Mac Error Code 43: The Operation Can’t Be Completed Because One or More Required Items Can’t Be Found [Solved]

The error code 43 or ‘the operation can’t be completed because one or more items can’t be found’ is one of the most annoying issues on Mac devices. This mostly occurs when you have to vacate the Trash on your macOS device. Consequently, the system prevents you from deleting files and folders from the Trash application.

The possible reasons why ‘the operation can’t be completed because one or more required items can’t be found’ are vivid. The files you want to delete might be under some operations by any application. 

Additionally, macOS might have blocked the permission of deletion on that particular file or folder. However, there can be an unknown reason that has triggered the error code 43 on Mac devices. 

Therefore, you need to resolve the error code and empty the Trash. Here are some tried and tested solutions to overcome this error.

Some Basic Solutions

Let’s start with a few general hacks that can resume the working mechanism of Trash. If you’re seeing the error code 43 or ‘the operation can’t be completed because one or more required items can’t be found’ the first time, locate corrupted files. 

Corrupted downloaded files can generate the same result. You can use a specific tool to search such corrupted files across your Mac device.

Once you have found them, you can rename those files. In addition to this, you can check which program is restricting the files from deletion. You can close that application and check if you can now empty the Trash on your computer.

Utilise Disk Utility

If the first solution is of no use, you can look for directory corruption or permission factors. It’s better to use the in-built tool or Disk Utility to resolve the error code 43. Here’s what you need to follow:

1. Click the Apple icon from the top of your Mac screen. Select the Restart option. 
2. When your Mac device restarts you need to press and hold the key shortcut of Command and R. Don’t release them until you notice the Apple logo.
3. Select the Disk Utility option and then press the Continue button.
4. Locate the drive you want to repair from the side panel of the screen. The drive should be the location where the problematic file or folder is situated. 
5. Then, click the First Aid button followed by Disk Utility Check.
6. The Disk Utility report might appear on the Mac screen, and the report may vary from one device to another. 
7. If you come across that your drive is going to fail, make sure you back up every single piece of data. Therefore, you can transfer all this data to a new drive, and there’s no way to fix this faulty drive.

Furthermore…

Whatever the Disk Utility report is, select the Run option. If you can’t locate any issue, you can simply exit Disk Utility. Otherwise, you have to continue with the Show Details option. There can be different scenarios, and here’s how you can handle this:

1. You might experience the ‘overlapped extent allocation’ issue, which denotes file corruption. Just relocate all of those files to a folder called DamagedFiles.
2. You can certainly delete the file if it’s not important to you. If it’s important, try to open it up and check if it’s corrupted.
3. The worst scenario that can take place is that Disk Utility can’t repair the disk. You will notice the ‘The underlying task reported failure’ message. Go for the First Aid tool again and back up all the existing data.

Erase Locked Files

If you are still observing the ‘the operation can’t be completed because one or more required items can’t be found’ message, then this solution might work. Try deleting locked files in the following manner:

1. Open a Terminal window on your Mac device. Run the ‘chflags -R nouchg’ command.
2. Explore the Trash application and select the item or items that you want to delete. Drag all of them to the Terminal area.
3. Now, press the Return key and try emptying the Trash.

Try Alternative Command in Terminal

Here’s another command workaround that might help you to eliminate the error code 43. Simply, open a Terminal window on your Mac device. Enter the following command: rm (space). Select the files that are not getting deleted. 

Drag and drop them to the Terminal area and press the Return key. This should remove those files from the device. Empty the Trash and check if the error code 43 is still flashing.

Do a NVRAM (PRAM) Reset

A minor glitch with the NVRAM component on Mac devices can lead to the error code 43. Resetting NVRAM can help you eradicate the error. Follow the instructions below:

1. Shut down the system and turn it on.
2. Meanwhile, your Mac is booting, and you need to press and hold the following four keys for 20 seconds. They are Command, Option, P, and R.
3. This will start resetting the NVRAM, and your Mac device will catch up with the startup process.

Keep in mind that this procedure can reset your basic Mac settings, such as date & time, volume, and resolution. However, you can adjust them later.

Close Finder Forcefully

You can relaunch Finder after force quitting the Finder. Users have reported that a bug related to Finder might cause the same issue. Go through the steps below:

1. Click the Apple icon and use the Force Quit option.
2. Scroll down and find the Finder application from the new window.
3. Check if the error code 43 is still there.

Finally…

You can try this hack on your Mac device. Find the session file on the system and right-click it. Opt for the Show Package content option. You might find Resources, Media, and alternatives in the content folder. 

Go through alternatives and check if you can locate any file such as DisplayState.plist. Delete files that have the same name. If you don’t want to take risks, then back them up. Try emptying the Trash and check if the ‘the operation can’t be completed because one or more required items can’t be found’ error bounces back or not.