Can't Delete Folder

[ntotrr]

Somewhat new to using a Mac (since this past summer). I'm befuddled by not being able to delete a folder on my HD. I am logged in as an admin with read&write privilege to the folder but cannot delete it. In "Get Info", it shows my privileges as read&write. I clicked the lock icon to unlock the folder and tried to change the privileges for "Everyone" from "Read" to "Read&Write" hoping that might work but I got the message that I don't have permission to make the change. Strange, IMO, as I am the admin.

I downloaded a map update for my car's GPS. The proprietary Subaru map download software downloads the files and then installs the update to a memory stick. However, the Mac didn't see the memory stick and installed the update to the local HD, 15GBs worth of files. I want to delete them but am having no success at all. If it means anything, I did update to Monterey, perhaps that changed something with the permissions, I don't know.

 

[chscag]

Try booting your Mac to Safe Mode (press shift as soon as you hear the chime) keep the shift key down until the Apple logo appears.

Once in Safe Mode try deleting the folder again. There may be files in the folder that are in use or have installed to the part of your drive that is locked.

Let us know if that works. If it doesn't we can try something else.

 

[ntotrr]

Thanks for the quick reply. I obviously have a bit to learn. 25+ years of using Windows and knowing the directory structures is making it a bit hard to grasp the Mac structure. The folder was not on my HD. I feel like an idiot. I had to download and install the map update to a memory stick using my Windows laptop since it wouldn't work with the iMac because the memory stick was not seen by the map update app. Anyway, I put the memory stick in my Mac so I could see the folder name on the memory stick and then search for that folder on my HD - because I thought it had installed the map updates to the HD. Well, when I used Finder to search for the folder, it found the folder on the memory stick. I find that odd since I click on my Mac HD to open Finder yet it all found the folder on the memory stick when I searched. I have to admit that it's the first time I had to search for a folder/file using Finder. What tipped me off that something was wrong is that I took your suggestion to use Safe Mode and when I searched for the folder, it wasn't found. I gather that is because the memory stick isn't seen in Safe Mode. I rebooted from Safe Mode then searched again and found the folder and then, DUH, I noted on the lower left of the Finder window that it showed "map_updater>update". "Update is the folder and "map-updater" is the volume name on the memory stick. It finally clicked in my head that I was trying all along to delete the folder from a memory stick formatted in Fat32 from my Windows laptop, rather than my Mac HD, and that was just not going to happen. Sorry for the long-winded response but I thought a proper reply was in order. Thanks again.

 

[chscag]

Not a problem. Most of us are old Windows pundants. I can remember when I left Windows and purchased my first Mac. Took some time to get used to it.

Thanks for posting back and letting us know.