Can't empty a file in the trash

Question

Level 1

23 points

Can't empty a file in the trash

I have a directory that I have named "bad". I have tried every suggestion on the web to empty it from the trash. It has been on my boot drive for a couple of years and even survived the transition to Big Sur. Even the nuclear option in terminal (rm -fr bad) fails, with the message "directory not empty". However, the directory has no visible or invisible files. I even booted to the recovery disk, ran Diskutil repair of the container as well as the Data directory of MacintoshHD. Then I tried rm -fr bad again (from the Recovery disk) and got the same message. I also tried rmdir -p bad but got the message "directory not empty". The -fr and -p options are supposed to delete directories, empty or not. I then tried again to see if there are any invisible files in bad. I ran ls -a bad and it returned . and .. as the only invisible files. I have also taken the directory bad out of the trash and tried rm, with the same result. Does anyone have a suggestion other than wiping the drive to get rid of this file?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.4

Posted on Jul 18, 2021 10:41 AM

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Answer 1

dialabrain

Level 10

136,947 points

Jul 18, 2021 12:25 PM in response to budsimrin

You need to boot into Recovery Mode, disable SIP by running "csrutil disable" in the Terminal. Restart then delete the file. Then you should reboot into Recovery Mode again, re-enable SIP by typing "csrutil enable" in the Terminal, then restart again.

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Answer 2

budsimrin Author

Level 1

23 points

Jul 18, 2021 2:55 PM in response to Owl-53

Thank you, both. I guess I'll just hide the file again in an out-of-the-way place for another few years. I got a similar message when trying to empty the trash (after disabling SIP): "The operation can't be completed because the item 'bad' is in use". I then opened Terminal and entered lsof path-to-trash/bad but no processes were listed.

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Answer 3

budsimrin Author

Level 1

23 points

Jul 18, 2021 12:19 PM in response to Owl-53

Good suggestion. Thank you. I just now tried it. I disabled SIP and then executed both rm and rmdir from the recovery disk but got the same message. I rebooted and tried sudo rm but was still told "Directory not empty". What is left to try? GetInfo says the file is not locked but it lists me twice with read-write privileges. I tried to delete one of them but the minus sign is dimmed. If I should use terminal to change owner and permissions, I would probably need explicit directions as I am not very familiar doing that.

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Answer 4

budsimrin Author

Level 1

23 points

Jul 18, 2021 12:35 PM in response to dialabrain

Thank you, dialabrain. After I ran csrutil disable, I first tried to to delete the file using Terminal in the Recovery disk and when that didn't work, I restarted and tried again. Neither worked.

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