[ale] Very thin details - Unable to remove files from an Apple - SOLVED

Mon Sep 13 09:01:36 EDT 2010

Thanks to those who replied.

The issue was actually with removing emails not general files.   What
she was talking about was "on my mac" which was a subfolder of her
email's trash folder.   (She had that and another subfolder which was
for her login at yahoo mail [I know...].)   I never saw any message
complaining about "on my mac" as she said she had but she told me that
was what she had been on about.  I gather that "on my mac" is the
difference between mail stored at the provider and mail stored locally
on the Apple laptop.  The message was a red herring.

Anyway the issue was that if you went to one of her other (non-trash)
folders and selected messages for deletion they simply greyed out
instead of going away.   At first it appeared that dragging a message
from one of those folders to trash would delete it but on restarting
mail it would come back again.   After doing some Google searching I
found some things.  One that told me to go into the
Preferenceds-->Account Settings and get rid of the option to move to
special folder (e.g. trash).  I noticed in there were settings for how
long to keep messages after deletion and the one associated with that
said for 1 month so I changed it to when mail closes.   That didn't do
it.   I then tried deselecting that option altogether (It's an entirely
different kind of flying...) but that didn't do it either so I
reselected it.   Another post suggested that one needs to do that
deselect and reselect and also do a "Rebuild" of the mail folder.
After doing the rebuild the messages deleted (went to trash) if I
highlighted them and dragged them to trash or if I highlighted them and
clicked "Delete".   If I then did the option to delete all erased
messages (which hadn't worked before the rebuild) it successfully
removed the messages from trash.  

So it appears that doing a Rebuild on the folder was necessary to fix
the issue.   Deselecting and reselecting the option to move to special
folder on delete MAY have been necessary but I'm not sure.   

Interestingly it appears this Rebuild can be selected for each folder
and it is quite fast - I had expected it to need to go through and so
some sort of file reorganization that would take time but it didn't.

My payment for this was a package of "McVittie's Digestive Biscuits"
(Chocolate).  :-)

________________________________

From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of
Jerald Sheets
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2010 2:02 PM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux!
Subject: Re: [ale] Very thin details - Unable to remove files from an
Apple

Maybe repairing all permissions in the Disk Utility wouldn't be a bad
idea either.

There's a tool called "Applejack" that I put on every box I have.  

http://applejack.sourceforge.net/

I use it all the time to be able to run disk utility tools from a boot
to single-user mode.  It also helps to be in single-user when doing all
sorts of file flags.  It eliminates the GUI layer from making file
changes under you, and it's a better way to run Applejack.

If you're going to be doing any regular service on this thing, I highly
recommend it.

--j

On Sep 9, 2010, at 1:50 PM, Passauer, Billy wrote:

Hi Jeff,

I'm not sure if it is related to the error message she gave you, and I
haven't seen it too often, but I have run across it a couple of times
where a file has the "immutable flag" set.  Which makes it so you can't
change/delete the file even if you do have the correct permissions.
The command to change it is chflags.  For more info/examples, see:

  http://osxfaq.com/Tutorials/LearningCenter/AdvancedUnix/ugp2/page2.ws

 ... Billy ...

From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of
Lightner, Jeff
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2010 1:11 PM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux!
Subject: [ale] Very thin details - Unable to remove files from an Apple

My neighbor has an Apple laptop.   Last night she mentioned she'd been
trying to delete some files but was getting a message indicating
something like they can't be deleted because they're in "the mac"...
(mach...? mack...?).    She wants me to look at it this weekend but I
know very little about Apple stuff.    Since I haven't seen it yet I
don't know the exact message.   Just wondering if this snippet of info
means anything to any of you Apple users and if so what I should expect
and do when I do see it.

It may be something I can figure out easily once I see it.   The last
problem she had was due to a powered off printer.  :-)   Just figured
I'd ask ahead of time.

Proud partner. Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Please consider our environment before printing this e-mail or
attachments.

----------------------------------
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail may contain privileged or
confidential information and is for the sole use of the intended
recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure,
copying, distribution, or use of the contents of this information is
prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this electronic
transmission in error, please reply immediately to the sender that you
have received the message in error, and delete it. Thank you.
----------------------------------

________________________________

This e-mail message (including any attachments) is for the sole use of
the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged
information. If the reader of this message is not the intended
recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution
or copying of this message (including any attachments) is strictly
prohibited.

If you have received this message in error, please contact
the sender by reply e-mail message and destroy all copies of the
original message (including attachments).
_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
Ale at ale.org
http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20100913/feb6f136/attachment-0001.html 