Greetings fellow Mac users,
After managed to back up to Time Machine, the older image cannot be removed from Trash.
An error:"Some items in the Trash cannot be deleted because of System Integrity Protection."
I've also done the Option + Empty Trash bit, it still doesn't work.
Would appreciate any ideas that might be helpful? Thanks in advance.
MacBook Air, macOS Sierra (10.12.1), null
well after suffering with this excess BS in my trash for over a month now , i decided to go ahead and erase my back up drive and start again using time machine. this worked!! trash gone and backups working smoothly again...
Hey John, I have tried numerous things to empty my trash with the old time machine backup files in it without success. You said"There is never a need to drag Time Machine backup files". What about when a virus scan finds a virus in email that Time Machine has already backed up? I really don't want to keep any virus files on my computer back up. That is another flaw with Time Machine that you cannot control when it backs up so you could scan your files before it decides to do a back up and then save a virus to your back up drive. I often wonder the the computer wizards ever really use the programs that they design because they often have designed features that are actually very annoying. Has anyone figured how to successfully force empty the trash? I have tried all published methods with no luck.
I get folders in my Trash from time to time that must come from Time machine as they are named with the back up date. I can't get them out of trash because the Mac thinks they are system files. I get a system integrity message or that a file is in use.
This is a huge flaw will this ever be dealt with?
All this is well and good, but how do I delete old versions of time machine? I need the space on my hard drive. I don't need backup that are over 3 months old. I have dragged and dropped time machine back ups to the trash, but after installing Sierra they are now stuck in my trash and I can't move them back to the back up folder. I bought a mac all those years ago because it was very intuitive to use. Now I am on the help pages for almost everything I try to do on it.
Please read You can't empty the Trash or move a file to the Trash - Apple Support.
There is never a need to drag Time Machine backup files to the Trash using the Finder. If that's how that file got there, you may need to completely erase that backup volume and start a new set of backups.
To learn how to use Time Machine please read Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support.
The salient points regarding Time Machine are as follows, summarized from Apple's Time Machine support documentation:
If Time Machine needs attention from you, it will tell you.
When I had that problem, I used a third-party utility to empty the trash (Cocktail....powerful, be careful what you do if you use it).
Barry
I have this same problem. Followed: Please read You can't empty the Trash or move a file to the Trash - Apple Support. Using terminal and got the same results. I can't believe there is no way to delete these files. I know (thought I had) I have deleted time machine backups in the past... This is an external drive that has other items on it and reformatting is not an option without my purchasing a new drive and duplicating it.
I get that you don't delete time machine back ups... I won't do it again, but now I have 144,000 files in my trash that won't go away and causes me to sit at my computer for 10minutes clicking "continue" to delete other files.
HELP!!! Please!!!!
Hold down the shift key when you restart your mac. It worked for me. Once you see the apple let go and voila. You trash should be empty after the restart.
After Time Machine Backup, Empty Trash Not Working
