Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

chocolate632

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 27, 2007
309
0
Can anyone tell me why I keep getting this message? I know for a fact that some of the things I trash are not in use but it still comes up. I trashed a tv series from iTunes and it told me that only one of the episodes was in use while the rest emptied properly. I emptied again and it trashed the remaining episode. Its more of an annoyance really, since I find myself having to empty it twice all the time. Any suggestions?
 

Attachments

  • Screen shot 2010-11-23 at 12.59.16 PM.JPG
    Screen shot 2010-11-23 at 12.59.16 PM.JPG
    23.5 KB · Views: 78

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
Reboot and then empty the trash. It's enough that you have used that file since the last boot and it may cause issues. Reboot always fixes it for me
 

notjustjay

macrumors 603
Sep 19, 2003
6,056
167
Canada, eh?
Sometimes it's the Finder itself. It might be in the middle of trying to load the file in order to give you an icon preview for Quick Look or for the preview icon in Column View. Usually the Finder is pretty quick about that, but if it's a file on a USB drive or networked share, it can be just slow enough that the Finder is still trying to load a preview while you're trying to delete the file.
 

dknightd

macrumors 6502
Mar 7, 2004
334
1
Sometimes I think it is because spotlight is busy indexing that file. Or maybe time machine is busy making a copy.
 

chocolate632

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 27, 2007
309
0
Reboot and then empty the trash. It's enough that you have used that file since the last boot and it may cause issues. Reboot always fixes it for me

I usually just reempty the trash and it'll empty properly so there's no need for a reboot. Also, the tv episode that I deleted (in the attached picture) hasn't been opened or used for months, so I don't think that is the issue.

Sometimes it's the Finder itself. It might be in the middle of trying to load the file in order to give you an icon preview for Quick Look or for the preview icon in Column View. Usually the Finder is pretty quick about that, but if it's a file on a USB drive or networked share, it can be just slow enough that the Finder is still trying to load a preview while you're trying to delete the file.

Well, I didn't try to Quick Look that file so I don't think that's it and my Finder is usually organized in list view. Also, the file was on the main drive. It normally just happens to one file in the trash, the others seem to empty fine.

Sometimes I think it is because spotlight is busy indexing that file. Or maybe time machine is busy making a copy.

I tried deleting some files again and I checked first to make sure Spotlight wasn't indexing and it still didn't empty one file. My Time Machine backups are manual so there's no way it was making a copy either.


Its more of an annoyance than a problem really, because the trash will always empty the second time around. Something I might add is that this has just started recently, it hasn't really happened before. Thanks for the input guys! :)
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.