copy/pastedeletingfindermacos
Today a weird thing happened while I was copying two large files from my Mac to my hard drive. The two files vanished from the original folder on my Mac during copying! And in the end, I got a warning saying "Error happens while copying" or something, and there's only one of those files in my hard drive. Is there any way in Mac that I can discover when and how I delete this file, like this file was deleted by an app or something? Does the Console app keep a log of it?
Thanks
"apps" are "Package Bundles" is Apple jargon, and are treated specially by the OS. As mentioned above, these are actually Unix directories, in a special format. The actual Unix Executable File is in a subdirectory named MacOS, which you can see using the "Show Package Contents" menu in Finder.
The "app" is analogous to the directory created when you install a Windows program. You can indeed navigate into the app, and run the Unix Executable File.
For more complete details see the Apple Bundle Programming Guide It is in the archive section but Apple's new documentation does not give the overview
This doesn't solve your problem, but without knowing more about the app it won't be solved by manipulating the package. You will need to contact the developer.
You could also look at the Console app, which will let you examine any error or warning messages.
It's likely in /Volumes/MobileBackups and you can easily delete it by entering Time Machine and navigating to the folder where the file existed. Select the file then command-click (right-click) and delete all backups of that file.
Normally, the system information window shows the backup space, but I have seen this window get hung up and not properly report storage space when Spotlight and/or the disk catalog are wonky.
You can also wipe all local backups by disabling the local store:
sudo tmutil disablelocal
If the above steps doesn't work, you'll want to boot into recovery mode and run Disk Utility to check that the directory structure and file system catalog are correct. A fsck -fy / in single user mode is also equivalent if you are so inclined to fix things from terminal or want to perform a safe boot and have the system clean things up systematically.
Best Answer
No. The filesystem doesn’t directly or indirectly to the console have a journal or log of changes in files or folders or permissions.
There are some tools to do that, but none ship enabled or configured with the os.
Time Machine is the way to find when the file was last present and it’s searchable from spotlight.
I would set that up now or connect and get a current backup before you do any troubleshooting so if you need to erase the drive or repair it, your other files are covered at least now and going forward.