none of these methods work. I tried:
You may want to download and install the freeware utility Trash It! or the shareware utility Cocktail. Using one of these utilities is often the fastest way to Trash recalcitrant files.
Note: Be sure to employ a version of the utility that is compatible with the version of Mac OS X you are using.
This technique uses a hidden feature of Mac OS X to force the Trash to empty. Perform the following steps in the order specified:
- Press and hold the mouse button on the Trash icon in the Dock. The context menu for Trash will display.
- Press and hold the Option key or the Shift-Option keyboard combination,
- Select Empty Trash from the context menu for Trash.
- Release the keys pressed and held in step 2.
The following procedure will "kill two birds with one stone." It will both:
- Empty the Trash of an affected account.
- Create a new ~/.Trash directory, with correct ownership and permissions, for that account.
Perform the following steps in the order specified:
1. | If the affected account is protected by FileVault, log in to the affected account, then switch to and log in to your Admin account via Fast User Switching. Otherwise, log in to your Admin account. |
2. | Open Terminal, located in the Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities folder. |
3. | At the Terminal prompt, type one of the following commands: |
If the affected account is: | Then type the Terminal command: | Your Admin account: | sudo rm -ri ~/.Trash | Another user account: | sudo rm -ri /Users/user_name/.Trash where user_name is the short name of the affected account. |
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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!
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4. | Press Return. |
5. | Type your Admin password when prompted, then press Return. |
6. | Type y for yes in response to the subsequent prompts to delete each file in the trash and finally the affected .Trash folder itself. The prompts are finished when the Terminal prompt returns. |
7. | If the affected account is your Admin account, log out. If the affected account was another user account that is logged in via Fast User Switching, log out of that account. |
8. | Log in to the affected account. It will now have a new, working, and empty Trash. |
Steps 1-6 remove all files in the affected account's Trash as well as deleting the hidden and invisible ~/.Trash directory for that account. The remaining steps result in recreating the affected account's Trash, with proper ownership and permissions.
none of these steps worked. i also tried both utilities. trash it! doesnt work and says i have to wait and nothing happens and cocktail says it removed everything but these folders are still there! i really dont know what to do, looks like i will have to reinstall everything to get rid of the folders. it's unbelievable. any ideas? the methods REALLY dont work, im not some oncompetent guy.