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Secure Empty Trash hangs

After installing Leopard, I relaunched Finder. Now when I go to Secure Empty Trash it hangs with 4 untrashed items. Is there another way, eg from the command line, I can empty these items? (Empty Trash works normally)

If I do use the command line, what command do I use?

For my information, where-abouts in the file system, is the Trash located?

PowerPC Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Oct 27, 2007 2:00 AM

91 replies

Nov 6, 2007 4:25 AM in response to etresoft

[quote=etresoft] If there is a "hang" in secure empty trash, I am 80% certain the "hang" is not in the secure file deletion. It is probably in the file count, or what the Finder thinks is the file count for the trash. If that could gets off, even by one, the Finder will stay in the "emptying trash" state forever. That doesn't necessarily means you files are still hanging around unencrypted. It just means the Finder is confused. [/quote] After fiddling with Terminal (described above) this was one thing I noticed too. All my Trash folders were empty, as indicated by Terminal, but when I put a file in the Trash and used Secure Empty Trash, it couldn't count.

Do you know where the Finder keeps this count? I thought it might be in com.apple.finder.plist (in Library/Preferences) but that didn't make a difference.

(FYI: QuickLook can open plist files, I just opened com.apple.finder.plist with QuickLook)

[quote=etresoft] I had hoped to fire up secure empty and then use Terminal to poke around in the Trash by hand and check the process activity to see what is actually going on. Unfortunately, I cannot reproduce the problem. [/quote] A shame, I'd like to know what that would reveal. I don't ahve the Terminal skills to do it unfortunately.

In the mean time, until Apple fixes the problem, RR1 on a different thread suggested using Permanent Eraser ( http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Security/Permanent-Eraser.shtml). I'm using that and it work very well.

NoName

Level 6

12,831 points

Nov 7, 2007 6:32 AM in response to Barry Clarke1

Thanks for the valuable information. I rather agree that it seems related to a Finder problem, but of course can't be sure at this point. I have installed and tested Trash X, and it works just fine on my system, but I really don't like using a separate application to empty my trash. I've contacted the developer by e-mail a few days ago about confirming Leopard compatibility, but have gotten no response. Interestingly, when watching Trash X rid the trash of files ("shred" them), the Finder's count always seems to be off, even though the process appears to end normally and successfully.

Bill3

Level 2

297 points

Nov 7, 2007 7:15 AM in response to Techie3

Me too, only one file in trash, when go to empty secure, shows 6 items, and never stope trying to delete the 1KB web link alias

etresoft

Level 8

47,174 points

Nov 7, 2007 12:31 PM in response to Barry Clarke1

Barry Clarke1 wrote:
Do you know where the Finder keeps this count? I thought it might be in com.apple.finder.plist (in Library/Preferences) but that didn't make a difference.

I'm sure it is not in a file. It probably only lives in the thread that empties the trash. If the internal counter gets screwed up, it will just sit forever waiting for the count to get to zero, which it never will. You would have to re-launch the Finder to fix it.

The Leopard Finder was a major overhaul. It runs much faster now but it does have a few bugs. I'm sure they will get fixed pretty soon. If you can reproduce the problem or have any additional information, file a bug report with Apple.

Nov 7, 2007 5:30 PM in response to etresoft

PatrickEllis1 has filed a bug report. His post is at the bottom of this thread -> http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5715010#5715010

Mikki_10

Level 1

0 points

Nov 11, 2007 2:29 PM in response to Barry Clarke1

Something that I found interesting...my secure empty trash is hanging, claiming that I have thousands of files and I too let it run for several hours with no progress. I got curious and using the terminal window went into the hidden .Trash folder on the desktop and saw the files and decided to remove them using the unix commands. Everything removed successfully except I had a Google.app file sitting down in an Untitled Folder. I explored the settings a bit more and from within Unix I was getting a message that I had to 'unlink the file' but there was no obvious link between other directories.
I ended up just for the heck trying secure empty trash again from within the finder, it got stuck and then tried the regular empty trash and it was removed!

I'm sure there is something logical about that but I'm not sure what it is!

Mikki_10

Level 1

0 points

Nov 11, 2007 2:32 PM in response to Mikki_10

One more note...my secure empty trash works now..so I'm wondering if is related to cases where it has trouble resolving directory and file links, which is something that would also not be surprising after an upgrade to the OS either....just an idea.

Nov 11, 2007 3:40 PM in response to Barry Clarke1

I can confirm a secure delete hang on a Mac Book Pro with an erase and install installation of Leo. Here is a simple workaround the hang--relaunch the finder. Easy to do by alt-right click finder icon and select Relaunch. This killed the hang dialogue and allowed normal trash functioning to resume.

jm

Nov 12, 2007 2:53 AM in response to Mikki_10

I hadn't thought of that. Thanks.

DonaldH

Level 1

0 points

Nov 13, 2007 1:05 PM in response to Barry Clarke1

The problem seems to revolve around Time Machine!

At least on my install of Leopard, I could not figure out why the Secure Delete would no longer work. It always stopped at about 4.

I played awhile and figured out that if I shut off Time Machine and removed the FireWire drive from time Machine... Secure Delete worked just fine again.

So, to me this would say that it's Time Machine behind the problem.

Apple needs to focus on Time Machine to correct this issue.

Just my opinion.

NoName

Level 6

12,831 points

Nov 14, 2007 9:00 AM in response to DonaldH

FWIW, it had nothing to do with Time Machine in my case, as I never even launched the application. The problem with the Trash is reproducible 100% of the time with a vanilla Erase & Install of Leopard on my system, with no 3rd party software whatsoever installed.

Steve P.

Level 1

113 points

Nov 14, 2007 1:04 PM in response to DonaldH

I just tried Secure Empty Trash with my Time Machine drive unmounted. No difference. It still hangs.

Cleve

Level 1

45 points

Nov 14, 2007 7:50 PM in response to Steve P.

Hello All,

I reported this issue to Apple on 10/31 and received confirmation from a Product Specialist that this is in fact a bug.

I unmounted my FireWire Time Machine backup drive after reading this post and this resolves the issue.

Cleve

Nov 14, 2007 10:22 PM in response to Barry Clarke1

Yeah, seriously, I've been having these issues as well. I've resorted to using the Disk Utility to recover my free space.

With the exception of my new iPod, I've also noticed that Finder doesn't accurately reflect the amount of free space on my internal hard drive, as well as on external devices such as my 1GB Kingston USB flash drive. Does this mean that I have to use Disk Utility to erase that too?!?!

Aside from the secure trash issue, has anyone else noticed that Spotlight has also been kind of wonky? I had mine re-index everything at least twice over the past hour.

*fingers crossed* Let's hope they come out with a patch soon.....I'd rather not lie to customers at work and try to sell them this upgrade if Apple can't get it to fully work ^_^

Nov 15, 2007 1:13 AM in response to DonaldH

I'm not discounting your opinion that Time Machine is caught up in the bug, I think it is a good one, however; as I described above, I ejected my non-Time Machine drive, the drive that I think initiated the problem (Time Machine made it worse), and the Secure Empty Trash still hanged. Ditto, ejecting the non-Time Machine and remounting Time Machine backup drive. Ejecting both drives 'fixed' it, ie Secure Empty Trash worked as expected.

Secure Empty Trash hangs