Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
After upgrading to osx mavericks, I can no longer control how my trash folder works. files sent to trash are automatically deleted instead of remaining in trash folder for me to empty when I choose. Empty button is greyed out in trash folder as well as in finder. I need to be able to store deleted files in trash bin til I'm ready to empty trash. Help, please!
Click on the item in the Finder's sidebar with the house icon and verify that you are able to write to this folder in the Sharing & Permissions section of the Get Info window, and that it isn't locked; if it is already set this way and you get that error, open the AppleScript Editor in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and run the following:
do shell script "mkdir ~/.Trash"
If you get a message stating that the folder exists, run the following:
set theUID to (do shell script "echo $UID")
do shell script "chown " & theUID & " ~/.Trash" with administrator privileges
do shell script "chmod u+rwx ~/.Trash"
tell application "Finder" to quit
delay 2
tell application "Finder" to run
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I'm afraid that your reply is way over my head. I am a mac novice. I need an explanation that a child might understand😢
Click on the finder (smiley face in dock). Click on the house (user name) and right click and pick get info. At the bottom of that pane see that you have read & write privileges. If not click on the yellow lock, enter PW to unlock and set so you do have privileges. Then check out the trash to see if it works.
under sharing and permissions it says I can read only. Under name it says "fetching", staff and everyone and under privileges it says fetching can read and write and staff and everyone can read only. But if I click on other things, like my hard drive icon and go to get info it has my name with read and write privileges.
Back up all data.
This procedure will unlock all your user files (not system files) and reset their ownership, permissions, and access controls to the default. If you've intentionally set special values for those attributes on any of your files, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. Do so only after verifying that those settings didn't cause the problem. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it, but you do need to follow the instructions below.
Step 1
If you have more than one user, and the one in question is not an administrator, then go to Step 2.
Triple-click anywhere in the following line on this page to select it:
sudo find ~ $TMPDIR.. -exec chflags nouchg,nouappnd {} + -exec chown $UID {} + -exec chmod +rw {} + -exec chmod -N {} + -type d -exec chmod +x {} + 2>&-
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.
You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The command may take several minutes to run, depending on how many files you have. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear, then quit Terminal.
Step 2 (optional)
Take this step only if you have trouble with Step 1, if you prefer not to take it, or if it doesn't solve the problem.
Start up in Recovery mode. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select
Utilities ▹ Terminal
from the menu bar. A Terminal window will open. In that window, type this:
res
Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:
resetpassword
Press return. A Reset Password window will open. You’re not going to reset a password.
Select your startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.
Select
▹ Restart
from the menu bar.
Why not simply select the home directory, set the permissions correctly and apply to all enclosed files?
Worked for me with a similar Trash issue and "Fetching" permissions problem.
This strikes me as a quite complicated approach to solving a simple issue of incorrect permissions in the home directory. A scenario that can cause trash problems.
Yes, I agree. That advice was way too complicated. The problem was that I wasn't quite sure how to correctly reset the incorrect permissions. Since I hadn't received a response on how to do that I took a chance and went back in and deleted "Fetching" then added my name with the correct permissions. And that seems to have resolved my trash issue.
You might want to dig around in your home folder and see how other permissions are set as well. My wife's started with the trash acting flaky as well as her Safari bookmarks were not being saved. Turned out the vast majority of the files in the home directory had Fetching. It was a brand new Air and I assume it happened during the migration of user files. I had done a fresh install of the apps, they were fine. But, not their preferences files which were in the home directory.
If you have more issues, what I did was get info on the home directory, make sure the permissions are ok, my wife's were, little tool box at the bottom, apply to all.
I can no longer control how my trash folder works.
