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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

yodawan

Level 1

18 points

Dec 18, 2016 10:52 AM in response to alexrazd

Forget the Terminal app! Do this instead. Use DISK UTILITY as described below. Miraculous. Over 3.5 million (yes, million) files instantly disappeared from my trash.

up vote1down vote

I manually deleted all backups by dragging the contents of my backup external hardrive into the trash

Yep. BIG mistake.

Since your intention seems to be to erase the backups, go to Disk Utility and simply format the Time Machine drive. Takes 20 seconds.

You can ignore the trash, it will disappear after the reformat.

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Huge thanks to Paul on this thread: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/188875/i-screwed-up-manually-deleting-t imemachine-backup

Kaemaahl

Level 1

13 points

Dec 20, 2016 11:27 AM in response to katiecat

If you have this issue in macOS Sierra, you have to disable System Integrity Protection first, otherwise when you hold Option and click "Empty", you are going to get an error telling you that SIP is enabled and preventing the operation. You can disable SIP easily but shutting down your mac. Hold CMD +R when booting and you should get to recovery. In recovery, at the top on the menu bar, click Utilities > Terminal. Type in csrutil disable to disable SIP and csrutil enable to enable SIP. Highly suggested you re-enable it after resolving your issue.

Kaemaahl

Level 1

13 points

Dec 20, 2016 11:30 AM in response to Pondini

Pondini is a legend when it comes to TM issues.

May 31, 2017 8:08 AM in response to katiecat

Awesome in 2017 still works! I had to enter the command each time, but once I felt secure that each file was actually being deleted, then I did multiples at once. So far, so good! THANKS!!

Jun 13, 2017 10:42 AM in response to Pondini

mine just says PASSWORD: and a key sign but can't enter password

Jul 18, 2017 12:51 PM in response to katiecat

I put together a video to help spell this terminal fix in layman's terms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJEYKTYm6hY

Jul 22, 2017 6:38 AM in response to katiecat

You can access using...

cd Volumes/"Your drive name here"

and then

sudo rm -rf .Trashes/

* it will ask your system password.

It solved for me 🙂

mayerhjk

Level 1

4 points

Nov 8, 2017 3:39 PM in response to katiecat

This worked for me! Thank you! I tried everything under the sun last night and nothing worked. This did. Thank you for sharing.

clemmac

Level 1

12 points

Nov 15, 2017 9:38 AM in response to yodawan

After a few days of frustration, I tried this very simple fix. I used the Disk Utility to reformat/erase my backup drive. The time Machine backup files disappeared from my Trash folder.

Stanluca

Level 1

9 points

Dec 14, 2017 12:29 AM in response to Community User

Omg this has been bothering me for months and I followed your instructions and it actually worked!!!! Thank you!!!

Trash won't empty deleted time machine backups