odd, four-item loop of complaint

[Brutalbrutus]

Dear Friends,

Let's say I have a jpeg called Bur on my Desktop. If I drag it to the Pictures Folder icon in my dock, it'll move, but then, about two seconds later, I'll get this message: "File alias /Users/kwanyin/Pictures/Bur.jpg wasn’t found." There's always a cancel button. I press the button . . . and the message reappears. Always four times. But the image (Bur, in this example) does get to the Pictures folder.

It doesn't happen if, say, I'm trying to get work to the Desktop, or to Music. It seems only for Pictures.

Is thre something wrong with the "path health" of my Pictures folder, maybe? What would you suggest?

 

[mtngoatjoe]

First, reboot.

Second, delete the picture link in the dock and add a new link to the folder.

Third, use Disc Utility to scan your drive and fix any errors.

Good luck!

 

[Brutalbrutus]

thank you but no dice

Thank you for the suggestions. I followed them. The computer is still spitting these announcements whenever I put anything into the Pictures folder.

 

[smirk]

Do you have any software running that perhaps scans newly-added photos?

 

[Brutalbrutus]

no software

Hi, thanks for your interest and offered help. I have Picasa on my computer, but it's rarely turned on. Maybe it has some routine that always runs in the background. Other than Picasa, no other photograph-scanning software. Do you suggest I uninstall Picasa and see if the problem persists?

 

[GGJstudios]

Hi, thanks for your interest and offered help. I have Picasa on my computer, but it's rarely turned on. Maybe it has some routine that always runs in the background. Other than Picasa, no other photograph-scanning software. Do you suggest I uninstall Picasa and see if the problem persists?

Try re-indexing your drive:

Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes​

If that fails to index, enter the following command in Terminal:

sudo mdutil -i on "/Volumes/your drive name"​

 

[Brutalbrutus]

Is re-indexing my drive basically a Spotlight thing? Is it likely to take a long time and/or consume significant system resources? Also--can you explain *why* reindexing my drive would tend to fix this issue? I understood the other interventions suggested but not this one. Thanks.

----------

Hi. Afraid of reindexing the entire drive, and perhaps I erred in this, but I used your Unix command (Terminal command) to try to just reindex the "Pictures" directory. I got the following:

sudo mdutil -i on "/Users/kwanyin/Pictures"
/Users/kwanyin/Pictures:
Error: invalid operation.
Error: unknown indexing state.

Thoughts?

 

[smirk]

I would do what GGJstudios suggested, personally. Yes, it will run for a while and take up some system resources, so do it while you're at lunch or asleep if you're that concerned about it.

 

[chown33]

Make sure you don't have a Folder Action attached to your Pictures folder.

 

[GGJstudios]

Is re-indexing my drive basically a Spotlight thing? Is it likely to take a long time and/or consume significant system resources? Also--can you explain *why* reindexing my drive would tend to fix this issue? I understood the other interventions suggested but not this one. Thanks.

It appears from the error message you're getting that there could be a problem locating files on your drive. Re-indexing can resolve such issues. It won't hurt anything and you can run other apps while it's indexing. It will use some system resources while it's running, but not enough to significantly impact other work. After the intial re-index, Spotlight will maintain that index as changes are made to your files/folders.

 

[Brutalbrutus]

*bows*

I will do as you suggest, O Computer Mavens.

I think it's very smart to make sure there's no Folder Action attached to "Pictures". I'm going to look into that.

 

[Brutalbrutus]

it was a Folder Actions thing -- thank you

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Chown33's advice was to check for and disable any Folder Actions that dealt with the Pictures folder. I did that, and lo and behold, the trouble stopped.

Thank you, everyone, for you kind contributions. I am in your debt.

Nick