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Level 5

5,556 points

OS trashed boot.efi but won't let me empty it

I recently had to restore my system from TM Backup. After the restore, there's an old backup TM file in the trash which I can't remove. The principle reason I can't remove it is there's boot.efi file in there which is locked. Here's what I've tried

1. Changing the permission to read & write in the Get Info window.

This has no effect because the Locked option remains greyed out even after unlocking the permissions.

2. I've tried the advice given here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1402

The commands aren't accepted in Lion

3. sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash

Doesn't have any effect

4. From an earlier (2008) post about this problem, it was suggesed by Kappy to try advice from this site: http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html

Their advice basically ends up advising one of the first three things I tried.

Any other suggestions? Ten points for the winning postcard.. 🙂

MacBook Pro 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.7), 4GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Posted on Sep 10, 2011 5:18 AM

50 replies

Dec 2, 2012 9:34 AM in response to softwater

Thank you very much. This helped me get rid of my boot.efi in my trash. Thanks a million

Dec 15, 2012 8:58 AM in response to softwater

@softwater: I've tried your solution several times to no avail...the boot.efi (and five enclosing subfolders) still remain in my trash. This started when I manually deleted a bunch of old TM backups on the external TM drive to free up some space. Then when I emptied the trash about 100,000 files were deleted...except this one.

When I enter the Terminal command to show hidden folders and then reset the Finder, the .Trash and .Trashes don't show up in the TM drive. Any other ideas? Thanks.

NOTE: Disregard this message...when I used the Terminal command of "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder" that I found on another site, this worked. Entering them as two separate commands would not show the hidden .Trash or .Trashes.

Jan 15, 2013 6:13 AM in response to softwater

The option option worked for me after having the same pesky problem for months!

followtx

Level 1

0 points

Jan 21, 2013 8:31 PM in response to softwater

Pressing down on option while clicking Empty totally worked for me, too! Thanks very much.

I had been having problems trying to back up my computer using Time Machine, after deleting old back-ups on my external drive and still seeing them in Trash every time the drive is connected (with the boot.efi files still remaining), and when I try to back up it gets stuck in "cleaning up" for hours on and never gets anywhere. But after I was able to empty everything in Trash, backing up through Time Machine works like it used to!

GRUser

Level 1

4 points

Feb 15, 2013 1:47 AM in response to softwater

Hi,

I've tried it but .Trashes looks to be empty and has a blue down looking arrow on it's lower right corner...

I am running Mountain Lion. I don't know if it makes any difference.

Trialk

Level 1

10 points

Mar 3, 2013 9:24 AM in response to softwater

i have tried this a couple times and can see a file on my TM

.Trashes but cannot open it. when i try to just view it i get a message

The folder can't be opened because you don't have permissions to see it's contents

i have tried the two pasted commands separate and could not see the .Trashes folder but when I tried them together i could see it. here is what i pasted:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder

any further suggestions or idesa?

Mar 3, 2013 1:22 PM in response to Trialk

I finally gave up this the suggested methods of fixing this. I downloaded "Trash It", a free utilitiy that is absolute one of the most useful and magical apps I've ever put on this Mac. You can read about it at MacUpdate... http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/8214/trash-it! and see all the other great reviews about.

softwater Author

Level 5

5,556 points

Mar 3, 2013 7:19 PM in response to Larry McJunkin

Sounds like a shameless plug. I've heard of people having problems with that app and I would not recommend it.

softwater Author

Level 5

5,556 points

Mar 3, 2013 7:28 PM in response to Trialk

Trialk wrote:

i have tried the two pasted commands separate and could not see the .Trashes folder but when I tried them together i could see it. here is what i pasted:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder

any further suggestions or idesa?

I'm not sure what the above means. This

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder

and this

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

(then press 'return' on your keyboard)

killall Finder

(then press 'return' on your keyboard)

are functionally equivalent. There's no way one can work and the other not.

In any case, now that you've found a way to see the files, what is it that you can't do next?

1. Is your Trash can showing that it contains trash?

2. Have you tried disconnecting all external disks and restarting the mac?

3. Is the only file you can find in it in .Trashes OR .Trash (these are not the same).

4. Have you tried the 'option' empty button trick (marked as the answer to this thread)?

5. In Terminal, have you tried

sudo rm -rf /.Trashes

(you will need to enter your admin password after typing this).

If the answer to all those is Yes, and you still have the problem, post back again.

Mar 3, 2013 7:37 PM in response to softwater

Shameless plug? I don't have a clue who it's developer is, but I just now searched for reviews on it and came up with over 4.5 of 5 stars everywhere I looked. Nowhere did I see where anyone had a problem with it. It's a free app with no ads and is highly reviewed everywhere I checked. I've personally used it several times now and have nothing but praise for it.

Pardon me for offering a suggestion that works...when the usual guidance for fixing this problem didn't work. And do not imply that I have anything to do with this app merely because of my suggestion to use it.

softwater Author

Level 5

5,556 points

Mar 3, 2013 7:58 PM in response to Larry McJunkin

Apologies for being off target, it's just that when I see words like 'absolute' and 'magical' and so on it sounds like spamtalk, especially if someone only claims to have used it a couple of times and read a few reviews.

Note that lots of crapware gets great 'reviews' - those reviews are only as reliable as your knowledge of the reviewers and their motives. Just because an app is free without ads doesn't mean the developer has no interest in shamelessly pushing it. There can be several reasons why - from the innocuous to the malevolent. Often, its just a way of building market reputation for other products by the same developer (that's the 'innocuous' reason anyway).

As I said, I've had reports of this app causing serious problems, so all I'm saying is there's another side to take into account.

Apologies again for any offence caused.

softwater Author

Level 5

5,556 points

Mar 3, 2013 8:02 PM in response to Trialk

Trialk wrote:

i have tried the two pasted commands separate and could not see the .Trashes folder but when I tried them together i could see it. here is what i pasted:

Ah, I see the problem. The two commands I posted early in the thread are riddled with typos. I've asked the mods to fix them, but not sure if they will. As you and Larry have discovered and for the sake of clarity, I'll repeat here the correct forms are:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder

and

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE; killall Finder

Mar 3, 2013 8:16 PM in response to softwater

Apology accepted. And for what it's worth, I'm a retired developer and tech business owner, and I do understand the implications of the words I used. I'm still trying to figure out what this app does that I can't do via Terminal, and actually, it is a little bit magical. If you stumble onto something that supports it doing any system harm, please post it...I'd like to know. Thanks.