error code -8072

i happened to delete time machine back ups 😟 they are located in a external hard drive so they're in that hard drives trash. re formatting is not an option as i have nearly 1TB of media and files on that drive. I've tried numerous youtube tutorials as terminal commands. all failed to work. please. someone. just. help. the files are taking up 1.67GB of data!!!

I had the same problem with deleting parts of an old time machine backup I did not want. I turned off the macbook pro, disconnected the usb to the back up drive, restarted computer without the backup connected, went to garbage and trashed. I think you may find that the items "accidentally" in the trash will still be there. Pull them out of the trash and drag the items to your desktop, reconnect the external drive, drag the items to the drive... that may work. Let me know if you found some other way to fix your problem. The more solutions, the better. Michael

I clicked on the link and it was a malware waiting to happen. I did not install the Flash Player update, trashed and emptied the trash, went to the finder and DC'd all the items related to Flash Player. Beware what you post, it could bite you back. 🙂

That is a Permissions problem, did you maybe trash some Time Machine files in the Finder?

If not then, Solving Trash Problems...

http://thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html

Hi, i also got the error, but i already fixed it, suggest you try the way from: How To Fix Error Code -8072

Hope this information is helpful for you, too.

I had this error when trying to delete or move a file after an application crash (Microsoft Powerpoint). I had already recovered the file and saved it in another location, but couldn't delete the old corrupted version.

There is a very simple fix to this. Use the Terminal! The terminal can override all this silly error code business.

Open the terminal, go to the folder with the file you want to remove and do the following.

First, make a copy, just to double check you don't lose anything you want to keep.

cp Oldfile.extension Newfile.extension

Now delete the old file giving the error code

rm -Rf Oldfile.extension

Done! Newfile.extension was in my case uncorrupted and could be manipulated with no errors inside Finder.

Try turning OFF Time Machine & put it back, or try emptying then.

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