MacOS "Relocated Items" after every update - can't I make it stop?
May 4, 2021 4:22 PM   Subscribe

With every Mac OS update for the last year, I get the "Relocated Items" on my desktop. I understand basically what this is, and that it's pretty safe to delete. But it's the SAME thing appearing there after EVERY update, even after I removed it last time. Isn't there some way to, say, find the original pre-relocated file and remove it permanently? (more detail inside.)

The full path (after the relocation from the OS update) is:

Users > Shared > Relocated Items > Configuration > private > etc > postfix > header_checks.system_default

I delete it, but then with the next OS update it's there again. Every time. And I can't find any similarly named files or directories on the Mac; there is no other "postfix" folder that I can find.
Isn't there some way of finding out where this file is originally from, before it was "relocated," so I can possibly remove it from there? Or some way to stop it reappearing as "relocated item" with every single OS update?
(I realize this is not the biggest problem in the world, but it's annoying and it seems like it should be easier to make it stop?)
posted by dnash to Computers & Internet (2 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
So, you can look in the folder in terminal - if you open a terminal window (cmd-space and then starting typing "terminal" to do this) you could then type:

ls /etc/postfix

This shows you a list of all the files in that folder. If you see header_checks.system_default you could then type:

cd /etc/postfix
rm header_checks.system_default

This 1) moves you into the directory where you would expect the file to be, then 2) removes the file.

It's also possible, though, that this file is getting re-created by something in between updates, in which case removing it once won't really make a difference.

And it's probably not the BEST idea to type random things you don't understand into the terminal window. So, this is an at your own risk kind of thing. But especially the stuff that starts with "cd" and "ls" is no big deal - just a way to see files that don't show up in Finder.
posted by mskyle at 5:42 PM on May 4, 2021


I tried looking in the same directory on my laptop and only got as far as Users>Shared>Previously Relocated Items where I found a PDF containing the following:
During the last macOS upgrade or file migration, some of your files couldn’t be moved to their new locations. This folder contains these files.

Files needing new locations
Some of your files had been in a location that is now incompatible with macOS security settings. These files were moved to the Security folder for your review.

If there are any files you want to keep, you can move them to a new location, as long as it is different from their location before the upgrade or migration.
So, maybe check the Security folder? Also, this seems to have something to do with Postfix. Maybe there is an update that will move that file where it belongs?
posted by slkinsey at 11:49 AM on May 5, 2021


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