Getting files back

When a copy never starts

Updated 2026-08-08 · 4 min read

The progress bar has not moved because copying has not started. During 'Preparing', Finder is counting every file and byte it is about to move — and two things make that phase hang: enormous counts, and a disk that answers slowly.

What the phase actually does

Finder walks the entire source first — total files, total bytes — so the progress bar can be honest later. A folder with 400,000 small files (a node_modules tree, a photo library, a mail archive) takes real minutes to enumerate, during which the dialog looks frozen while behaving normally.

First move: wait longer than feels reasonable, especially for folders with vast file counts. Check the count beforehand next time:

find /path/to/folder | wc -l

When it is genuinely stuck

A disk that is failing, or a network volume that half-disconnected, stalls enumeration indefinitely — Finder is waiting on a read that will never return. Signs: the source drive clicking or dismounting randomly, other operations on the same volume also hanging, console messages about I/O errors.

For a suspect drive, stop copying with Finder and switch to a tool that reports errors instead of hanging:

rsync -av --progress /source/folder/ /destination/folder/

rsync shows per-file progress, skips already-copied files on re-run — resumable, which Finder is not — and prints the name of the file it died on, which is your diagnostic.

The many-small-files case

Copying 400,000 small files is slow on any tool; per-file overhead dominates. Faster: archive first, copy one big file, extract on the other side.

tar -cf archive.tar folder/ && cp archive.tar /Volumes/Backup/

For routine large moves between drives, rsync's resumability makes it the default choice of everyone who has watched Finder fail at 94%.

Common questions

How long should Preparing to copy take?

Seconds normally; minutes for folders with hundreds of thousands of files. Beyond that, suspect the source disk or network volume.

Is rsync safe for copying important files?

Yes — it is the standard tool for exactly this, verifies as it goes, and resumes cleanly. The trailing slashes on paths matter; test on something small first.