macOS 'The operation can’t be completed' error when copying files
You see 'The operation can’t be completed' when dragging files to an external drive or shared folder. It's usually a Finder permissions or disk format issue.
When this error shows up
You're dragging a folder full of client invoices to a USB drive or a network share. Halfway through, Finder stops and throws up a dialog: 'The operation can’t be completed because one or more required items can’t be found.' Or sometimes just 'The operation can’t be completed' with an OK button. The files are there. You can see them. But the copy won't finish.
I see this most often on macOS Ventura and Sonoma, but it's been around since Big Sur. Common triggers: copying from an APFS drive to exFAT, or dragging files that have special characters in the name (like emojis or slashes). Had a client last month whose entire photo library copy failed because one file had a colon in its name — classic.
Root cause
Finder's copy engine is fragile. It chokes when it hits a file it can't handle: permissions mismatch, a filename that the destination filesystem can't store (exFAT doesn't like colons or forward slashes), or a corrupted metadata attribute. The error message is generic — it says 'can’t be found' but the real problem is usually can’t be written or can’t be read.
Other common causes: the external drive is formatted as NTFS (macOS can only read, not write without third-party tools), or the network share dropped the connection mid-transfer. And yes, sometimes it's just a transient Finder bug that a reboot fixes.
Fix it step by step
Skip the fancy utilities for now. Try these in order. Stop at the one that works.
1. Check the destination drive format
Open Disk Utility, select your external drive, and look at the format shown. If it says 'NTFS', that's your problem. macOS can't write to NTFS drives natively. You'll need to reformat it to exFAT or APFS. Back up the data first — reformatting wipes everything.
If it's exFAT, check the filenames you're copying. Any with colons, slashes, or emojis? Rename those files. exFAT doesn't support them.
2. Repair permissions and disk
Run First Aid on both source and destination drives in Disk Utility. This fixes minor corruption that can break copies. Takes a few minutes.
Open Disk Utility → Select drive → Click First Aid → Run3. Use Terminal instead of Finder
Finder's GUI is the bottleneck. Skip it. Use cp or rsync in Terminal. This bypasses the permission checks Finder does.
rsync -avh --progress /path/to/source/ /Volumes/DriveName/destination/Replace paths with your actual ones. The -a flag preserves permissions, -v shows what's happening. If it stops on a file, you'll see which one — rename or delete it, then rerun.
4. Copy in smaller batches
MacOS's Finder has a limit on how many files it can queue at once. If you're copying a folder with 10,000 files, split it. Copy subfolders one at a time. I've seen this fix the error immediately on large photo libraries.
5. Disable Spotlight on the external drive
Spotlight indexing can interfere with file transfers. Go to System Settings → Siri & Spotlight → Spotlight Privacy → add the external drive to the list. Wait 30 seconds, then try copying again.
6. Reset NVRAM (Intel Macs only)
Older Intel Macs sometimes hold stale permission flags in NVRAM. Shut down, then turn on and immediately hold Option + Command + P + R for 20 seconds. Let go. Try the copy again. On Apple Silicon, this doesn't apply.
What to check if it still fails
If none of that worked, the drive might be dying. Check its SMART status: open Disk Utility, select the drive, and look under 'SMART Status'. If it says 'Failing', get the data off using ddrescue from Terminal — don't rely on Finder. Had a small business client lose a week's work because they kept retrying a dead SSD.
Also test with a different USB cable or port. I've seen bad cables cause intermittent copy failures. If the drive works fine on another Mac, it's your Mac. Try booting into Safe Mode (hold Shift at startup) and copying there — Safe Mode disables third-party extensions that can interfere.
Last resort: restart in Recovery Mode and run Disk Utility's First Aid on your internal drive. A corrupted internal permissions database can break all copy operations. That fixed it for a design studio I helped last week — their internal disk had a minor APFS error that only showed up in Recovery.
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