Somehow seven folders from Time Machine have entered the trash and I can't empty them. I'm getting messages that the folders and items are in use for all seven. Other non-related items are still being emptied normally.
I followed all of the suggestions in an Apple support bulletin published on Nov 13, 2017 and thought I had solved the problem when I saw that the trash was empty, but after restarting my MacBook Pro the same files reappeared and again could not be emptied.
Erase the drive containing those files. That's the only way to remove files protected by SIP. Move whatever you need from that drive before erasing it (obviously).
About System Integrity Protection on your Mac - Apple Support
I disconnected my 1TB Time Machine drive and set up a new empty Time Machine on a 1TB partition in a 2TB drive. The seven folders that could not be emptied were still there, and still could not be emptied.
Assuming you have 2 backups (is that right?) so if something goes wrong you can recover from the one you're not going to work on:
(CAREFULLY READ the link John Galt posted and decide if to proceed or not as this is not a recomended procedure)
1st step: disabling SIP and emptying trash
1) restart from Recovery Partition
2) launch Terminal from the menus
3) digit "csrutil disable; reboot" and press ENTER
4) empty trash from the disk you wish to - don't touch the second
2nd step: re-enabling SIP
1) restart from Recovery Partition
2) launch Terminal from the menus
3) digit "csrutil enable; reboot" and press ENTER
You still need to erase the partition containing the items in its Trash, since they will appear whenever that partition is mounted.
Partitioning is ok, as long as you understand that a catastrophic failure of the drive is likely to render all its partitions simultaneously lost.
I can't empty trash
