When file transfers appear complete but actually aren't (or "Incorrect file copy status") #3

We continue to cover an issue where file transfers that appear to be completed actually result in only a portion of the specified files being copied.

Several users of both Intel and PowerPC-based Macs have now corroborated the issue.

James Hollingsworth writes:

"When copying 80 files from my G5 dual 2.0 running Mac OS X 10.4.5's second drive to iTunes on the main drive only, 45 showed up."

MacFixIt reader Don adds:

"I ran into this yesterday while copying files from one system to another.  It was my widgets under /username/Library/Widgets.

"There are only 6 files in there and according to the copy information all 6 were copied.  In fact only 1 file was."

Another reader adds:

"I first noticed the problem of the Finder/OS not copying all files with Jaguar. I was trying to backup my files to a firewire drive, and here's what was happening. Finder or RsynchX would tell me all the files were copied or it would stop and say some file had an error should it skip it and finish (and I'd say yes). Unfortunately, 2 or 3 levels down from root files would be missing and the copy process would have just randomly stopped."

"Here's what AppleCare explained to me. UNIX first copies all the folders at root, then copies files at root. Then in each folder at root it copies the folders, then the files, etc. It does this process going down each level copying all folders first. The problem for me is that I had some folders with files that had been created on my OS 8.6 computer, then copied to my OS X machine. I also was sharing the OSX and Mac OS computers on a network. Apparently some Mac OS artifact (as in real Mac OS :) not OS [UNI]X) causes the UNIX underpinnings to choke. It (UNIX) doesn't identify the failures when they occur.

"Now this of course is a problem. After a lot of experimenting and verifying and now tons of successful backups I only use Carbon Copy Cloner for making backups. Never had it fail.

MacFixIt reader Marlinespike offers an AppleScript will display detail about every file contained in a given folder. This script can be run on multiple folders, then the user can compare results, determining if an exact copy was made.

Open Script Editor (located in Applications/AppleScript), and past the following text, then click the "Compile" then "Run" buttons. Select the folder about which you would like information. A series of stats which will be generated, and automatically put in your clipboard. You can then paste this text into a document, and run the script on another folder, comparing the results.

tell application "Finder"
set my_folder to (choose folder)
set item_all to count items of entire contents of my_folder
set doc_all to count document files of entire contents of my_folder
set alias_all to count alias files of entire contents of my_folder
set folder_all to count folders of entire contents of my_folder
set container_all to count containers of entire contents of my_folder
set disk_all to count disks of entire contents of my_folder
set application_file_all to count application files of entire contents of my_folder
set internet_location_file_all to count internet location files of entire contents of my_folder
set clipping_all to count clippings of entire contents of my_folder
set package_all to count packages of entire contents of my_folder
set the clipboard to the "The folder " & my_folder & " contains " & (item_all as string) & " items of the types, " & (doc_all as string) & " documents, " & (folder_all as string) & " folders, " & (alias_all as string) & " alias files, " & (container_all as string) & " containers, " & (disk_all as string) & " disks, " & (application_file_all as string) & " application files, " & (clipping_all as string) & " clippings, " & (package_all as string) & " packages, and " & (internet_location_file_all as string) & " internet location files."
display dialog "The folder " & my_folder & " contains " & (item_all as string) & " items of the types, " & (doc_all as string) & " documents, " & (folder_all as string) & " folders, " & (alias_all as string) & " alias files, " & (container_all as string) & " containers, " & (disk_all as string) & " disks, " & (application_file_all as string) & " application files, " & (clipping_all as string) & " clippings, " & (package_all as string) & " packages, and " & (internet_location_file_all as string) & " iinternet location files." & return & return & "You can copy from the clipboard now. :D" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end tell

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Previous coverage:

Intel-based Macs (and possibly PowerPC-based Macs, too): Incorrect file copy status (#2)

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