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I'm trying to delete a file under OSX Lion, but can't. I get the following message:

The item XYZ.txt~ can’t be moved to the Trash because it can’t be deleted.

Here's what I've tried:

  • select file and press COMMAND + DELETE (I get the message above.)
  • renaming the file in finder (There is no option to rename the file.)
  • sudo ls -a in a terminal (The file does not appear.)
  • sudo rm XYZ.txt~ (I get "No such file or directory".)

How do I remove this file?


EDIT

The file went away after restarting. My guess is that it was a glitch in finder.

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  • I've no experience of OSX as such, but bear in mind that when you're running sudo from a terminal, it's going to look in the current directory, not necessarily where the file XYZ.txt~ is. I'm guessing this is the source of your No such file of directory errors.
    – Andy Smith
    Sep 12, 2011 at 18:41
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    It sounds like the file is marked read-only or is on a read-only file system (like a Windows NTFS volume). If you right click and get info, does it say you can Read & Write under Sharing and Permissions at the bottom?
    – Nick
    Sep 12, 2011 at 18:44
  • @Andy Smith -- Thanks, but I was running the sudo command from the same location as the file.
    – dsg
    Sep 12, 2011 at 18:51
  • @Nick -- When I right click on the file and click get info, nothing happens. The pop-up that usually is supposed to show up (the one that I get with other, more normal files and folders) does not show up.
    – dsg
    Sep 12, 2011 at 18:53
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    It sounds like the file doesn't exist, I don't know why finder would be showing something like that though. What if you try to create a file XYZ.txt~ by typing touch XYZ.txt~ in that directory in the terminal, then deleting that newly created file?
    – Nick
    Sep 12, 2011 at 18:57

1 Answer 1

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Try quitting and reopening Finder.

There is a bug where files that no longer exist are still shown on the desktop (but not if you open a separate window for ~/Desktop/). It has happened to me with .download bundles and with temporary files created by ImageMagick. The files have always disappeared after I have quit and reopened Finder.

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  • Have you tried restarting Finder in such cases?
    – Daniel Beck
    Aug 29, 2012 at 8:59

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