01-20-2011, 11:01 AM

I have an IMac here from a friend who accidentally dropped 8000+ jpeg's onto his desktop. Now all desktop icons are gone and when you use the finder to see the jpeg files and attempt to drag them to a more appropriate location, you get a message that says the Files can't be moved because another application is using them.
How would you manage moving these files off the desktop?

01-20-2011, 11:16 AM

Reboot and try again.

- Simon

01-20-2011, 05:25 PM

If it were only that easy!
Anyone have any other ideas?

01-20-2011, 08:34 PM

Which application is using the jpeg files or created them? By closing down the program that has control over the jpeg files, they then should be movable or deletable. Note that the user desktop is just another folder.

01-20-2011, 09:38 PM

Originally Posted by chscag

Which application is using the jpeg files or created them? By closing down the program that has control over the jpeg files, they then should be movable or deletable. Note that the user desktop is just another folder.

They are straight from a camera. No application is running but Finder.
More info: Thinking it was a permissions thing, I booted from the Mac OSX DVD and repaired permissions, rebooted but no change.
If I try and open or move any of the 8000 jpg files on the desktop it tells me it can't be opened or moved because another program is using it.
I used Terminal to move one of the desktop jpg files to an external drive and it moved! But when I try to open it from the external drive I get "Item [filename] is used by Mac OS X and cannot be opened.

Thank you for giving this issue some thought and energy! I figure I'll find the answer here if anywhere.

01-20-2011, 10:26 PM

You said they were loaded straight from a camera? Are you sure that iPhoto does not have hold of them? Whenever I attach my camera and start to load photos on my Mac, iPhoto will open and offer to place them in its library. I don't use iPhoto so I don't allow that to happen.

Check to see if they've been loaded into the iPhoto library as well as on the desktop. Let us know.

01-21-2011, 08:42 AM

Boot up in safe mode and see if you can move/ delete them then.

Mac OS X: Starting up in Safe Mode

- Simon

01-21-2011, 10:14 AM

If you have another Mac available, you could try booting your mac in Target Disk Mode (power on, hold down T key until FireWire logo appears on the screen), turning it into a dumb hard drive, and connecting it to a second Mac via FireWire cable. You should then be able to open your user's Desktop folder and move the files to a subfolder. The Mac will choke big time trying to display all 8000 objects on the desktop at one time, so by viewing them in normal finder mode, it makes them a little easier to manage.

01-21-2011, 10:32 AM

You could also try booting with a Ubuntu Live CD, and see if you can move the files that way.

01-21-2011, 10:44 AM

Thanks for all the great ideas. I did manage to get past it late last night after chscag asked about whether the iphoto library had a hold on the jpgs in question. It did and in fact the desktop jpgs were copies. Thanks chscag. So I used Finder to move all non jpg files and folders to the document folder for safe keeping, then I used a terminal command to delete everything left in the Desktop folder. Now when I moved the desktop items back they appeared again with the 8000 jpgs gone.
All better.

01-21-2011, 10:59 AM

Glad you got it sorted.

- Simon

01-21-2011, 02:23 PM

Thanks for posting back. Gotta be careful with iPhoto - it's sneaky.

Anyway glad you have all sorted out. Have fun and visit often.