory reset. Bear in mind that the reset will delete all of your personal data so please backup your data first

Can I delete desktop files or will I lose them?

I have downloaded various files which end up on my desktop. For example, my update for mountain lion, the downloads for Skype, and also have what looks like hard drives as Mac WD which is my external drive and what looks like a drive which may be my DVD drive. I also have various documents that have files on my desktop and one called library.XML. Can I put them in the trash to get them off my desktop or will I lose the entire file on my computer? I want to clean up my desktop and every time I download something a new file goes there. But I don't want to lose the files. What can I do?

it sounds like you have chosen to save your downloads to the desktop instead of the downloads folder.
you can change this setting by opening up safari/preferences/general and choosing to save downloads to the downloads folder.
to answer the question posted, as long as the items on your desktop have either been completely installed or if it's been placed somewhere else in the mac to be saved (such as pics put into iphoto, music into itunes etc. ) it is safe to delete it from the desktop and empty your trash to finish removing it from the mac so it no longer takes up space.

Using Finder to delete desktop files?

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