How come I cannot delete some files?

[satanicsurferz]

Hi,

I have Mountain Lion 10.8.3... and I noticed this week that there are some files I cannot delete...

Let me explain more...

I can see those files when doing a search in Finder (one .zip file I downloaded recently, some temp .js files used by Firefox and some more), but those file doesn't have an icon (blank square).
I know for sure I don't need those files, so I want to delete them, but I cannot drag them to the recycle bin nor use the delete key.

When I double-click on them, I receive this error:
"The alias "filename" can't be opened because the original item can't be found".

I click on the "Delete Alias" but it doesn't change a thing.
Those looks like "zombie" files.

How can I delete them?
Or is it the search index that is not up-to-date? (It's been more than a week since I noticed that though).

Is there anything I can do?
Thanks for your help!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Scroll to the bottom to find a possible solution.

 

[satanicsurferz]

Thanks for the link!

However, the solution implied installing a brand new software and deleting manually the problematic files... which I didn't like since I can't guess where all the "ghost" files are.

I made some more researches and I found a post saying to reset the Spotlight index:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409

I did that... it took about 15 minutes... and now all the "ghost" files are gone!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Thanks for the link!

However, the solution implied installing a brand new software and deleting manually the problematic files... which I didn't like since I can't guess where all the "ghost" files are.

I made some more researches and I found a post saying to reset the Spotlight index:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409

I did that... it took about 15 minutes... and now all the "ghost" files are gone!

Glad it worked out for you, maybe doing that would have solved my problem too.

 

[satanicsurferz]

Glad it worked out for you, maybe doing that would have solved my problem too.

Yeah I believe so.
I was positive the problem was related to the search index... cause one of the "ghost" file was a .zip file I downloaded just a few days ago on my Desktop. I couldn't see it on the Desktop (I deleted it), but I could see it when doing a search in the Finder. Since I'm new to the Mac world, it took me some time to figure out how to reset the index... I didn't know it was called Spotlight

 

[stephen1182]

Well, you could also force-delete the file or directory, using:

sudo rm -rf FILE

-OR-

rm -rf FILE

Just insert that code in Terminal, and it'll force-delete the file or directory.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Well, you could also force-delete the file or directory, using:

sudo rm -rf FILE

-OR-

rm -rf FILE

Just insert that code in Terminal, and it'll force-delete the file or directory.

It will not work every time though, as mentioned in the thread I linked to.