Messages, and what they mean
Every message AssetScout can put on screen, why it appears, and what to do about it.
“One file was skipped”
The app could not tell what those files are, so they are not in the list. This is usually not a problem: previews, caches and files with a wrong or missing extension all end up here.
A scan of a home folder skips thousands of files as a matter of course, which is why this is a list you can open rather than a message that interrupts you: View > Show Skipped Files…. The menu item is greyed out when the last scan left nothing out. It is worth reading only when a file you care about is missing.
“A previously scanned location is not available”
AssetScout may read a folder only after you have handed it that folder yourself. The permission is kept, so a folder scanned once is still readable after you quit and start the app again.
That permission is lost when the folder is renamed, moved, or was on a disk that is not connected. The message lists the folders it happened to. Scan such a folder again — choose it once, and the permission is back.
“The location will have to be chosen again”
The same thing, one step earlier: the app can read the folder now, but could not store the permission, so it will lose the access when it quits. The scan you just started works. The next start will ask you for the folder again.
“The directory could not be scanned”
A folder inside the scan could not be read at all — usually one belonging to the system or to another user account. The rest of the scan is unaffected.
“The item could not be changed”
A picture or a video could not be rotated or flipped. Each file in the list carries its own reason:
| The file could not be read | The file is damaged, or it is no longer where it was. |
| The picture could not be prepared for turning | The file opened, but the picture inside it could not be decoded. |
| The turned picture can't be saved back into a “…” file | macOS can read this type but cannot write it — WebP is the usual one. |
| The turned picture could not be written back into the file | The file is locked, or the disk is full or read only. |
| The file has no video track | The file has the name of a video but holds no picture. |
| This kind of file can't be rotated or flipped | Only pictures and videos can be. |
The files that could be turned were turned. One failure does not stop the others.
“The item could not be moved to the trash”
macOS refused to move the file. The usual reasons are a locked file, a disk that is read only, and a network volume with no trash of its own.
Every message about files has a Show Paths… button. The message itself names only the first few files, and without the folder they are in; the button opens the whole list with the full paths, ready to copy.
The scan seems to have stopped
It probably has not. The first step of a scan walks the whole folder tree, and until that finishes the progress bar has no total to fill up to. On a large home folder that step alone can take a while, and the line under the window title says which step is running.
You do not have to wait for the end: results appear while the scan works, and the stop button ends it whenever you want, keeping what has been found. See Following and stopping a scan.
Writing to us
Help > Send Feedback… opens a new message in your mail application, addressed to the developer with the subject line already written. Nothing is sent until you send it. If nothing happens when you choose it, your Mac has no mail application set up — write to support@devnest.sk instead.
What helps most: which version of macOS you are on, what you did, what you expected, and what happened instead.