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Trash Wants to Delete Files Immediately

I took my MacBook Pro to get looked at yesterday for a problem with my trackpad. While that has nothing to do with my new problem, I'm almost certain they did something to affect my Trash. Whenever I drag something to the Trash icon, instead of hopping into the waste bin, Finder prompts me that the said files will be deleted immediately. Now this by itself is annoying, but add to the fact that I can no longer move files to the trash, I'm finding myself unable to even delete songs from my iTunes library. The option to Move to Trash has vanished.

The guy who was working on my Macbook plugged in an ethernet cable, relaunched my computer by hold down N, a globe appeared and it launched into a weird desktop. I'm guessing this is their diagnostic stuff, but then proceeded to check and uncheck a bunch of boxes in a program I had never seen before. The problem with my trash has only occurred since coming back from the Genius Bar. I'm guessing something he did changed some preferences or something, and I don't know how to get 'em back. Any advice?

Macbook Pro 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Oct 29, 2009 2:04 PM

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2 replies

Dec 22, 2009 3:39 PM in response to ducks_fly

I had this problem too. Logging out and in again did not recreate the Trash and I was unable to create a new .Trash file with Terminal. The problem appeared to be a wider one: I could not create new files or folders in my Home directory anymore (although I had the permissions to do so).

The solution I found was to reset permissions on the Home folder. To do so:
- Restart from the (Snow) Leopard dvd.
- After choosing a language, choose Reset Password from the Utilities menu.
- Click Reset Home Directory Permissions.
- Quit the installer and restart.

Your Trash will resume it's normal behavior.

Trash Wants to Delete Files Immediately

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