Error moving file or folder you may not have permission

I tried to cut and paste a folder in some other directory using Matlab's "Current Folder" pane but now I get this message:

"Error moving file or folder you may not have permission"

when I try to paste. When I try to paste in the folder back in its original directory, nothing happens. I am using a 2017 Macbook. What can I do to avoid losing this folder?

Answer 1

[Will Grant]

This just happened to me! At 5pm, after having spent the whole day perfecting my function and a few helper classes, I did a Ctrl+X on the files intending to move them to another location to check into source control. Imagine my horror when I was greeted with this exact message.

I looked all over for the files. I tried Ctrl+V back in the original directory (in Matlab and File Explorer).

Out of desperation, I did a whole-disk file search for the files.

EUREKA! I found them! Turns out they had been pasted in an unexpected subdirectory of the original paste location. I'm pretty sure I didn't do this.

Takeways for those stumbling across this lonely page in the future

• NEVER use matlab's builtin copy-paste functionality.
• This error message effectively means "your files aren't there anymore!"
• Look in any directory anywhere close to where your files originally were, or where you intented to paste them.