Empty Trash error -8003

I use Onyx "Delete Tras with Administrator Priviliges" which works without needing a reboot etc and is free

I verified the external hard drive using disk utility and during that process the trash containing the TM backups got completely emptied. This is after trying everything including Trashit.

This was a very helpful post. I kept getting the -8003 Trash Empty Error after I manuel tried to delete files from my time machine backup. I tried all of the options listed on this forum, but the only one that solved my issue was Onyx. Trash It did not work, Disk Repair did not work, using the Terminal command did not work, but Onyx did. So this is what I highly recommend. I ended up trashing all of my Time Machine files, added a partition to my external hd, I now have set aside 100 gb for Time Machine to back to, and I will no longer touch those files on the backup hd. So hopefully this will help someone else. Thanks to all those who posted solutions that worked for them!!!

This is a problem Apple should be aware of and needs to fix. I assume it is the same in Lion, I have in the past deleted files from my eternal (that uses time machine) and never run into this problem w/ a secure empty trash, this time I have a whole mess to deal with. There should not be this many steps involved in trying to free up space on an external I find this a little rediculous.

ok so i got this error and thankns to the forums i downloaded Trash It which worked only to eliminate the many files from my MAc Pro itself however the files I am trying to delete from my Time Machine remain in the trash. Problem was two-fold: I used my time machine also for some files and currently have been using it to transfer from an old IMAc to this MAcPro...so in that process a large amount of backups piled up from the old machine which is why i dragged them into the trash...so now this.

Any thoughts on getting those out of the trash?

thanks

-jules

I just used Trash It and it worked like a charm! It's free (donations) but I donated $10. Don't waste your time trying all the other so-called solutions suggested on here. Get Trash It - http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/8214

No thanks, I'll stick with Onyx. It's been around a very long time, is highly respected and always gets updates to the lastest OS thanks to the work its devs do.

TO BE CLEAR:

Use Onyx, select the Automation tab > check all the "Cleaning" checkboxes. If it doesn't work for you you can go back to check all the checkboxes - even ones not in the Cleaning section. But I don't think you'll need to go this far. There is no need to reset Spotlight, so you can leave that one unchecked.

iCab was the App that caused this issue for me. That App is never getting back on my machine.

Any particular reason you just joined these forums yesterday and responded to a post from 2009 to promote Trash It? And did so in a way that was raher snotty, questioning the usefulness of all other posted solutions? Many of which are free? Are you affiliated with Trash It?

Thomas A Reed wrote:

Any particular reason you just joined these forums yesterday and responded to a post from 2009 to promote Trash It?

I was thinking the same thing, Thomas. "boydfromcalgary" is clearly suspect.

The reason is that I just tried yesterday to delete files from time machine that were backed up on my Lacie external drive to create room for movie files I was creating. I tried all the other solutions on this thread first (because I don't like downloading apps to my mac if I can avoid it) with no success. Trash it worked brilliantly for me so I will promote it because that's what I do for people who create things that work! If you find it snotty I don't GaS.

Like you don't work for Onyx! hmmm, curious, Joe the coder and Thomas A Reed are one in the same!

You do realize you sound guilty now. Before we suspected something, now we're becoming convinced. No I don't work for Onyx, I believe they are French, I'm Irish. Ask any Mac user about Onyx. It's pretty much the go-to maintainance app and has been for many years. John Gruber mentions it, This is my next talks about it. Onyx is respected and always up to date, so Trash It really isn't needed.

For a coder you should learn to spell. Who is the "we" that is becoming convinced? I never tried Onyx, I'm sure if they are as good as you say they are they may have done the job just as well as Trash It. I'm just giving my personal testimony and hopefully you are just giving yours.

Ok, guilty.

Typos fixed.

You didn't try every suggestion on this thread. Trash It is an AppleScript app, and as such, it almost certainly uses code very similar to one solution that was posted, involving a Unix command. If that particular solution didn't work, nothing would. If you like the way Trash It works, that's fine, but don't go posting false information.

As for insulting people based on spelling errors, that shows you to be quite juvenile. Don't make the mistake of thinking that people whose native language is not English or who have a disorder like dyslexia or who simply make errors while typing are not intelligent.