I can't empty my trash

I'm having the same problem.

Empty trash function is not working.

Secure empty trash isn't working.

When I try the terminal approach, this is what it says:

dhcp-218-15:~ ChanderRamesh$ sudo rm -rf~/.Trash

Password:

rm: illegal option -- ~

usage: rm [-f | -i] [-dPRrvW] file ...

unlink file

don't know why it's an illegal option to use rm =( Please and thank you.

EDIT: Problem resolved. Thanks

I think there's a space after "rf". Best to copy/paste the command from here.

I'm having the same problem and the sudo command works, however, when I need to empty the trash again I have to do that everytime. Not exactly convenient. I only started seeing this in Lion. I want to resolve the problem so I can empty the trash normally. Any other ideas? Seems like there is an old pref file or .plist that is causing this to happen. Something with permissions maybe? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Interesting thing I have noticed the same behaviour with the trash bin after I have upgraded to Lion. It takes forever to empty the trash-bin and sometimes only the described procedure in terminal helps. Like I have said it is only in Lion. Now what I have also noticed is that the problems with empty trash bin are occuring when I deal with new large files e.g. video conversion an these files are stored on my internal drive that. Th eother thing is

that I have enabled Time Machine. Backups are perfromed on an external drive and that external drive is nor

always attached. What many of us may not know is that even the Time Machine back-up disks are not attached Time Machine performs a hourly back-up on the internal drive in a hidden section. This is a new function and implemented since Lion. After I have switched off Time Machine I have never experiencedd the problems with Trash Bin. So I have switch off Time Machine when my external driv is not attached. After I attach the my Time Machine back-up drive I switch on Time Machine and the nackup is done. The again switch off Time machine. I know that this is not the most elegant way but it solves some problems, the empty Trash Bin problem and also it helps saving space on the internal drive

batmanlax wrote:

Something with permissions maybe?

Try this command. Please copy & paste it.

sudo chflags nouchg ~/.Trash/*

It will ask for your password, if you haven't used sudo for a while.

Enter it, it will be invisible.

Press return.

After I attach the my Time Machine back-up drive I switch on Time Machine and the nackup is done. The again switch off Time machine. I know that this is not the most elegant way

Snapshots are discussed at length here http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/30.html

Easier to enable the TM icon and then use "Backup now".

What exactly does the sudo chflags nouchg ~/.Trash/* command do? Just want to make sure I know what I am doing before I actually do it. Thanks!

The user luabad helped me resole my problem in another thread. Try this... Rename your trash bin folder to .Trash (capital "T") if it is lower case and viola. Worked me me when nothing else would.

Open Terminal...

Go to your home folder if you are not there... ( cd ~ )

List your files and folders... ( ls -la )

Check if you have .trash or .Trash ...

Rename it, if you have .trash... ( mv .trash .Trash )

Good luck 🙂

that worked! i was erasing a back up file and that did it after an hour of trying to get it done. thanks!

Via trial and error: After dragging a bunch of files out of Trash to my desktop...using the terminal command did not do it for my issue...I isolated the offending file. I deleted everything else. (I'd repeatedly had to use "force quit" to relaunch Finder as Empty Trash continued hanging forever until I isolated the offender.) I pulled the last of the files onto my desktop. In it was a folder containing the name :_MACOSX I dragged it to desktop, changed the name to "crap" (use whatever you want, as long as you remove the macosx name) and trashed it again. Hit empty trash and voila it's gone and Trash is empty

So, I had the same issue.

What I just did not do...

But only helped:

sudo chflags nouchg ~/.Trash/*

then

sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash

Now my Trash is Empty!

Worked for me!

macjack wrote:

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.

If this doesn't work, then the files in the Trash are from another connected volume. Boot from that volume and empty its trash.

Good job macjack. My problem was due to the files in the trash having been from my timecapsule. I was getting a progress bar of it counting up to 300,000 odd files to delete and then watched it go backwards to zero and beyond into negative numbers!! Eventually I stopped the process (wouldn't let me restart), did the sudo command and restarted = trash can empty.