Why is the trash taking so long to empty?

Question

Level 1

31 points

Why is the trash taking so long to empty?

I'm running Os X Lion. I started emptying my trash ( there was a lot) at 3:30pm yesterday. It was still not done when I last looked last night before going to bed. I think it said "Items to delete: 1,086" at that time, but I'm sure it said that this morning when I looked at it at 6am. Well, it's 1pm and it still says that. Any ideas? It's not giving me any messages. Should I cancel? If I do, will the stuff already emptied remain emptied?

iMac G5, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Sep 26, 2011 11:06 AM

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Answer 1

Paul_31

Level 6

14,160 points

Sep 26, 2011 11:30 AM in response to kguess

Definitely sounds wrong. I'd cancel it. Maybe try again putting the trash in several differenet folders and try deleting one folder at a time, just to see if this makes any difference.

Might be worth updating your profile as it helps when trying to trouble-shoot problems - I assume your iMac G5 isn't running 10.7, or the iMac isn't a G5 if you are running 10.7.

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Answer 2

kguess Author

Level 1

31 points

Sep 27, 2011 5:14 AM in response to Paul_31

It's actually a late 2008 iMac with 2.8ghz Intel Core Duo. I previously had a G5 and had not updated the profile (and wonder why Apple doesn't list in the pull down menu any iMac later than a G5...?).

Anyway, I'll try your suggestion. I stopped the emptying yesterday afternoon, but I had to force a shutdown to do it. I tried emptying the trash again and had the same issue. Could this have anything to do with the fact that what remains in the trash are BackUp files that had been on an external hard disk?

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Answer 3

Paul_31

Level 6

14,160 points

Sep 27, 2011 5:34 AM in response to kguess

If the Backups are from an external that isn't currently connected, that could well be the problem.

The trash needed to be emptied before disconnecting. Have you still got the backup drive? If you have, reconnect it - then try and empty the Trash.

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Answer 4

kguess Author

Level 1

31 points

Sep 27, 2011 5:37 AM in response to kguess

Well, this is quite a fix. The trash won't empty, but it won't let me move the files out of it because it says there is not enough space on my hard disk. But I can't free up space, because I can't trash anything. I have space to move some of the files, but there's something like 400gb in the trash and I only have 32gb (no doubt because there's so much in the trash!).

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Answer 5

a brody

Level 10

82,841 points

Sep 27, 2011 6:06 AM in response to kguess

Oh by the way, to answer your other question, I don't know where you are getting no iMac later than a G5, but when I click on "Your Stuff" at the header of the forum, pick Profile, add product, and select hardware, I get only iMac, not even G5 shows up for iMac.

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Answer 6

mwl456

Level 1

8 points

Sep 27, 2011 9:45 AM in response to kguess

Just a thought are you trying to empty trash "securley"

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Answer 7

kguess Author

Level 1

31 points

Sep 27, 2011 2:20 PM in response to mwl456

Of course the external hard disk is connected, turned on and showing in the finder. Lion does not give any option but to empty the trash securely. At least, there's not one in the Finder menu. I'm trying to do it via shredding in MacKeeper right now. It appears to be working.

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Answer 8

Paul_31

Level 6

14,160 points

Sep 27, 2011 10:18 PM in response to kguess

MacKeeper!!! That's just about the worst bit of software you can have on your Mac - it's very likely the cause of any problems you are having. Search MacKeeper on the this forum - it's an unmitigated disaster for most people.

If you need instructions on how to remove it, post back, but whatever you do, don't use MacKeeper's uninstaller.

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Answer 9

kguess Author

Level 1

31 points

Sep 28, 2011 6:40 AM in response to Paul_31

Okay, I've searched and I found almost nothing regarding what is so bad about MacKeeper. Only 3 things: Messes up Safari's ad blocking, slows Safari to a crawl, slows the system to a crawl. I've not had any of those problems. While Lion was taking forever to empty the trash (that is, it was stuck on the same number of items deleting for over 24 hours), leaving me with no system based way to empty the trash but to wait and hope it would eventually do the job, since I couldn't remove but a fraction of what was in the trash because I didn't have enough space on my hard drive, MacKeeper enabled me to delete the largest single item (a full back up of the user file), which took a couple of hours, and is now about 15% through the rest of it (121 inremental backups) after an hour and a half. Maybe MacKeeper's bad. I don't think it's the cause of the problem. I'm not using most of the features, anyway. At any rate, the search informed me of other options which I'll definitely look into, so thanks for mentioning it.

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Answer 10

Paul_31

Level 6

14,160 points

Sep 28, 2011 8:08 AM in response to kguess

Hopefully you manage to get your trash emptied.

If your Mac continues to behave wierdly - and the problems you are having with trash are not normal, you may want to bookmark this link for if and when you decide to delete it:

http://applehelpwriter.com/2011/09/21/how-to-uninstall-mackeeper-malware/

and this is worth a look:

http://www.fixkb.com/2011/03/remove-mackeeper.html

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