Comment 3 for bug 382843

I've had the same problem - it doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen more than 50% of the time.

As described by Carroarmato0, when trying to move files from one place to another (typically copying photos off a memory card, but also when moving files around on the same drive), the user drags the files from the source window to the destination window, the cursor changes to a dragging file icon, with a + (copy to) as normal, however when the mouse button is released, the cursor returns to normal (as if the file had been dropped), however the file doesn't get copied or moved.

Whilst playing with it in order to describe it properly for this bug report, I have found that whether the drag/drop works or not depends on the distance from the bottom of the window to where the file is dropped. If the file is held over the bottom 150 pixels (or so, distance estimated) of a Nautilus window, then the cursor will always show a + (copy icon), however if the file is held higher up, the section of the window (or directory underneath the cursor) gets highlighted and the file is moved as normal as shown in the screenshot.

In the window on the left, I'm dragging "temp3" onto "temp2" which is towards the bottom of the window. Note that "temp2" has not highlighted. Also, the cursor has not been shown correctly by the screenshot - at this point, it was a gripping hand with a +. In the window on the right, I'm dragging "temp3" onto "Personal", here "Personal" is highlighted to tell me that the file will be moved to there, as is the border of that panel of the window. At this point, I again had the gripping hand cursor, however this time it had an arrow to say it was going to move the file there.

This bug appears to be unrelated to which view mode (icons, list, compact) the window is in.