How to REALLY empty the trash??

[Skika]

Hi,

i have a problem, there is this one folder in my thrash that won't delete no matter what . How does one really empty the trash? I tried with cmd and it still doesnt want to delete. I heard you can do it via Terminal, and that way it deletes it for sure? I tried once the Terminal option but it didnt work, but i suspect i was doing something wrong, would someone care to explain how can i do it the right way?

Tnx

 

[GoCubsGo]

What won't delete? Have you rebooted your machine then tried a secure empty trash?

 

[sim667]

have you tried force emptying trash?

1. Click down on the trash can until the menu appears.
2. Hold down the option key
3. Select empty trash from the menu.

If that doesnt work log into the admin account and open terminal....
a. If its the admins accounts trash thats being a problem type in the command

sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash

b.If its another account, but replace the bit in italics with the account name

sudo rm -rf /Users/user_name/.Trash

You'll need to enter the admin account password after those commands for them to work too.

 

[Skika]

have you tried force emptying trash?

1. Click down on the trash can until the menu appears.
2. Hold down the option key
3. Select empty trash from the menu.

If that doesnt work log into the admin account and open terminal....
a. If its the admins accounts trash thats being a problem type in the command


b.If its another account, but replace the bit in italics with the account name


You'll need to enter the admin account password after those commands for them to work too.

I tried this, and it still doesnt work . It asked me for password and i entered it and nothing changed, the folder is still there

 

[John T]

Just log out and back in again.

 

[Skika]

Just log out and back in again.

Same

 

[GGJstudios]

You can't empty the Trash or move a file to the Trash

 

[mrgraff]

"What's Keeping Me?" might help:
http://www.hamsoftengineering.com/products/wkm/wkm.html

That can scan the trash and find/kill a process that might be preventing a file deletion.

 

[sim667]

I tried this, and it still doesnt work . It asked me for password and i entered it and nothing changed, the folder is still there

You tried the force empty trash? or the terminal commands? or all of it?

Have you checked your permissions?

 

[abraham.a]

Hi,

i have a problem, there is this one folder in my thrash that won't delete no matter what . How does one really empty the trash? I tried with cmd and it still doesnt want to delete. I heard you can do it via Terminal, and that way it deletes it for sure? I tried once the Terminal option but it didnt work, but i suspect i was doing something wrong, would someone care to explain how can i do it the right way?

Tnx

I think you try again to simply logging off and re-signing in or to check the settings of your machine.

 

[martosprint]

I use a little app called "Force Empty Trash" on my iMac for the rare times that trash won't empty normally. Just google it and it's a small 3 KB download. It always worked for me. 

 

[velocityg4]

Are you using Parallels for Windows or other virtual machine program?

I had this happen once. It turned out that somehow a .Trash folder had an item in it on the C:\ drive. So the item would show up in the Mac's trash can whenever Parallels was loaded and the C: drive showed up on the desktop.

To remove it I went to the root folder of the C: and deleted everything inside the .Trash folder. You may need to enable viewing of hidden files and system protected files in Windows (I don't recall if it was hidden).

You may also want to check for a .Trash folder on any NTFS drives you have mounted.