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Solved
Cannot overwrite file: "because the item is in use"
Hi there - have much frustration trying to overwrite file from our Macs (OSX 10.9.5) to ReadyNAS 4TB. If we have project files stored locally on the Mac, and want to back them up to the ReadyNAS,...
Mac has always been annoying when accessing AFP shares on a non-Mac server.
There's a heap of hidden files it creates for each directory (a .DS_Store file, an .AppleDouble subdirectory, .Network_Trash etc).
It also sometimes creates a hidden ._<filename> in the subdirectory
I think its likely to be these associated metadata files which are locked, rather than the file itself (perhaps because someone else has recently opened the file directly from the NAS, or is viewing the subdir in FInder etc).
You can disable the creation of .DS_Store files by runing this on each Mac..
defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true
But I dont know of any way to disable creation of .AppleDouble
Mac also has a tool called dot_clean...
This isnt ideal but it would be worth a try next time you get a locking issue, so you can confirm whether it is indeed the dotfiles causing the problem.
Failing that, you might consider accessing the shares via SMB rather than AFP.
Latest OSX actually defaults to using SMB now, with AFP being used only for communicating between older Macs
Thanks. Any other thoughts? I'm not sure if it is a ReadyNAS issue, or Mac OS. Either way, I've seen a few other posts about it, so it's not an isolated issue.
Mac has always been annoying when accessing AFP shares on a non-Mac server.
There's a heap of hidden files it creates for each directory (a .DS_Store file, an .AppleDouble subdirectory, .Network_Trash etc).
It also sometimes creates a hidden ._<filename> in the subdirectory
I think its likely to be these associated metadata files which are locked, rather than the file itself (perhaps because someone else has recently opened the file directly from the NAS, or is viewing the subdir in FInder etc).
You can disable the creation of .DS_Store files by runing this on each Mac..
defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true
But I dont know of any way to disable creation of .AppleDouble
Mac also has a tool called dot_clean...
This isnt ideal but it would be worth a try next time you get a locking issue, so you can confirm whether it is indeed the dotfiles causing the problem.
Failing that, you might consider accessing the shares via SMB rather than AFP.
Latest OSX actually defaults to using SMB now, with AFP being used only for communicating between older Macs
Many thanks for the response. It seems to have been solved now - the reason being on the Mac side, not the ReadyNAS. I installed new OS to Yosemite, and have not had a problem since, so I suspect it was a Mac OS issue all along. Frustrating!
Regards
Ian
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