Can not empty trash from EXFAT or FAT external drive

I have been using an EXFAT 1TB external ssd without any problem beetween my mac and windows and suddenly the deleted files in trash became unable to be emptied.

This is what happened when I tried to empty trash.

and this is what happened when I tried force delete the folder right from the finder.

I can format the drive and I have finally found out that I could do rm -rf to empty the trash but I want to fix the issue to be like before.

I have no problem at all deleting if I format it to Mac OS Extended but I am using it across several platform.

Another thing is that the issue occurred after I mounted the drive to my Synology NAS to copy files to the NAS but I don't know if there is anything to do with it.

Any help would be appreciated.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Nov 17, 2022 6:23 AM

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19 replies

Kenggo Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 21, 2023 1:33 AM in response to DiZoE

For now, it is GUID but I have already tried Master Boot too.

I don't have any issue deleting files from the Mac or another formatted external drive.

I have tried every port, every cable, and every external drive I have.

I am using WD blue sn550 M.2 drive in an external M.2 case and another WD ext. HDD on M1 MB Pro 14" base model.

I believe there is no option to change the permission on the ExFAT drive but I'm not sure since right now my drive is formatted to Mac OS extended so I could keep my work going and I can't format it for now.

I have already tried both Safe Mode and the new Admin user unfortunately, that didn't work either.

As I said I have no issue at all on other Macbook with other OS versions besides Ventura.

DiZoE

Level 4

3,033 points

Jan 21, 2023 2:01 AM in response to Kenggo

and likewise, if you don’t have issues deleting from another drive......is it a different brand and formatted differently? Cheers.

Kenggo Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 21, 2023 9:59 PM in response to DiZoE

Thank you so much for your support.

I will try addressing them the issue again.

I have problems deleting them on every ExFAT drive on Ventura though regardless of what brand they are.

elcpu

Level 7

31,586 points

Jan 22, 2023 1:04 PM in response to elcpu

Here is a similar issue while trying to re-format an ExFAT drive using Disk Utility:

About half the times it hangs up like above and it takes a second try to get it re-formatted.

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Can not empty trash from EXFAT or FAT external drive