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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

Reply
70 replies

Jan 16, 2017 4:51 AM in response to katiecat

I am sure this is controversial, but as a fleeting thought in amongst my frustrations at neither the 'Option Key' trick or the running Terminal (this seemed to cease working after it asked for my password after running the first command), I thought I may try unchecking the "Empty Trash Securely" option in Finder Preferences/Advanced.

I had deleted time machine back ups from an external hard drive which seemed to throw up a previously unknown of Trashes folder on said external hard drive. I tried unlocking everything to no avail. I tried individually deleting things in the trash folder to no avail. I even tried restoring my computer to a previous state (this was prior to me realising the trash folder was no longer on my macbook).


This un-checking of "Empty Trash Securely" surprisingly worked.


And relax....

Feb 20, 2017 7:38 AM in response to Linc Davis

This is THE solution--Linc Davis YOU ARE MY HERO, you totally ROCK!!!


Interesting to note: I Googled/tried every 'solution' I could find with no luck. I guess I was looking in more recent posts as I'm running El Capitan 10.11.6. Even Apple Support told me "the engineers are working on it" and the only way to resolve it "will be in a future software update" (?!?) For 'some reason' I came upon this post today (TFG)--over 3-1/2 years old, yet this is the only solution that worked and I had about 300,000 items (that's right, 300,000) to empty!


THANK YOU, Linc, you are brilliant!!! 😎

Sep 22, 2017 11:53 PM in response to katiecat

Connect your external drive to your Mac. Go to Utilities in the applications window and open the Terminal app. You will see a non-flashing cursor.

Type this exact text: sudo rm -rf /Volumes/"the name of your external drive"/.Trashes/501/Backups.backupdb

Then hit Return

Type your admin password (it will not show so make sure you type correctly)

Hit Return


-trash should empty-

Nov 24, 2017 2:52 PM in response to katiecat

I had the same problem. Now go to Disk Utility. The external hard drive that you used should be plugged in. Click on its partition (indented name). Erase. Now Erase the external HD. This should release the link between the external HD and the Trash contents. The trash will now erase. Anything and everything will be deleted off of your external HD so you are going to want to take off what you would like to keep first!

Aug 21, 2013 1:59 AM in response to katiecat

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.

Nov 3, 2013 11:50 AM in response to katiecat

I had the same issue while trying to manually remove a Time Machine folder. I was looking in my home folder trashes expecting it to be there but it wasn't (~/.Trash/). But what I did (and you should do) is open the Trash, and right click the folder you want to delete, and click Get Info. Under the General section, you should see where the folder is located next to "Where:". 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.

Trash won't empty deleted time machine backups

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