Secure Empty Trash not working
when I press secure empty trash : the items load up then when I press either of the options (locked or unlocked) it stays on screen for a few seconds then disappears ??
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5)
when I press secure empty trash : the items load up then when I press either of the options (locked or unlocked) it stays on screen for a few seconds then disappears ??
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5)
Quit all apps (really quit from the menus), especially Preview.
Start Terminal and copy/paste
sudo rm -Rf ~/.Trash/*
hit enter
it asks for your password, type it and hit enter,
quit terminal.
Restart the iMac.
Should help
Quit all apps (really quit from the menus), especially Preview.
Start Terminal and copy/paste
sudo rm -Rf ~/.Trash/*
hit enter
it asks for your password, type it and hit enter,
quit terminal.
Restart the iMac.
Should help
Hi,
I have followed your instructions as per what you stated and all the files in the trash have gone.
Have the files in theory been deleted as if i had clicked on secure empty trash?
Thanks 🙂
Yes.
Hello I tried to enter the code into the terminal window and received the following message:
unable to execute /bin/rm: Argument list too long
Any ideas?
You mean the empty trash command?
Click CTL+CMD+click on the TrashBin icon: then choose "secure empty trash".
If that does not want to do it, read my post above completely: use Copy/Paste to enter the command, and make sure you are in the main Terminal window, not in any folder or subfolder, like /bin.....).
Hello. Thank you for your help. When I follow your directions using the
terminal window I get the following message: unable to execute /bin/rm:
Argument list too long. I have over 100K items in my trash folder. Could
this be the problem?
Edward Frebowitz
615 406 3255
On Tue, Dec 23, 2014 at 9:20 AM, Apple Support Communities Updates <
No it is not.
Your Terminal starts obviously in the wrong folder.
Can't you just empty the folder in the normal way (it may take long)
I can but it seems to be taking hours. I'll let it run and see what
happens. Thank you for your help.
Edward Frebowitz
615 406 3255
On Tue, Dec 23, 2014 at 11:25 AM, Apple Support Communities Updates <
Based on further information that I have found files are not securely deleted by the instructions originally given. I don't know if the command I'm about to give was available at the time that Lex gave their response but to securely remove files you must use the command "srm" not "rm" to perform a secure removal/deletion.
sudo srm -Rf ~/.Trash/*
If you still have files remaining after using that command one possibility is that there are locked files that even the super user (use of sudo) cannot delete. These files must be unlocked before they can be deleted. Please exercise caution with all commands that utilize "sudo" and wildcards, "*". Command to recursively unlock any remaining files is as follows:
sudo chflags -R nouchg ~/.Trash/*
After running the above command then again run the "srm" command and any files that were locked will now be removed.
Hello everyone. I had this problem too and got to the password stage but my Mac wouldn't let me enter my password. I got round the whole process by moving (cmd / mouse drag) the items from my MBPro's Trash folder onto an external hard drive and I deleted them from there.
Command-lineis always helpful, and it did the trick. Thanks for the help.
Secure Empty Trash not working