Can't empty trash

[Jonr515]

I had two profiles set up, one personal, one for work. I deleted the work one because I didn't need it. Now I can't delete the "work" folder in the trash. Any ideas?

 

[Bigwaff]

Reboot. Try again.

 

[Jonr515]

Reboot. Try again.

I have tried that multiple times.

 

[chown33]

Have you tried a safe mode startup?

Start up your Mac in safe mode

Starting up your Mac in safe mode may help you diagnose problems with your Mac.

support.apple.com

Among other things, it will prevent startup items from running.


When you say "profiles", do you mean Mac user accounts? If so, then the account you're using may not have the necessary permissions to delete another account's files.

 

[bogdanw]

Best trick to empty trash: move the content into /tmp (/private/tmp/) and reboot.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/please-help-me-delete-these-two-files.2399921/post-32419948

 

[NoBoMac]

Some things user account are tough to get rid of. Think the safest/surest way is to delete via System Setting > Users & Groups due to how some things are locked down in user accounts (eg. Library, Pictures).

Might try:

cd ~/.Trash
rm -rf *

(Yeah, wildcard with rm is risky, so can also do an "ls" to get the name of the user folder and sub "*" with it)

 

[gilby101]

I deleted the work one because I didn't need it.

What did you do to delete it?

Does /Users/work still exist?

Does /Users/work/.Trash still exist? You will need to use Terminal to see this - e.g. ls -la /Users/work