The operation cannot be completed because the item is in use

[Sir Ruben]

Nearly every time I try and copy a movie file from my Mac to my network drive lately I get the error 'The operation cannot be completed because the item is in use'.

I have not opened the item in Quicktime or VLC before attempting to copy or anything like that.

Its little things like this that really bug me. Something that should be SO simple you should NEVER have to even think about it.

So, how to I stop this annoyance?

 

[sonicrobby]

Try restarting your mac; and read the popup. Make sure you check/uncheck the option not to reopen programs when it restarts.

Odds are it might be some other program using it that you may not realize is using it. A restart may help, let us know if this solves the issue.

 

[Ifti]

I get this sometimes when trying to clear my trash.
A restart solves the issue.

 

[Fishrrman]

You may not even need to do a full restart.

Just log out.
Then log back in.

 

[nadranaj]

use command line to solve

After trying all solutions suggested above and failed, I finally succeeded by using the command line. I give 'cp' (copy) command and it just does the job without the error.

If you suspect destination folder to have same file, use the option 'cp -n' option. It will not overwrite if a file with name exists in destination folder.