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Strom1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 1, 2008
158
0
NY
I can't empty one part of my trash it says the operation cannot be completed because the item pdf is in use,what can i do?
 
try quitting the program you used to launch the pdf (like preview). then try emptying the trash. if it doesn't work, try quitting other programs. and if that still doesn't work, try restarting.
 
Quit Preview (or whichever app you use for opening PDFs, and then try to empty.

If this does not works, restart your Mac and empty trash. This should work almost 100% of the times.

If not, come back with more info.:)
 
Quit Preview (or whichever app you use for opening PDFs, and then try to empty.

If this does not works, restart your Mac and empty trash. This should work almost 100% of the times.

If not, come back with more info.:)

Thanks for the help,restarted and that allowed me to empty the trash.
 
You can also try logging in and out instead of restarting. OS X is not like windows.


If you're feeling tech savvy, you can open up Terminal and write

sudo rm -r .Trash/

and type your password. That ought to show it who's boss!
 
BTW why does this happen and is there anything i should do in the future to prevent it ?
 
BTW why does this happen and is there anything i should do in the future to prevent it ?

Knowing what's open/attached/mounted. That's what this was; it's not a problem, it's a protective measure. You can't delete things that still have a dependent process active. Best analogy is try to delete a file from a CD. You can't, but the Mac allows you to place files from CD-like images into the trash while the image is still mounted.

You'll get used to it, I still occasionally forget to unmount a dmg before deleting an app launched from it. No biggie.
 
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