When file transfers appear complete but actually aren't (or "Incorrect file copy status") #3: A permissions issue?

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.

New reader reports add a few wrinkles the the issue.

MacFixIt reader Michael reports that the "missing" files were actually intact, but were not visible until he attempted to overwrite them. He writes:

"I am now seeing missing files from what appears to be good copies, but with a difference. I have just copied back 4gb of data from an archive DVD. The Finder shows 5 files and a folder, the get info say their is the correct amount of data. Final Cut Pro sees all the files through the import dialog box. If I then try and copy the 'missing' files back again, I am told they exist, I say no to the overwrite and they appear."

MacFixIt reader Walt Courtney got around the issue by first burning files to optical media before attempting a transfer.

He writes:

"The AppleCare explanation may fit my situation since OS 9 and OS X are involved, but I had on a couple of previous occasions (the last time in Dec 03) copied the 7500's 1 GB hard drive contents over Ethernet to the G4 for backup with no problems. This time I wanted to get the contents of some old 1 GB Jaz cartridges over to the G4. I tried the same technique, but failed to get many non-root folders (no error messages). This process is as slow as cream rising on buttermilk, but I tried again on the Jaz and internal drives with similar results (same problem but different folders missing). Since this was a non-critical, one-time thing, I walked around the problem and burned the Jaz contents onto CD's on the 7500. (I still successfully copy small numbers of files from the 7500, e.g. TIFF's from my SCSI scanner). I hadn't really thought about the problem again until I read your "Late-Breaker." The Finder may have had some network copy problems for some time that only show up under certain, yet unknown, conditions. (I'm trying to imagine what "Mac OS artifact" would choke UNIX.)"

A permissions issue? MacFixIt reader Tristan reports that, in his case, a permissions issue was at play, and setting permissions to 777 (read, write and execute priveleges for user, group and others) using a utility like BatChmod allowed all files to properly transfer.

Tristan writes:

"We found the same issue at work when copying data over the network to a shared volume. It's very scary (and dangerous) as there is no reported error. We only noticed because the file sizes of the folders were inconsistent after the copy, we found that about 1GB of data was lost in the transfer! I believe it is a permissions related issue as once we changed the permissions of both the source and destination drives of the copy to rwx-rwx-rwx using BatChmod, all files successfully copied (we had to check every file individually after that to make sure they had all copied). Changing the permissions using the Finder did not fix the issue."

Comparitive script will not work if FileVault is active It appears that the AppleScript provided in "When file transfers appear complete but actually aren't (or "Incorrect file copy status") #3" (below) fails on home directories when FileVault is active.

Previous coverage:

• When file transfers appear complete but actually aren't (or "Incorrect file copy status") #3: Comparing folders, more
• Intel-based Macs (and possibly PowerPC-based Macs, too): Incorrect file copy status (#2)

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