Trash emptying lots of files, how long will this take?

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Trash emptying lots of files, how long will this take?

I am using Time Machine to back up on a G Drive device. For days I've been getting messages that there isn't enough room to back up, so I deleted a folder from several weeks ago. It is taking FOREVER to delete these files in the Trash. Progress is happening—it's up to "204,900 items deleted (1,075,000 and counting items inside Library)"—yikes! How long is this going to take? I have no way of knowing the total, and I certainly don't want this to be deleting forever. Is there some way to just eliminate the literally hundreds of thousands of files? Thank you

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 27, 2021 12:16 PM

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Answer 1

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Old Toad

Level 10

207,391 points

Feb 27, 2021 3:24 PM in response to JCTest

Boot into Safe Mode by booting with the Shift key held down and try erasing the disk from there. Then reboot normally.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing the following;

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

207,391 points

Feb 27, 2021 2:12 PM in response to JCTest

Is this a folder from the Time Machine drive? Like one of these:

If that's the case you've gotten into a situation that the only way out is to erase the Time Machine drive with Disk Utility and start over again.

Time Machine deletes older backups automatically when it needs additional space for new backups. You'll get that out of space warning if you don't have enough room on your boot drive to create "local snapshots". How much free space do you have on your boot drive?

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

207,391 points

Feb 27, 2021 2:40 PM in response to JCTest

JCTest wrote:

Would I just go to Disk Utility, select my G Drive (external hard drive) and click Erase?

Yes. It won't stop trying to empty until you do.

For the free space select the hard drive's icon on the Desktop and type ⌘+i to bring up the Info pane for the drive. It will look like this;

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Answer 4

rkaufmann87

Level 10

140,448 points

Feb 27, 2021 12:24 PM in response to JCTest

Please explain how you Trashed backups from the Time Machine External Hard Disk. If you simply moved backups to the Trash then you have destroyed your Time Machine backup and need to re-format the drive and start over.

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Answer 5

JCTest Author

Level 1

13 points

Feb 27, 2021 12:29 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Thanks for the reply. I'm actually on with Apple Chat right now. I believe that is what I did--simply deleted the files to the Trash. I don't know how to reformat the Drive, though. And it's definitely making progress deleting, I'm just wondering how long it will take before it finishes! Thanks again

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Answer 6

JCTest Author

Level 1

13 points

Feb 27, 2021 2:29 PM in response to Old Toad

I have absolutely no idea. All I want is for the Trash to finish deleting all these files. I don't know how to reformat my Time Machine but the earlier responder provided some YouTube links as to how to do that. I'm wondering if I erase the Time Machine Drive if all those files I want to just go away will do so. But I guess I can try Disk Utility as well, as you mention. thank you.

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Answer 7

JCTest Author

Level 1

13 points

Feb 27, 2021 2:43 PM in response to Old Toad

OK I see that--and the amount of space being used is, of course, decreasing because the Trash is trying to delete things. Are you saying that Disk Utility>G Drive (external hard drive)>Erase will take care of this and stop the whole Trash process in one fell swoop? I don't care about losing the backups at this point. Thank you!

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Answer 8

JCTest Author

Level 1

13 points

Feb 27, 2021 3:16 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks. Unfortunately the Disk Utility>Erase function failed because the Finder (aka Trash) has it "in use." So I suppose another option is for me to command the Trash to stop emptying and then try to use the Disk Utility. Or I guess I just wait for the Trash to finish emptying. It's certainly progressing, it's just taking all day to complete. But thank you so much for your help and advice!

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Answer 9

JCTest Author

Level 1

13 points

Feb 27, 2021 4:06 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks much to those who attempted to help—you did with some good info—and as it happened, the Trash finally finished emptying! I don't know if my G Drive will work now, and I don't know why it stopped eliminating backups to make room for others, but my next move might be figuring out how to exclude certain things in backups that are already saved to the Cloud to keep this from happening??? Anyway, thank you!

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