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Level 1

7 points

Trash won't empty deleted time machine backups

I manually deleted my time machine backups and they won't empty from my trash... I tried deleting it from Terminal but it always says no such file or directory.

When I try to delete them manually from Trash it says: "There are some locked items in the Trash. Do you want to remove all the items, including the locked ones, or just the unlocked items?" to which I said delete all, and nothing happens.

This is what it looks like on Terminal:

Last login: Tue Aug 20 15:29:28 on ttys000

Katies-MacBook-Pro:~ katie$ cd /Volumes/"Time Machine Backups"/

-bash: cd: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/: No such file or directory

Katies-MacBook-Pro:~ katie$ sudo rm -rf .Trashes

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss

or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your

typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

Password:

Katies-MacBook-Pro:~ katie$

Nothing was changed on my macbook. My external drive is plugged into my macbook and I've tried disk utility cleaning and repairing the disks and such but nothing will work. They are taking up about 1GB on my drive and it's more annoying than anything but if it happens again I want to know how to solve it. Please help!

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Aug 20, 2013 12:56 PM

70 replies

Feb 2, 2014 10:56 PM in response to Pondini

Pondini wrote:

katiecat wrote:

Katies-MacBook-Pro:~ katie$ cd /Volumes/"Time Machine Backups"/

-bash: cd: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/: No such file or directory

If Linc's suggestion doesn't work . . .

Did you type that, or drag your TM drive into the Terminal window? It looks like you may have mis-typed it. Since the "cd" failed, the "rm" command was trying to empty the trash on your startup drive.

Typing "cd" and a space, then dragging it from a Finder window should generate the correct path.

Is there anything else on the drive, besides these backups in the trash? If not, just erase it with Disk Utility.

They are taking up about 1GB on my drive and it's more annoying than anything but if it happens again I want to know how to solve it.

Are you planning to continue backing-up to this drive? If so, and if there's other stuff on it, in the same partition, that's not a good idea. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #3 for details.

If you deleted them to regain space, once the backups are in their own partition, TM will delete old backups automatically, when necessary. In a pinch, if you need to delete them, while Apple says it's supported via the Finder effective with Lion, you can also do it via the TM browser. See #12 in the above link.

Worked like a charm...had a hard time using the terminal and your drag and drop of the dirve after "cd" sloved it! The Option key hold down did not work and it took almost an hour to clear the trash through the terminal looked like this when all good:

justinflinsimac:~ justinfranklin$ cd /Volumes/Time\ Machine\ Backups

justinflinsimac:Time Machine Backups justinfranklin$ ls -a

. KD Tech Web.muse

.. MY BOOK BACK UP

.DS_Store MY BOOK BACK UP 2 Nov 2013

.DocumentRevisions-V100 Mom

.Spotlight-V100 PAID BILLS

.TemporaryItems Scanned in old photos

.Trashes computer stuff

.VolumeIcon.icns iMovie Events.localized

.apdisk iMovie Library.imovielibrary

.com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent iMovie Original Movies.localized

.disk_label iMovie Projects.localized

.disk_label_2x iPhoto Library

.fseventsd iPhoto Library Recovered Photos

03 Desert Rose.m4a iPhoto Library Recovered Photos_2

Backups.backupdb iPhoto Library Recovered Photos_3

Camera Uploads iPhoto Library Recovered Photos_4

Financial Accounting iTunes Music

GI BILL tmbootpicker.efi

HOUSE MANITOWOC

justinflinsimac:Time Machine Backups justinfranklin$ sudo rm -rf .Trashes

Password:

Then just wait while it works...you will see the files disappear if you open trash---may take a while to get rid of them all if you did like I and had 15 backups in there!🙂

mcdowesj

Level 1

7 points

Feb 10, 2014 3:51 PM in response to Community User

smo0f wrote:

Mine was something like "/Volumes/External_Disk/.Trashes/501". That's the folder I deleted in the Terminal using "sudo rm -rf /Volumes/External_Disk/.Trashes/501".

If you still get a message about it being locked and unable to delete it, then you need to run "sudo chflags -R nouchg /Volmes/External_Disk/.Trashes/501" or whatever the folder is you're trying to delete, then rerun the rm -rf command.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Perfect, really helped me out!

djstrat

Level 1

10 points

Feb 21, 2014 2:07 PM in response to bumper947

Thank you to

bumper947

Re: Trash won't empty deleted time machine backups

Oct 27, 2013 6:19 PM (in response to katiecat)

open trash then hold down command option shift delete...this works for me

Thank you so much this worked so fast! I had my trash full for probably 6 months if not longer.

Nonike

Level 1

0 points

Apr 17, 2014 8:16 AM in response to katiecat

i have the same problem ... i use the terminal method , and when it asks me to put my password i cant type i cant write any letter and neither i cant paste my password

any solution ?

Nonike

Level 1

0 points

Apr 17, 2014 8:17 AM in response to Community User

i have the same problem ... i use the terminal method , and when it asks me to put my password i cant type i cant write any letter and neither i cant paste my password

any solution ?

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Apr 18, 2014 12:03 PM in response to Nonike

When you enter your password in Terminal, it isn't displayed. This is normal.

Nonike

Level 1

0 points

Apr 21, 2014 10:08 AM in response to Eric Root

is there any other way or any other code ? it isnt working !

Apr 30, 2014 12:55 AM in response to Pondini

@Pondini

After exhausting all the "easy" solutions ineffectually, I took a deep breath, opened the terminal, lit a candle, said a prayer and went the "cd rm" route.

Success - took me back to my Debian/Suse/RedHat days which I am glad to have left behind me.

Do you remember all those nice people on the relevant forums going;

Have you read the README / MAN / HOWTO

To which I'd reply - if I had a Ph.D. in computer sciences, I wouldn't be here asking my dumb Qs.

Thanks again.

7ravisty

Level 1

0 points

May 25, 2014 6:17 PM in response to bumper947

Thanks bumper947, I was having the same problem and this little bit of info you supplied worked great. Kudo's! 🙂

Javi76

Level 1

0 points

Jun 1, 2014 2:35 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks Linc Davis.... I just tried recommendations and it worked. 🙂

Javier

Jul 4, 2014 5:38 PM in response to bumper947

bumper947, you are a lifesaver! Thank you so much! 😀

Jul 4, 2014 7:40 PM in response to Nonike

When typing in your password you don't see anything. Just type password and hit enter.

I suggest starting fresh instead of trying to fix what you have already typed.

Jul 14, 2014 5:39 AM in response to Linc Davis

The hold down the option key method worked for me. Thanks

bienne

Level 1

26 points

Jul 20, 2014 2:12 AM in response to Community User

ok, so I dragged old ™ backup folders into the trash, without realising I couldn't delete these this way.

So now can anyone tell me how to put them back and to delete them?

Appreciate your help.

Jul 20, 2014 10:53 AM in response to bienne

If you Control-Click (Right-click) on the item in the Trash is there a Put Back option? If yes, it will put the items back on the Time Machine drive.

If no, download Trash It and see if that works. http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/8214/trash-it

This Macworld article is a good reference. Mac troubleshooting: What to do when the Trash won’t empty

Trash won't empty deleted time machine backups