Q: Trash will not empty

You can give this a try:

Open Terminal in the Utilities folder. At the prompt paste the following then press RETURN.

sudo rm -Rf ~/Trash/*

You will be prompted for your admin password. Enter it but it will not echo to the screen. Press RETURN, again.

Oh, another thing to try: Trash It!.

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html

A dangerous and incorrect shell command has been posted in this discussion. If you run that command as given, it won't empty the Trash, and if you make a slight mistake in typing it, it could delete all your files, possiblly including all backups. Never empty the Trash in the shell.

First, hold down the option key and empty the Trash. If that doesn't work, relaunch the Finder, then from the Finder menu bar, select

Finder ▹ Preferences ▹ Advanced

and uncheck the box marked Empty Trash securely. Try again to empty the Trash.

Remove about half the files from the Trash. If it still won't empty, remove half of what's left, and continue until it does empty.

FWIW and for everyone's edification, the proper command is:

sudo rm -ri ~/.Trash

as noted in the source document, http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html, wherein it states:

Note that:

• There is a single space after each of the terms sudo, rm, and -ri in the command.
• Assure you have typed the command exactly as specified before proceeding: typographical errors in this command can have dire consequences, including erasing your hard drive!

That's also wrong.

Really? Why? Claiming so doesn't make it so. Explain what's wrong with it or let it go. I've seen people given that command for years and have not heard of anything amiss with it.

I don't teach shell literacy on this site. You'll have to learn that from someone else. The command does not empty the Trash on an external drive.

Works for me. Couldn't say why it doesn't for you.

Thanks. You don't have to teach anything, but point out the error and offer a corrected solution. The corrected command I referenced does nuke the user's trash, which is what I thought you were on about. I missed the ext HD part in the OP's post and focused on Kappy's post. For the ext HD, then it's simply:

sudo rm -ri "path to an ext HD volume"/.Trashes

repeated for each volume on the disk.

You missed a period preceding Trash. That's for the user's folder. It should be like I posted, with i replacing f, so that the user gets a prompt. For the OP's ext HD issue, I think I posted the correct solution.

For the ext HD, then it's simply:

Then it's simply confirming each file deletion, more than a million times.

Thanks. I didn't pick up on that and did not think to change the line for the ext. HD. My error. I should have added "drag disk icon into the Terminal window" which is easier for some people than entering a path.

Linc Davis wrote:

For the ext HD, then it's simply:

 

Then it's simply confirming each file deletion, more than a million times.

In that case, drop the i and replace it with f:

sudo rm -rf "path to an ext HD volume"/.Trashes

This happened to me before and the option that worked, is mentioned within this thread by Linc Davis:

"First, hold down the option key and empty the Trash"

This has worked for me since the beginning and continues to work.  You don't need to do anything more than just hold down the option button and empty the trash.  It's as easy as that.