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The operation can't be completed because the item "xxx.mkv" is in use.

I am trying to delete an mkv file that is in the trash but it says that it is in use. I have tried restarting without opening any applications and I still get the same message.

MacBook Pro, iPhone 3gs, Mac OS X (10.6.4), It's very cool

Posted on Jul 4, 2010 12:18 AM

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Posted on Jul 4, 2010 12:28 AM

That could be linked to one of your startup items. The MKV files are media files (windows media player) so do you start up with Flash or iTunes or anything else related?

To get rid of such a recalcitrant file, try the Secure Empty Trash instead of the standard operation.
6 replies

Jul 4, 2010 4:28 AM in response to baccalad

It often does take a while. For one things it writes over the space a few times so you are not emptying it once you are emptying it over and over again.

Why 4 files? You may have had an invisible file in there, or the MKV file may have contained other data (some files on Macs are actually packages). I am not familiar with this type of file. Where did it come from: do you trust its source?

The operation can't be completed because the item "xxx.mkv" is in use.

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