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Can't Stop Process of Emptying Trash

Since installing Snow Leopard, files attached to emails are left "in use", keeping the trash from emptying if they are inside, hence i have to "Secure Empty Trash" in order to get it to empty at all in those instances.

Until recently i haven't often needed to do this, but for years now, every time i recall clicking the little (x) in the "Emptying Trash" dialog to stop the process partway, the dialog reports that it's stopping but stays on the screen interminably displaying an indeterminate progress bar.

During that time if i don't notice and try to move other items to the trash, i usually get the dialog saying i cannot move anything else to the trash; but sometimes a second dialog will pop up saying finder is +preparing to move+ the file(s) to the trash, but that too will hang about endlessly until i "Force Relaunch" finder.

*Secure emptying or not, why would i not be able to stop the process?*

*Has anyone else actually successfully stopped the process of emptying the trash?*

 Mac Pro 1.1 - 7GB RAM - 4TB total HD, Mac OS X (10.6.2), HP LP2465 - Wacom PTZ 613W - 30GB iPod Video

Posted on Dec 22, 2009 7:42 PM

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Posted on Dec 22, 2009 11:42 PM

Start with http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html
6 replies

Mar 15, 2010 3:22 AM in response to baltwo

I didn't see a whole lot.

Killall doesn't really solve the problem.

I can shut down finder with "Force Quit", but then i have to wait for it to come back up with all my desktop clutter and reposition my 20 or so typically open windows back into their correct "Spaces".

Seems if I click the widget to stop emptying the trash, it should stop emptying the trash.



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Mar 15, 2010 10:40 AM in response to Cut'n Paste

Secure emptying or not, why would i not be able to stop the process?


Some processes can't be interrupted until they're completed (disk actions -- which might otherwise leave things in disarray, as one example.)

OS operations aren't always synchronous with what appears on the screen. By the time you tell the process to stop, it may have already gone beyond what you saw on the screen and has to catch up the display before you see the subsequent action.

Mar 16, 2010 7:32 AM in response to direwolf8

I would have thought that when the emptying process reached a point between files, or some other condition when it wouldn't scrambe the directories, it would stop.

And it certainly seems it ought to at the very least remove the dialog when the process is already finished. But usually the process is neither interrupted, nor does the dialog ever go away.

Can't Stop Process of Emptying Trash

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