Getting rid of mysterious alias's...

[mrgreen4242]

I've got some mysterious alias's in the 'root' directory of the finder window (see attached picture). They are of files I have deleted, and when I try to do anything to them (drag them to the trash, right click, etc) I get an error message, so I can't get rid of them. *EDIT* The ones I am looking to get rid of are below the Pictures entry in left far left panel.

Please help!

Rob

 

[varmit]

I've got some mysterious alias's in the 'root' directory of the finder window (see attached picture). They are of files I have deleted, and when I try to do anything to them (drag them to the trash, right click, etc) I get an error message, so I can't get rid of them. *EDIT* The ones I am looking to get rid of are below the Pictures entry in left far left panel.

Please help!

Rob

So they were in the root directory. Do you have the permissions to delete these files to begin with, I mean are you the admin? Have you tried to restart and see if you can remove them after a reboot?

 

[mrgreen4242]

Yep, I'm an admin on this machine. I have rebooted, and get the same error. I've gone into terminal and navigated to the root directory, but don't see them there. I have no idea how they got there. The files were originally screenshots that were on the desktop, nd have since been deleted and trash emptied.

Rob

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Try deleting ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist

Then Log out and back in again (or reboot) and see what happens...

 

[pncc]

I've got some mysterious alias's in the 'root' directory of the finder window (see attached picture). They are of files I have deleted, and when I try to do anything to them (drag them to the trash, right click, etc) I get an error message, so I can't get rid of them. *EDIT* The ones I am looking to get rid of are below the Pictures entry in left far left panel.

Please help!

Rob

Neat problem! I just replicated it on my own system by dragging the alias of a file into the sidebar and then deleting the original file and alias.
Don't know how you did that originally, but I have the same problem now. Hmmm...

 

[mrgreen4242]

Neat problem! I just replicated it on my own system by dragging the alias of a file into the sidebar and then deleting the original file and alias.
Don't know how you did that originally, but I have the same problem now. Hmmm...

Hahah. That's both funny and sad. But, it can be happy if you do what Mitthrawnuruodo suggests. He is my new hero! Thanks!



Rob

 

[pncc]

Hahah. That's both funny and sad. But, it can be happy if you do what Mitthrawnuruodo suggests. He is my new hero! Thanks!



Rob

Yes, it turns out that Mitthrawnuruodo found the correct plist file. The problem with this fix is that it wipes out the file and returns the sidebar to its default format, erasing my customization. This gave me the excuse to fire up Property List Editor which can be found in the Developer Tools.

Doing so and opening the offending plist file, one finds a clear link to the offending sidebar item that can be easily deleted. Close the file, Save it, logout/in and behold, the offending link is removed and the other custom items remain. A true solution.
(I worked on the active file still residing in ~/Library/Preferences. You could also work on a copy of the file and then replace the 'corrupted' one with the 'fixed' one. Log out/back in to see the changes.)

The best way to learn about OS X is to break it and try to fix what is broken.