Stubborn icon in desktop

vasco casquilhovasco casquilho
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Hi there !



i have another - maybe newbie - question.



For the first time since i bought my Imac, I have a little problem:

I downloaded a file from the net (.sit) that wont let me delete it. I tried every way !

it gives me a message saying it´s probably being used for another task. I searched the HD and couldn´t find anything related to that file.

Any suggestions ?

Txs a lot !

This is a great site !!



Vasco



[ 11-25-2002: Message edited by: Vasco Casquilho ]



[ 11-25-2002: Message edited by: Vasco Casquilho ]</p>

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Have you tried logging out and logging back in? Chances are one of your apps that is open has touched the file and won't let go of it. Logging out quits all your apps; so, that should free it for deletion.



    If you want to toy around with the command line, you can enter this command to see what app would be using that file: sudo lsof



    By the way, that's a lower-case L, not a capitol I.



    [ 11-25-2002: Message edited by: Brad ]</p>
  • Reply 2 of 7
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    Try restarting and see if you could delete it? If not, open terminal (in applications/utilities), type in:



    rm -f &lt;space&gt;



    you need a space after the -f



    Then drag the file onto terminal, and poof it goes away.



    If it says permission denied, use

    sudo rm -f &lt;space&gt;

    drag the file onto terminal,

    and enter your administrator password
  • Reply 3 of 7
    vasco casquilhovasco casquilho Posts: 36member
    well...i am no expert and therefore i might be doing something wrong, but got no luck with these 2 suggestions.

    Sorry.



    Any other way ?



    txs



    Vasco
  • Reply 4 of 7
    rodukroduk Posts: 706member
    As a last resort you can always try booting into OS 9 and deleting it.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    The terminal command chych posted didn't work? Provided, it's a risky brute-force method, but it should work. If the file is on your desktop, the command should follow this format:



    rm -f /Users/yourname/Desktop/nameoffile.sit



    Do you get an error of some kind when you try this?



    Odd. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />



    If this fails, there are a few GUI utilities on VersionTracker.com that can try to force-delete a stubborn file.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    vasco casquilhovasco casquilho Posts: 36member
    YES YES YES !!!



    I did it ! Actually...you did it !

    I must have been doing something wrong before.



    I tried the command again and....poooff !!



    Great ! Thanks a lot you guys !!



    Ciao

    Vasco
  • Reply 7 of 7
    cheetahcheetah Posts: 10member
    OS X at it's finest...



    But seriously, it's ready for prime time provided you are comfortable with the command line. And isn't that why we bought jaguar, to work from a terminal window?



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