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Finder stuck in "preparing to move"

My finder won't let me move files from one folder to another. If I try dragging a file from one folder to another, or from the desktop to a file my finder just says "preparing to move ..." and has a progress bar. But never moves. I also can't move anything to the trash either.


I'm running big sur 11.2.3 on a macbook pro 2017

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.12

Posted on Mar 25, 2021 7:15 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 28, 2021 10:20 PM

I have this issue to except that endless rebooting does not help. Is this a function of the battery life? I have over 77GB space left out of 250GB. My battery is at 328 cycles. Macbook Pro 13 inch (2016/2017).

3 replies

Mar 26, 2021 9:05 AM in response to sugscott

Hey there sugscott,


We'd like to help get you back to organizing files on your Mac without any issues.


As you already have macOS 11.2.3 installed, we can rule out being outdated as a possible cause. Let's continue ruling out some other possible causes:

  1. A full or nearly full storage could cause this type of thing to occur. How much available built-in storage do you have? You can find out by clicking on the Apple logo at the top left corner of the screen, then on About This Mac > Storage.
  2. What happens exactly when you try deleting a file to put in the Trash? The more details we have, the better equipped we'll be to help.
  3. If you haven't tried one yet, we recommend a restart. Check out the section 'Restart' here: Log out, sleep, wake, restart, or shut down your Mac


We look forward to hearing about these details, and take care!

Finder stuck in "preparing to move"

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