Catalina Update Relocated Items - Can't Delete or Empty Trash

So here is what I did for removing that folder:

1. Reboot and go to Cmd+R recovery mode
2. disable SIP by `csrutil disable`
3. Reboot to normal mode and delete that folder, empty trash
4. Reboot and go to Cmd+R recovery mode
5. re-enable SIP by `csrutil enable`
6. Reboot to normal mode

Hi,

A couple of comments here:

First, prior to seeing faikbey's comment added above, I filed an issue on the XQuartz GitHub site here:

https://github.com/XQuartz/XQuartz/issues/1

as this appears to be an XQuartz related issue, for those that have installed it. Apple stopped including X11 in OS X 10.5, and XQuartz is the vehicle for its use since then for those that need that functionality.

There should ideally be an uninstall capability in XQuartz, but I was unable to locate one, other than this GitHub Gist here with a manual script:

https://gist.github.com/pwnsdx/d127873e24cef159d4d603accaf37ee4#file-gistfile1-txt

However, that uninstall would presumably only work on this issue if you knew about this problem prior to upgrading to Catalina. That is, you would uninstall XQuartz first, upgrade to Catalina, and then reinstall XQuartz.

Once you have upgraded to Catalina, with XQuartz in place, you get this underlying relocated items issue.

I did use the above gist scripts to uninstall XQuartz post Catalina upgrade, but that did not help in resolving the relocated files issue.

Second, one additional point to add to faikbey's comment, is that the user volumes are not mounted by default in Catalina in Recovery Mode, even in /Volumes. Thus, before going into the Terminal to do what faikbey suggests, you appear to need to go into the Disk Utility application and mount the Macintosh HD volumes in the left hand frame, to make them accessible from the Terminal. Once I did this, I could then navigate to my .Trash folder in my user account tree and delete the files.

After a reboot from Recovery Mode, all is well, at least in terms of the files in Trash being gone. Now, I need to reinstall XQuartz, as I need it for one of my applications, so we will see how that goes.

Hopefully, the XQuartz devs will note the issue and offer some better options for dealing with this, or provide other clarifications as apropos.

Thanks for this, @alanwsx. I tried a simpler approach based on your insight of using Recovery Mode and had success just doing this:

1. Reboot and go to Cmd+R recovery mode
2. Open Terminal
3. Navigate to the Trash folder (e.g. cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/USERNAME_GOES_HERE/.Trash
4. Delete everything manually by `rmdir -rf Relocated\ Items`. No sudo is required in Recovery Mode.
5. If it succeeds (it did for me!), reboot to normal mode and you're done. If not, continue your instructions at Step 2.

I had the same issue, here is how I fixed it:

Restarted using recovery mode (command-R)

From the top menu bar choose utilities and launch terminal

Type df to see all the mounted hard drives since recovery mode doesn't mount your hard drive to / but to /Volumes/Macintosh HD (or what have you).

Go to your mounted volume, in there /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/<username>/.Trash and do sudo rm -rf *

Check with ls to see if it worked, it should.

Close terminal and restart again, trash should be empty

Correct certainly Apple is aware of that and will fix the issue shortly. Just want to add no matter how Tim Cook is excellent , Apple wasn't his dream so I noticed several issues whether on Mac or iPhone even though most of the times could be ignored.

I followed double clicked the shortcut inside the folder, changed all the folder permissions to "Read and Write" for everyone, then deleted all of the folders inside. It won't let me move or delete the alias, so I put the rest where it was pointing. (Mac HD > Opt).

Had same issue. Reason you can delete those folders you don't have read or write permissions (even if you're in you daily profile aka. administer). All you need to do is:

Open folder titled "Relocated Items"-> look for folders/files with ⛔️on them -> select -> right click -> select "Get Info" -> in Finder window that pops up scroll to bottom and click on "▼ Sharing & Permissions" -> Click on the 🔒at bottom right corner (to be able to change permissions privileges) and enter password -> once unlocked in the table beside "everyone" click "No Access" (or which ever is not "Read & Write") -> change to "Read & Write" -> Repeat as needed to all folders/files with ⛔️-> Now you will be able to delete with Trash

I do consider myself computer-fluent, but I am not willing to go through 4 reboots just for deleting one folder. This problem was created by Apple. It is so obvious that it's hard to imagine how they missed it.

Where is the solution, Apple? Chop Chop!

Apple should first explain why these items were relocated in the first place, I also have discovered a folder named "Previously Relocated Items". Since both these folders contain some important docs and pics I am scared to do anything I could find on the net. Look forward to some simple and decent solution from Apple.

This worked for me. I should add that there are a few instructions missing for less experienced users: When you come up in recovery mode, you don't choose any of the 4 options that come up. You go to the menu on the top of the screen and choose "Utilities" and choose Terminal. You enter "csrutil disable" and then hit enter. Follow instructions above and do the same for "csrutil enable" the same way before your final reboot.

Are you referring to the 4X reboot approach? First, even the entry to recovery mode didn't work for me (I have never tried this before). Can I suggest something? Whenever you or anyone else posts instructions in response to a question, please spell out everything - even if the questioner would understand what you mean in your abridged instructions, the whole point of this website is to post solutions of general interest - otherwise you would just email each other. One doesn't need to be inexperienced to become stuck because some "obvious" command wasn't mentioned. We can't yet read each other's mind, not even at short distance:)

Thanks

This is was my first attempt ever at recovery mode. I agree with you that the original poster could have been more specific, but I figured it out and they worked for me. What's missing is that you reboot, then hit CONTROL+R when you see the Apple logo. This takes you into recovery mode. After you make the changes in Terminal, you reboot into normal mode, etc.

Thank you for the advice. For a reason I can't identify, I am unable to put my iMac in recovery mode. Any suggestion for solving this problem?

Instead of having to figure this out only for the sake of a deletion of a single file, it would be better for me, as well as for anyone else who is still stuck with this useless file in their trash if Apple came out with a faster and simpler solution.

For people who are not tech-savvy, this solution does not work. Apple should come up with a solution.