Delete .inProgress files created by Time Machine

[kolax]

Cut a long story short, I deleted two .inProgress files off my Time Machine hard drive, and I can't delete them.

Is there some sort of Terminal command to do this? I searched Google, and every answer pointed to MacFixIt.com and I strongly disagree with paying a subscription fee just to find out a bit information.

Cheers.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Eh? I don't understand you. You say you deleted them but you can't delete them? That makes no sense.

If the problem is that you put them in the Trash but now can't empty the Trash fully, this is fixable with some Terminal commands.

cd /Volumes/(NAME OF TIME MACHINE DRIVE)

If the volume name has spaces in it you'll need to escape them like so:

Time\ Machine

Then, try this:

rm -r .Trashes

That nukes the trash can for the disk. If that doesn't work, there's a more drastic method:

sudo rm -rf .Trashes

That force-nukes the Trash with full privileges.

 

[kolax]

The last command did the trick (the other -rf one said permission denied).

Took a while for Terminal to do it, but they are finally gone!

Thanks.

 

[kolax]

Okay, I have another problem on another external hard drive.

I trashed a folder on it, and now I can't empty Trash. It says I don't have sufficient privileges. The folder 'photos' contains another folder 'Pictures' and there is nothing inside the Pictures folder.

I've followed the above commands, but get this:

rm: .Trashes/501/photos/My Pictures: Operation not permitted
rm: .Trashes/501/photos: Directory not empty
rm: .Trashes/501: Directory not empty
rm: .Trashes: Directory not empty

 

[kolax]

Anyone?

 

[actually]

patience

I had the same problem, unable to delete old .inProgress files from the trash. Tried sudo rm -rf, chmod:ed files, everything.

Finally, I just tried emptying the trash normally from the finder, and waited. It took a few HOURS, but it did the trick! Oh, and also, time machine was turned OFF and I had rebooted to make sure time machine did not touch the trashed files somehow.

Hope that helps!

 

[jgriffi6]

Cannot Delete in Time Machine Files in Terminal

Hi,

I would like to delete time machine files in terminal mode. a simple:

sudo rm -rf file

gives me:

Operation not permitted

I know how to delete via the GUI, but I'd also like to be able delete from terminal.

Thanks

 

[gigas65]

HELP!! I cannot delete it with any way! Please help!!

Hi,

I would like to delete time machine files in terminal mode. a simple:

sudo rm -rf file

gives me:

Operation not permitted

Thanks

the same "Operation not permitted" with finder-GUI or terminal.!
There is NO way to delete this file! It says that partition is "Read only" !
I am using this external drive for time machine for six months! Please help!

 

[abakker]

Format of the drive?

I think you can time machine backup to an NTFS drive, perhaps you have done that by accident? check it out in the disk utility. If you have backups on an NTFS, I do not think you can edit them?

 

[P120D1GY]

When all else fails, try Disk Utility Verify Disk and Repair Disk

Like many others, I too had issues removing the .inprogress file off an external USB hard drive. I tried all the unix commands mentioned in this thread, but what ended up working for me was running un-mounting the external USB harddrive, running Disk Utility > Select USB Hard Drive > Verify Disk > Repair Disk. I had to run this twice since the first time Disk Utility said the disk was irreparable. Hopefully this helps others.

--
http://www.digitalassassin.com

 

[kuthul]

Eh? I don't understand you. You say you deleted them but you can't delete them? That makes no sense.

If the problem is that you put them in the Trash but now can't empty the Trash fully, this is fixable with some Terminal commands.

cd /Volumes/(NAME OF TIME MACHINE DRIVE)

If the volume name has spaces in it you'll need to escape them like so:

Time\ Machine

Then, try this:

rm -r .Trashes

That nukes the trash can for the disk. If that doesn't work, there's a more drastic method:

sudo rm -rf .Trashes

That force-nukes the Trash with full privileges.

Thank you simple and effective!