Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Trash crashes when attempting to secure empty!

I decided to secure empty my trash today as I noticed my hard drive was getting full. I clicked on 'secure empty trash' under the Finder menu. It turns out I had about 78,800 items to delete, and it was going to take a while! Anyway, after going away for a few minutes and coming back, the trash window on the screen had disappeared. I clicked secure empty trash again, and it came up and said it had about 78,700 items to delete so it started to delete, then it closed. I tried again and it closed again! Why is this?

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), (Late 2009 Model)

Posted on Jan 24, 2013 2:12 AM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jan 24, 2013 2:35 AM

Not sure why it happens, but have you tried breaking it down into smaller packages. Maybe putting some files in a folder and trashing that may work. This would mean moving everything from the trash first. It would be best perhaps to move everything from trash into a folder and then move lumps of it from the folder to the trash and try deleting.


From what I remember from reports on here, whatever you do don't move your trash directly as loose files to the desktop as I believe that having numerous files dumped there can effecively render the Mac inoperable.

3 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jan 24, 2013 2:35 AM in response to Aotearoa628

Not sure why it happens, but have you tried breaking it down into smaller packages. Maybe putting some files in a folder and trashing that may work. This would mean moving everything from the trash first. It would be best perhaps to move everything from trash into a folder and then move lumps of it from the folder to the trash and try deleting.


From what I remember from reports on here, whatever you do don't move your trash directly as loose files to the desktop as I believe that having numerous files dumped there can effecively render the Mac inoperable.

Jan 24, 2013 2:06 PM in response to Aotearoa628

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:


☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)


☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.


☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.


Step 1


Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.


Enter the name of the crashed application or process in the Filter text field. Select the messages from the time of the last crash, if any. Copy them (command-C) to the Clipboard. Paste (command-V) into a reply to this message.


When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.

Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.


Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.


Step 2


Still in the Console window, look under User Diagnostic Reports for crash reports related to the process. The report name starts with the name of the crashed process, and ends with ".crash". Select the most recent report and post the entire contents — again, the text, not a screenshot. In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.) Please don’t post shutdownStall, spin, or hang logs — they're very long and not helpful.

Trash crashes when attempting to secure empty!

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.