Can not empty Aperture trash

Emptying the trash works. How are you doing it and what messages are you getting?

So you're not even getting the popup asking if you really want to empty the trash?
What if you right click on the trash, does it come up with the +empty aperture trash+ menu item?

You wrote that you repaired permissions. Did you also try to repair the library? What happens if you create new empty library, add a few things to it and then try it? You might also want to try it as a different user to see if that changes anything.

So when you place things in the trash the *Aperture->Empty Aperture Trash* goes from being grayed out to being black, correct? So it sees things in the trash. Crazy thought if you delete a regular file with the finder does that file show up in the System Trash? Thinking of some sort of weird permissions problem on the file system.

What drive is the library on? Internal or external? and if external what are its specs, connection type, format etc.

The only time I have heard of Aperture having problems similar to what you are describing was when the library was on a separate volume, either an internal disk that was split into multiple volumes or an external disk and there was permission problems with the trash.

On the boot volume each user has a .trash file in their home directory but on other volume there is a volume wide trash. Even though it looks like files deleted from other volumes are all in the same trash they are in different trash files and the OS makes it look like there is one system wide trash.

Wish I had more to offer but I'm out of ideas. Hopefully someone else will jump in.

good luck, let us know how it turns out.

One last thing I can think to try would be to run Disk Utility's *Repair Permissions* on the HD just to rule out some strange interaction between Aperture and the system trash.

Not sure if there is a difference with the Academic version or not, but there are a couple of things you can look at if nothing else works:

1 - Move the contents of these folders to the trash and reboot (note - I suggest you just try moving any Aperture related folders / files first).

/Library/Caches
/System/Library/Caches
/Users/<youruser>/Library/Caches

Also, move the following folders to the desktop:

/Library/Application Support/Aperture
~/Library/Application Support/Aperture

These are both empty folders to start with and will be recreated when you load Aperture again. They both are used to hold Plug-Ins and the one in your Home folder contains different setting files that are created when you make settings in Aperture.

If this sorts the issue, then you can restore any of the 'Plug-Ins' as needed, the rest of the files can be deleted as Aperture will recreate those.



2 - If that does not help, then back when my username was 'CorkyO', I posted two rather long-winded comments at the link below concerning removing all trace of Aperture and then reinstalling (in this case it was for AP2):

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11110145


One of the main points is running the Terminal command to view hidden files / folders and gain access to: '/private/var/db/receipts' and removing any files related to Aperture. This combined with the rest of the procedures should remove all trace of Aperture and allow you to start from scratch.

Note - the procedures in #2 are only recommended if you have a system backup and have exhausted all other 'easier' options to resolve the problem. Since your problem seems to be Aperture related only, the removal of Aperture cache and support folders may resolve the issue.

Good luck and remember to backup first. 😉

One thing I forgot to mention you should look in the console logs to see if anything is being reported there. I'd clear the log display window then then put something into the Aperture trash and try to delete it. See if anything is logged.