I'm trying to compare two directory trees via FileMerge and it's stuck on "status: initializing..." for several hours now (statusbar in lower left corner). I've already tried to cancel and restart but same result. How can I troubleshoot? The directories are quite large (1.5 TB): The home folder from an defunct old MacBook Pro, connected via Thunderbolt in target disk mode and its backup copy on an external harddrive (USB-C). The MBP will be wiped and shipped back to Apple and I want to make sure I have all the data. While copying everything onto the external drive the machine I'm running it on froze. It seems to have finished, but when comparing the size of the folders there are some differences between them. So I just want to double check that nothing got lost and they are indeed identical. (Other solutions without FileMerge also welcome. Maybe FileMerge isn't meant for super large directories, after all it's called "File"Merge; but at least [here](https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/10252/what-directory-comparison-tools-can-i-use-on-os-x) it is suggested that it should work for directories too ...)

I am looking for a way to transfer large files to the iPad without using iTunes or pushing to and pulling from a remote server. I run an Ubuntu laptop as my only OS at the moment and want to be able to transfer movies to my iPad. I currently transfer most of my files by way of the dropbox app which works well for small files but is quite slow for larger files and eats up my bandwidth. Ideally I'd like to be able to transfer over a cable or through WiFi. Thanks for any tips.

I don't want Wi-Fi, network, internet, cloud solutions. I just want to plug my iPad to my computer via USB as any other device and transfer files. How can I do that? All the answers I've found so far completely ignore the "USB" part in all the questions.

I have some .fit files (workout files) on an Apple TV that I would like to copy. How can I export them to either a Mac Mini or Windows computer on the same network? I've loaded Filebrowser TV but it doesn't appear to show anything but media files and .pdf's.

Say I have a video or even a photo stored in my iPhones's camera roll(the Photos app). 1) I save it to Files(inside a folder) 2) Connect the phone to my Mac 3) Copy the enclosing folder using the Finder>iPhone>Files tab 4) Now I have the file on my computer Now... lets do the same, but with AirDrop 1) Select the file from the Photos app 2) Airdrop to my Mac. 3) Now I have a second copy of the file on my computer On first glance they look the same: same name and the byte count is(for the most part) the exact same. But, if I compare the two files with the command 'diff' it says they are different. Using an application to compare files byte-by-byte reveals that the top part, the header, is what differs. The files will be 99% the same. Does anyone know the specifics of how Airdrop and copying to Files causes the difference? There are also cases where the files differ in byte count. I would like to find a way to identify these duplicates and delete them. Ios version: 15.5 Iphone XS max thx

I recently got a 14" MacBook Pro (M3 Pro, running macOS 14.3.1) and I've been trying to transfer my files over. I tried using Target Disk Mode (with two different cables, one USB-C and the other a certified 2ft Thunderbolt 3 cable from a Sonnet eGPU) however the M3 Mac's drive does not show up on the Intel Mac (2018 MacBook Pro running macOS 13.5.4). I tried everything and then eventually gave up. So instead I'm copying everything to an external drive (which is a Samsung 970 EVO NVMe, encrypted, APFS) in a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure, using the same Thunderbolt 3 cable above. When I copy everything from the Intel Mac to the drive it copies lightning fast. However, when I plug it into the M3 Mac and try to copy, it is extremely slow. Over the past hour it has transferred (13,000 files in total with a size of 7.44 GB) at around **800KB/sec** according to my math, and still estimates 2 hours to go. Copying these files onto the drive from the Intel Mac must have taken less than a minute. Any idea what's going on here? I will note that this is the first time this drive has been connected to this new Mac, if that could possibly have anything to do with it. This is a pretty fresh Mac, I only started setting it up yesterday; I've loaded Homebrew and some packages, made some shell modifications, added a few apps (Firefox, Visual Studio Code) and that's it. EDIT: The problem exists with other external drives as well. I have an external SATA SSD in a USB-A 3.0 case, using a standard USB-A to USB-A cable with an Amazon Basics USB-A to USB-C adapter. For a 2.95GB transfer the first 900MB goes in about 15 seconds, then slows to crawl, taking a couple minutes to reach 1.21 GB, then a couple more to reach 1.54GB. The progress bar also stops moving and counting slowly, it just jumps between these values: two minutes after reaching 900MB: two minutes later: **UPDATE:** So now I've spent all day with this. It passed Apple Offline Diagnostics, and I turned off Spotlight indexing for the external drive (it would have already been indexed by my other Mac) and booted in Safe Mode. Same thing. Transfers take a while to "warm up", i.e. the stripe in the status bar moves from side to side for a bit, then it usually gets the first 10% or so pretty quick, with frequent updates. Then it slows to a crawl, first estimating 1 minute, then more and more depending on the size of the transfer. The CPU load is minimal and I didn't see any Spotlight processes running as far as I'm aware. The files get there, and there don't seem to be any problems with them, but... There does seem to be a glitchy/laggy interaction with the drive (on the M3 Mac), it doesn't seem to want to eject readily, saying it's in use by some other process. Cancelling a transfer might not work, and opening the drive in the Finder might take a long time to view the contents. Also, watching a high-defintion video from the external drive is almost seamless and I can scan forward and reverse easily. But according to BlackMagic Disk Speed test I only get around 2.2 MB/sec from the drive. Just like the file transfers it starts at 0 for a while, goes up to 4 after a minute, goes down to this after another minute: So there is something strange going on... **UPDATE #2:** I'm thinking there's something wrong with this Mac. This can't be normal. I have a 240MB TIFF, 14787x5993 pixels. Opening in Preview on the 2018 13" MBP beach-balls for 5 seconds, but then I can zoom in with Cmd+0 and scroll around right away. On the fresh 2023 14" MBP it opens right away, but then if I zoom with Cmd+0 it beach-balls for at least 25 seconds before it slowly "unblurs" the image to its actual resolution. Scrolling around within the image is very laggy. This is with the 2023 running nothing and the 2018 running multiple applications, and there's nothing eating up CPU in the background according to Activity Monitor.

I want to move some programs, games from MacBook Pro SSD to the external HDD. With Xcode it was no problem. Because Xcode was under Applications and I could copy it and create link to it. But I have some games that are not asking about installation path. And that are installed in many different places on my SSD. For example under User->Documents etc. If I move it simply to an external drive - it doesn't work. I think they have some internal references, maybe under config files, to each part. I want to move - GarageBand (with all additional sounds etc.), WarThunder and World of Warships from internal to external drive. Are there any general solutions to move the programs and games
**that are not stored under Application?** Or maybe guides, articles etc.

I have a file that sits on a Cloud directory managed by a cloud storage service that uses the Apple FileProvider API. No, this is not iCloud, but this is apparently the same API framework in use. The desire is that since the API doesn't allow me to pin/favorite a file to prevent it from swapping out to the cloud, I've set up a simple cron job that once-an-hour will do this: cat /Users/myusername/Library/CloudStorage/CloudDrive-Documents/neverswap.txt >/dev/null I figure that as long as I'm regularly accessing the file, it'll never swap out, right? Unfortunately, it seems like I regularly find this error being spit out by cron: cat: /Users/myusername/Library/CloudStorage/CloudDrive-Documents/neverswap.txt: Resource deadlock avoided So my question is: 1. Why is this simple job sometimes resulting in a deadlock? And a deadlock of *what*? 1. I suspect UNIX tools like cat don't communicate with the FileProvider API and only the Finder seems to know how to trigger things, is this correct? 1. Is there a better way to do this? thanks **UPDATE 2024-10-16:** While I haven't found an answer to the above, I will point out that my solution to the cron job was to replace it with a simple Automator script that is two steps: 1/"Run Shell Script" which simply echo's the name of the file to step 2/"Copy Finder Items" which takes that file and copies it to /tmp. I then have cron run that app instead of the simple shell command.

I have a newer Mac (*MacBook Pro 2019*) and an older one (*iMac 2011*). For many reasons having to do with the fact that neither computer is compatible with the entirety of my software and devices, I often have to transfer files back and forth. **Box** or **AirDrop** work with more or less success but are generally slow and limited. Where it gets difficult, or impossible, is when I want to transfer open app pages of a document I'm working on (think for example of a RTFD document that I want to keep working on on the other computer because it has pictures I want to add), or browser pages with tabs. I was thinking that it would be amazing to be able to drag and drop these from one computer to another on the same network, the same way adding a slave screen to a Mac does, with the only difference that each computer would have its own OS. Is there a way to do that? ---- **Note**: *I have heard of Handoff, but I am not sure it handles tabbed browsing, and not sure if it will replace existing windows on the target device. I would rather select what I am sharing with each device by dragging it, rather than enable sharing for everything across both devices.*

I have a flash drive connected to my iphone via cable. How can I copy a photo from the flash drive to my iPhone's photo app? I was only able to copy a photo from the flash drive to my iPhone's download folder via the default iOS file app.

My friend (iPhone 13 I guess) and I (Pixel 7) want to share photos and videos we took with each other. We use some messaging app which allows it. But it's a hassle selecting and transferring. I'd like not to use another service if I don't have to. I wondered if there's a way to directly transfer images and video. I tried it with cable with my work iphone SE. At first Android recognized it as storage. But then all data transfer options are gone and it can only be charged. Is there any method to share files either via cable or wirelessly via Bluetooth, NFC, Wifi?

I would like to copy files from my Windows PC to the root directory of the "On My iPad" section of the Files app via USB cable. I am using Windows 11 and iPadOS 15.8.2. What I mean by "root directory" is the files you get in the topmost directory when you simply select "On My iPad" in the left column of the Files app, under the "Locations" heading. I can't seem to find the place in iTunes to copy it, but I did find the place to browse files from other apps. I tried 3uTools as well, but I'm not sure where to go.

I want to transfer files between two late 2016 MacBook Pros. I have a USB-C data cable from my external USB-C hard drive. Can I connect the Macs using that USB-C data cable to transfer files? Or do I need to put one of the Macs in target disk mode?

Copying a large file from an external hard drive to a Mac, shows a lot of packets first going to the hard drive. Then there is a period of no disk activity. Then what I expected happens, packets arrive to the Mac from the hard drive. What is the Mac sending to the hard drive before the copy operation?

In Finder, you can show the Path Bar (View > Show Path Bar). Is it possilbe to select a group of files and drag-and-drop them to another folder there? For example, I may want to copy/move file1 and file2 from ~/ivan_/test to ~/ivan_: Update: Please see my comment in reply to Marc Wilson.

I am using an M1 MacBook Air on the latest OS Update and a Windows 11 desktop PC and I would like to move files between them in the realm of a couple of GiB (1-100, so transfer speeds do matter). They are connected in the same Network via either ethernet Cat6 or Wifi 5GHz (for testing and stability I used ethernet, but in theory 5GHz Wifi would be plenty). The network includes a router and the Windows machines are connected via one dumb ethernet switch (i.e. non-configurable), all 1000Base-T, machines verified to be connected and recognise that. The issue: Throughput between MacOS and Windows is limited to 100Mbps. I can't figure out where the bottleneck is and how to resolve this. Multiple restarts etc. didn't yield any results, different programs and transfer protocols didn't either. I used iperf on all machines - MacOS and Windows have a throughput of around 96Mbps and Windows to Windows the expected 980Mbps. Any tips, something I overlooked? A setting? Maybe someone has a recommendation for a (free) software solution to easily share files between the systems?

MacBook Pro: Everytime I want to use the Android File Transfer, it says "Could not connect to Device. Try reconnecting or restarting your device" even though I am connected and my Android phone gets the 'Allow' notification and I allow it. I have to restart my computer each time with it connected. Unless I restart my computer with the cable already connected, my Macbook doesn't recognize my android. This issue started a few months ago, was working fine before then. It's time consuming to need to restart my computer anytime I want to take files off of it. This the intel macbook pro, running 13.1 The phone is a samsung A52, completely up to date with android 13

I broke my laptop some how (I think from overheating). I dual-boot linux on a Macbook that has got a T2 chip. I can't boot up MacOS, but for some reason linux does. I've got a couple of files in my MacOS that I really need. My first thought was to try and mount the apfs partition in linux to get the files. None of the online tools for this worked except for linux-apfs-rw which was only able to mount most of the root directory but not the home directory. I've heard T2 chips security prevents you from reading the contents of the apfs but not sure if that's true. Would anyone know of a way to extract the files or mount the full apfs partition? If I need to provide more information please ask!

I know there are general solutions out there to deal with problems ejecting hard drives, but I'd like to get more specific and understand what applications are causing problems so that I can deal with them without closing *every* app or by logging out when I'm in the middle of working. Or worse still to be unable to reformat an external disk or to do disk operations like create a bootable installer which is what prompted me to ask this question. Looking in the Activity Monitor > Disk Tab didn't seem to be very helpful. I'd have to go by a hunch and check the info for an app, look at Open Files and Ports tab, scan the Open Files for directories that match the problematic disk and or volume. This process is needlessly tedious. There's got to be a better way. I'd like to be able to use an Application or a Terminal command, point to the disk or volume in question and have it return what Applications are preventing the disk from ejecting. Are there software or utilities that specialize in preventing applications from needlessly molesting external drives? I would consider a well written script/service. I don't mind using command line utilities to get the job done. I was considering downloading Little Flocker again and seeing if I could apply it to my external drives. Every application would be blocked from accessing my external drives until I aprove it or make a rule via Little Flocker. But apparently Little Flocker was bought out by F-Secure :(. For what it's worth I'm on MacOS Sierra V. 10.12.5

I have an SFTP server mounted to my iPhone’s filesystem with the help of a third party application. If I download a file from safari will it be downloaded to my device and then uploaded to the server or will it go directly from site’s server to said SFTP server?