Emptying the trash issue

Question

Level 1

4 points

Emptying the trash issue

My trash is empty. I throw 1 item in there and then empty the trash. It says it is emptying FOUR items. It takes a long time to empty the 1 item. After it empties and I verify it has no items in it, I do it again and the same thing happens. And it keep shappening over and over. What is going on with my trash and how do I fix it? It does NOT acknowledge the 3 extra items in it once the trash is deleted, but mysteriously puts in 3 extra items which can;t be seen when I go to do the next cleaning. What is going on????

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Mar 14, 2014 7:56 AM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

684,045 points

Mar 14, 2014 8:39 AM in response to greekguy9999

See the Empty and recreate an account's Trash.

Trash FAQ

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Answer 2

seventy one

Level 7

27,430 points

Mar 14, 2014 4:16 PM in response to greekguy9999

Here is a little more to read ... plus something that is very good at clearing the trash.

You can't empty the Trash or move a file to the Trash

Download Trash It! for Mac - Force-empty your trash can. MacUpdate.com

Oh, and if you have your trash set on SECURE empty trash, you really don't need it. EMPTY trash is sufficient.

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Answer 3

WZZZ

Level 6

13,226 points

Mar 14, 2014 4:56 PM in response to greekguy9999

The other 3 might be hidden folders or files. To see them, open Terminal in Utilities and copy/paste and then hit enter

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true ; killall Finder

To hide them again (the default)

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool false ; killall Finder

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Answer 4

greekguy9999 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 15, 2014 8:13 AM in response to Eric Root

Note to everyone:

Eric, thank you. This solved my problem of having the trash take forever to empty. The 4 files versus only 1 file problem however, kept showing up when I went to delete only 1 file in the trash.

WZZZ: I tried this and nothing happened.

Seventy One: You prompted me to realize there is an "Empty Trash" and a "Secure Empty Trash" toggle and when I switched it back to "Empty Trash", I no longer get the 4 files prompt (even though Secure Empty Trash has 3 extra files each time I empty it). The "Empty Trash" feature just empties it and is done with it. SO the answer to my problem ws a hybrid between both you and Eric.

Anyway guys, thank you so much! I am now Trash normalized and I thank you all!

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