Having problems emptying the trash - everything remains in there.

Question

Level 2

328 points

Having problems emptying the trash - everything remains in there.

The trash can visibly has trash in it, and when you open it, the trash is there. When i try to Empty Trash, or Empty Trash Securely, it makes the sound that is emptying the trash, but nothing is happening. I tried Disk Utility, Verify Disk, no problems, and i ran Repair Disk Permissions numerous times but it still comes up with the same errors.

I looked at Activity Monitor, and i didn't see anything out of the ordinary running. Is this a glitch in the recent 10.6.7 update?

 17" Unibody MacBook Pro 2.8GHz 4GB RAM (Mid 2009), Mac OS X (10.6.7),  iPhone 4 32GB Black /  iPod Touch 32GB /  15" PowerBook G4 Titanium 1GHz

Posted on Mar 22, 2011 8:24 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Mar 22, 2011 8:41 PM in response to tool

Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on resolving Trash related problems.

Reply

Answer 2

MacGunt

Level 2

415 points

Mar 22, 2011 8:48 PM in response to tool

Can you empty the trash in safe mode? You can boot to safe mode by holding down the left shift key while booting up. If it works in safe mode, there may be something running that isn't jiving with 10.6.7

Reply

Answer 3

D0GG

Level 3

957 points

Mar 22, 2011 10:14 PM in response to tool

Try this...

Right click the trash icon

Press the command key on your keyboard (this will change the wording from "Empty Trash" to "Secure Empty Trash")

Click on the "Secure Empty Trash" selection

Did it work this time?

Reply

Answer 4

tool Author

Level 2

328 points

Mar 23, 2011 8:20 AM in response to D0GG

D0GG - if you looked at my original post - it said i tried that.

Reply

Answer 5

D0GG

Level 3

957 points

Mar 23, 2011 8:31 AM in response to tool

Sorry about that, I missed it.

Reply

Answer 6

tool Author

Level 2

328 points

Mar 23, 2011 9:26 AM in response to MacGunt

I was not able to empty the trash in safe mode. So i re-installed Snow Leopard again...i did not erase the drive first, or bring back any of my info from my Time Machine backup. But when it got done re-installing, i tried to empty the trash again, and it still would not empty.

There are no locked files in my trash can, it won't even delete a test file that i created in TextEdit.

Secure Empty Trash, and just Empty Trash both did not work.

Safe Mode did not work.

Disk Utility does not come up with any errors when i try to Verify Disk.

What could be causing this to not want to empty anything?

Reply

Answer 7

tool Author

Level 2

328 points

Mar 23, 2011 10:20 AM in response to tool

Since re-installing Snow Leopard did not correct the problem, i called Apple directly. I was first told this could be due to a permissions problem on my user end - i checked Disk Utility - and ran Repair Permissions, and it came up with a whole bunch...but when i try to repair it again, and again, and again...it always comes up with the same permissions problems.

So i created a new user, logged in to that, created a test file and trashed it - it emptied fine....so it was narrowed down to my own specific user. When I went back to my own specific user, I got into the Terminal, and entered a few commands to correct the problem, and it seems to be working fine now.

Reply

Answer 8

MacGunt

Level 2

415 points

Mar 23, 2011 12:39 PM in response to tool

What were the commands you used?
And, by chance, were some of the files that couldn't be removed from the trash deleted from a Time Machine backup using Finder?

Reply

Answer 9

sZc

Level 1

0 points

Apr 7, 2011 7:10 AM in response to tool

You know "tool", it would be very beneficial for other users experiencing same trash can problems as you, if you only posted those few Terminal commands. Asking for help is fine, but helping others in the same time is even better.

Reply

Answer 10

tool Author

Level 2

328 points

Apr 7, 2011 9:31 AM in response to sZc

sZc - i didn't write it down - hence, i didn't respond to the MacGunt's request for me to put it down.

Since i didn't see any other responses from you in this post - why are you now deciding to get on my case about it? Get a life.

Reply

Answer 11

sZc

Level 1

0 points

Apr 7, 2011 2:15 PM in response to tool

I, like many others was looking for help on this. And with your pathetic answer, you're just confirming about your character. Coming in for help and when you find it, don't want to share it with others. It looks like you are the one who needs to get a life 😉

Reply

Answer 12

patweb

Level 1

0 points

Apr 7, 2011 2:56 PM in response to tool

EMPTYING THE TRASH
Open the terminal and type:

cd ~/.Trash
<hit return or Enter>

sudo rm -rf

put a space after the f and drag the item (inside the trash) you want deleted to the terminal so that its path is automatically entered, then press return

give it your admin password and hit return
Voilà!

Message was edited by: patweb

Reply

Answer 13

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Apr 7, 2011 3:00 PM in response to tool

First, be sure the item(s) in the .Trash are not from another drive or volume.

Launch Terminal and *copy & paste* these commands:

cd ~/.Trash

Press Return Then enter

ls

Press return
This will list of the contents of your trash, so you can if there's anything you need you can drag it out. If not, follow these instructions to rebuild your ~/.Trash:

Go to /Applications /Utilities/Terminal and launch it.
At the prompt, *copy and paste* this command

sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash

Press Return.
You will be asked to enter your admin password. It will be invisible.
Enter it and press Return.
Log out and back in or restart.

Let us know.

-mj

Reply

Answer 14

sZc

Level 1

0 points

Apr 7, 2011 3:29 PM in response to macjack

@ patweb and macjack - THANK YOU A MILLION! This solved it.

Thanks again and have a wonderful rest of the day guys and girls!

Reply