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Can't Delete Files! Two different messages...

H

hadi27

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 6, 2010
19
0
Hey guys hope everyone is doing good.

Recently I have been trying to delete files and I'm getting a variation of messages. Either it tells me that the "file is in use" when its NOT or it will delete the file immediately, bypassing the trash.

I would like the files to go to the trash first like they always use to rather than being deleted immediately.

Also it tells me i can't delete alot of files because they are in use. However, they are not in use or open at all...

How can I correct this? Is this a disk problem?

Help is appreciated
 
ewilson6 - I don't want to keep having to restart my computer everytime I have to delete a file. That would be a case.

I have only one account on this mac which is the one I use. This all just changed randomly one day about 2 weeks ago...

I can't drag items from where they are located to the trash. It just doesn't move. And if i hit command+delete it simply says the file is in use.

That apple page talks about the files being locked, but none of the files are locked either
 
hadi27 said:
That apple page talks about the files being locked, but none of the files are locked either
Click to expand...
Did you also check permissions, as that page also discussed?
ewilson6 said:
restart your mac and empty the trash,
Click to expand...
That obviously doesn't always work, hence, the Apple support article on the topic.
ewilson6 said:
so easy a 2nd grader can do it lets not make a case here!
Click to expand...
Completely uncalled for, especially since you don't have a full grasp of the problem.
 
I did run "repair disk permissions". It corrected a whole lot.

BUT

the problem persists. I was able to delete one file after I restarted and It did the same thing again.


EDIT: The volumes on the left side are 250GB toshiba HD which has a branch off to My Computer. Then the other one below that is the DVD drive

I ran the repair permissions for the Toshiba HD, now im doing in on My Computer although I think it wouldn't make too much of a difference (correct me if i am wrong?)
 
It says exactly


Hadi (Me) - Read & Write
staff - read only
everyone - read only



Well i learnt something new. I didnt know about "staff" and "everyone"
 
09:48 PM
hadi27 said:
any help?
Click to expand...

What is the exact name/type/location of the file, and what is the exact wording of the message? Or... what happened to the "two different messages" business? [i also don't see any OS version mentioned... which have you got?]

Care to list your trash folder with Terminal?

ls -alOe ~/.Trash
 
hey! sorry for the late reply.

But I am running on the new macbook with snow leopard (10.6.3)

Here are screenshot of the two messages. Either it will delete, and delete immediately without trash OR it will then say it CAN NOT

screenshot20100418at102.png


screenshot20100418at102.png
 
As far as immediate deletion goes, i suspect that when you get around to running my Terminal command we will learn that your trash directory is owned by root. (If that turns out to be the case, we can restore your rightful ownership with another Terminal command).

The "in use" part may be due to a quirk with Preview.app which sometimes keeps tabs on documents even after they are closed. If that's the case, usually simply quitting Preview does the trick. [else, we can investigate that further once we get rid the first problem.]
 
Hal Itosis - The preview application is not running. I made sure to quit it. That is a .pdf file that I tried deleting but it also happens with other extensions. Word would be another one that I have seen it do....But as of right now I tried deleting word and other extensions and they deleted right away. PDF still does not go away easily
 
hadi27 said:
Hal Itosis - The preview application is not running. I made sure to quit it. That is a .pdf file that I tried deleting but it also happens with other extensions. Word would be another one that I have seen it do....But as of right now I tried deleting word and other extensions and they deleted right away. PDF still does not go away easily
Click to expand...

That's okay... we can figure that out later using lsof or fs_usage perhaps.

Meanwhile, it's been 4 days since i first requested a trash listing (and this makes the 3rd request now):

ls -alOe ~/.Trash

We really need to get that part nailed down first.
No rush for me though... my trash is working fine.

Take your time.
 
hadi27 said:
There is the screenshot of me putting that into terminal
Click to expand...

And a lovely screenshot it is (clearly the trash directory has improper settings).

FWIW, text can be selected and copied in the Terminal window... and then pasted into messages here (which can be handy in that the text can then be copied again and reused in replies, etc).

Onward then... use copy/paste to run these four commands, one at a time:

sudo chflags -R 0 ~/.Trash

sudo chmod -R -N ~/.Trash

sudo chown $(id -u):$(id -g) ~/.Trash

chmod 700 ~/.Trash

An admin password will be requested, but not echoed to the screen when typed.

Since we weren't even able to see your trash (and posting another list command doesn't seem expedient), i simply threw everything in the book at it there. I suggest that —after running those 4 commands (which should succeed silently) —that it may be worth it to relaunch Finder (or logout/login), to ensure that Finder is forced to notice the improvements we made.

Let us know if that is indeed the case. These sorts of problems interest me, and i often wonder what caused them, and if indeed the trash was the only item affected.
 
OMG it worked! So...what exactly did that do? does it change the settings for any other programs?
I can drag to the trash again and delete properly without telling me it is in use!


When I did all that and went back to trash it had recovered files in there:

screenshot20100419at101.png


Also, do you know what causes something like that?


I really appreciate the help...I can hear the paper balls hittin the trash can again lol
 
hadi27 said:
So...what exactly did that do?
Click to expand...
Reset the whole ball of wax (owner, group, flags, perms) on your user account's trash folder.

hadi27 said:
does it change the settings for any other programs?
Click to expand...
All we touched was that one trash folder.

hadi27 said:
Also, do you know what causes something like that?
Click to expand...
We never got to see what *exactly* was wrong, but some person or program/script messed it up somehow. Being that it's your machine, your guess should be better than mine. [i.e., other than Apple updates, to which installer and/or utility did you provide a password when requested (around the time you first noticed this trash problem)?]
 
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