Q: Bring back Force Empty Trash!!!!!

Did the items in the Trash formerly exist in your Home folder? Did they exist on a network volume, or one that is no longer mounted? Answering those questions might explain the reasons you are unable to empty the Trash.

Since Apple never included any feature known as "Force Empty Trash" in any previously released operating system, nor will control-clicking do anything like it, nor does Apple respond to "demands" on this site or any other, and it seems a number of people have become understandably confused by your question, I recommend you start a new Discussion and describe just what's going on with your Mac. A title such as "unable to empty Trash" would be more appropriate and more likely to elicit helpful replies.

If you had been using a utility that modified OS X to include a feature to ignore file permissions on items in the Trash, then you will have to ask that utility's developer. Those sorts of things were always a bad idea and often do not survive OS X upgrades.

JimmyCMPIT wrote:

 

and using this method you potentially direct a user to wipe necessary OS components and data from your drive with this command with no chance of recovery.

Apple wisely hid the user Library folder (a move which many people protested loudly about) precisely because of users deleting things that were essential.

Other system essential folders like /usr or /etc have *always* been hidden, with good reason.

The command I posted does NOT delete any necessary OS components, it empties the current user's trash (*) in a forceful manner, which is what this thread was about. Of course, of you start experimenting with Terminal commands without having a clue about what you are doing, you can render your mac inoperable in seconds.

(*) To be much more precise: it deletes the files *from the startup volume* that the current user had moved to the trash. It will not delete the trash from other volumes, like a usb flash drive or external drive from which you might have sent files to the trash. These are still stored in the respective drives. I will restrain from writing how to delete them :-)

please see this thread

Trash on external drive

in your Terminal screen type

cd ~/.Trash

and press Return. Then, type

sudo rm -R   followed by a space, do not press return.

Then highlight all items in your trash can using command A. Drag the items into the Terminal window and release the items. Press Return and enter your administrator password when prompted. You will see your trash can empty instantly.

I was having the same issue. The older force empty command no longer worked for me but this one does. As with any terminal commands, use wisely and with care.

I'm not sure if this is what you need, or if it no longer works in El Capitan, but worth a look.

From an Apple document:

"For example, this message might appear when you try to empty the Trash: "The operation could not be completed because the item '(item name)' is locked."

First, try holding the Option key as you choose Empty Trash from the Finder menu."

The rest of the article may have some more information, even though it is older than El Capitan.

You can't empty the Trash or move a file to the Trash - Apple Support

Sorry to those claiming the contrary but "force empty trash" was a thing.

It was a combination of holding certain keys when clicking on empty.

I cant remember off the top, but it was either a two or three key combination and it worked as recently [at the least] as 10.5.8, which I just upgraded from yesterday from my PowerPC G4 to a new iMac.

Anyway... long story short: I got the cannot blah blah in use message, unlocked the files in question [didn't work], couldn't remember the exact key combination so I came looking for it [how I ended up on this thread].

I figured out that in El Capitan you open the Trash and use the contextual menu [control+click / right click] and choose "Delete Immediately" to get rid of the "in use" nonsense.

I hope thats helpful to someone.

Hugo Stiglitz wrote:

 

Apparently Secure Delete still exists in El Capitan. Just control click any file and the contextual menu has a secure delete option. Still isn't working with the files in question, but just more evidence Apple is yanking our chain about Secure Empty Trash.

Not with my copy of El Capitan. However if you right click on a file already in the Trash there is an option to 'Delete Immediately…"