My trash won't empty on my macbook pro, what do I do?

Can't empty trash:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1526?viewlocale=en_US

How to Force Empty the Trash:

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html#Anchor-Force-11481

Select  ▹ Force Quit... from the menu bar, then select Finder and press return. From the Finder menu bar, select Finder ▹ Preferences ▹ Advanced and uncheck the box labeled Empty Trash securely. Try again to empty the Trash. If you still have problems, follow the instructions in this support article:

You can't empty the Trash or move a file to the Trash

I had 103,000 files in my trash, and trash would not empty (system would hang).

I tried a few of the tricks mentioned here and on other forums, but what worked for me was to simply:

• move everything out of trash into another folder
• select a few hundred files/folders (I found if I did more than about 1,000 files at a time my system would crash {hang on the deleting part})
• delete them
• empty trash
• rinse & repeat until all files are deleted and trash is empty

Thank you!!!!

I was able to use the link to fix my slightly different problem.

All you need to do is Open the Activity Monitor in Utilities. Find 'Locum' on the list of functions, then highlight and quit locum. Then empty the trash. Voila! It works every time!

im using Mac OS mountain lion with version 10.8.2

i dint find 'locum' on the function list.

is there anything else could solve this ?

Easiset of all .... worked for me - thanks a ton !

holding option and erasing trash worked for me

The problem for me turned out to be a result of having a disk image from another laptop in my trash. I ended up moving all the files except the disk image out of the trash and then holding shift+option and erasing trash. It took about a half hour to remove the 200,000+ files in the disk image, but after that my trash was back to working properly.

I've been trying for the last 24 hours to empty my trash. I noticed my computer's performance was off, and decided to go check it out.

For me, the issue had to do with Google drive. I had downloaded my work Drive onto my home computer when my work computer was malfunctioning. Drive downloaded about 30K files to my local hard drive, which was slowing things down.

I couldn't just empty the trash. But hitting the Option hit and then empty trash worked. Thanks for the suggestion.

I have this issue but when i remove the external drives i can empty the trash, as soon as i attach these the trash fills up. any help at all.

worked a treat

THANK YOU

was getting worried
I'm happy now

This worked perfectly! Thanks so much!

Your advice worked.

'Securely empty trash' was causing the hold-up.

Thanks very much 🙂

Thank you for advice!

I have MacBook Pro with Mac OS X 10.6.8

I never had this problem before with emptying trash, also every 15 or 20 sec. my screen had some flashbacks from window to window and all icons on Desktop disappearing for 3-5 sec.

I had only 8 items in the trash. I took all of them to desktop and deleted one by one. Secure empty was working fine except for one file. It was short video in .mpg format.

Holding OPTION vhyle emptying TRASH worked for me only after I Quit Google Drive.

Force the Trash to empty using the Option key

This technique uses a hidden feature of Mac OS X to force the Trash to empty. Perform the following steps in the order specified:

1. Press and hold the mouse button on the Trash icon in the Dock. The context menu for Trash will display.
2. Press and hold the Option key or the Shift-Option keyboard combination,
3. Select Empty Trash from the context menu for Trash.
4. Release the keys pressed and held in step 2.