Issues deleting iTunes audio files & emptying trash

[spudexter]

I am having a odd problem getting rid of iTunes/music files off my HD as well as emptying trash...I have Google'd and looked at other forums and can't seem to find a fix or workaround but the main problem here is getting rid of the music/audio files. Any help from the community would be super appreciate as I don't really know what to do.

I was in About This Mac>More info.>Storage and noticed I had about 70+ gigs of music files, so I got into my iTunes (not through the library) and decide to get rid of a bunch of music, about 30 gigs worth. It's music I don't want anymore and I already have it backed up so want to free up the space. This takes a couple hours at least going through music. When I was asked if I wanted to remove the music from my HD and delete it/put it in the trash I said YES so I know I was following the prompts correctly (yes I know if I don't also click move to trash I delete them from the iTunes but they will stay on my HD in the library).

So I finish this and noticed my trash is empty, the icon has 'nothing in the trash', so I right click to empty it and the "Empty Trash" is greyed out and I can't click on it. I go to Finder and "Empty Trash" and "Secure Empty Trash" are greyed out. Same if I hold down option. I also noticed that when I go back to Mac>More info.>Storage I still have the 70G of music and when I look at my iTunes library the music I deleted is still there though I supposedly clicked the right buttons when in iTunes to trash them and get rid of them permanently.

Shut down over night and the music is still on my HD (though not showing up in iTunes app) however this did get the trash working again. So I do a test, I delete one song in the iTunes app, press 'delete song' and 'move to trash' and the same things happen to my Trash, it greys out and I can't empty and the song I just 'deleted' is STILL in my iTunes Library.

1) How do I get rid of the music that I already tried getting rid of? (My iTunes library has ALL the music folders in it but my iTunes app proper has the music I want to keep so maybe this helps if someone can suggest a workaround)

2) What is going on with my Trash bin and how do I fix this? Repair permissions? This has never happened before.

Any help would be super appreciated.

----

MBP early 2008 running OS 10.7.5, 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, 250 GB HD, iTunes version 11.1.2

 

[Bruno09]

You could check the current size of the Trash folder : in the Finder, Go / Go to Folder :

~/.Trash

Then Cmd + i to get infos: what is the size ?

Also check "sharing and permissions" : are you in the list, with read & write permissions, and are you the owner : unlock, select your user name, click the wheel : if "make (Me) the owner" is clickable, click on it.

I am not sure this is your problem anyway, but this is "just in case".

 

[spudexter]

You could check the current size of the Trash folder : in the Finder, Go / Go to Folder :

~/.Trash

Then Cmd + i to get infos: what is the size ?

Also check "sharing and permissions" : are you in the list, with read & write permissions, and are you the owner : unlock, select your user name, click the wheel : if "make (Me) the owner" is clickable, click on it.

I don't this is your problem anyway, but this is "just in case".

Thanks for the reply. I can't access the trash...I get "The folder “.Trash” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents." so I tried Verify/Repair disk permissions and a restart and that didn't do anything.

 

[Bruno09]

It looks like you no longer are the owner of the Trash folder.

Run this in the Terminal :

sudo chown username ~/.Trash

Replace username to your actual user name (Home Folder).

Enter your admin password when asked for (will not display).

Then try again in the Finder : Go / Go to Folder : ~/.Trash

 

[spudexter]

It looks like you no longer are the owner of the Trash folder.

Run this in the Terminal :

sudo chown username ~/.Trash

Replace username to your actual user name (Home Folder).

Enter your admin password when asked for (will not display).

Then try again in the Finder : Go / Go to Folder : ~/.Trash

Hey, thanks again for the reply. I found this and was going to try after backing up with Time Machine. You think this will work?

Any ideas on the iTunes audio files? After I fix this I still have 30 G that won't go away!

Cheers,

 

[Bruno09]

Well, say… some things in this link are extremely risky.

The use of some commands in the Terminal can end in a disaster if you don't use it properly.
Assure you have typed the command exactly as specified before proceeding: typographical errors in this command can have dire consequences, including erasing your hard drive!

That's why I suggested to you a SAFE method that will give the same result at the end : make you the owner again.

This is the goal to achieve.

As for the iTunes files : at the moment your iTunes can not move the files to the trash, because the trash is not yours.

Once the Trash is yours again, all should run fine.

Try what I suggested first :

sudo chown username ~/.Trash

Then in the Finder : Go / Go to Folder : ~/.Trash, Cmd + i, and let us know what happens.

 

[spudexter]

It looks like you no longer are the owner of the Trash folder.

Run this in the Terminal :

sudo chown username ~/.Trash

Replace username to your actual user name (Home Folder).

Enter your admin password when asked for (will not display).

Then try again in the Finder : Go / Go to Folder : ~/.Trash

Sounds good. I'll try this first then and see what happens.

Can you please confirm that "sudo", "chown" and "username" in the above command all have a SINGLE space after and that there are no other spaces? IE. "sudo[space]chown[space]username[space]~/.Trash"

The trash was operating fine before trying to put 30 odd gigs of music in it. Never had this problem as long as I have had this computer and before, when it fixed itself temporarily after shutting down over night, I was able to put some .jpg and .avi's in the trash and empty no prob. It's something that pops up just when I use iTunes and try to delete. Weird.

 

[Bruno09]

Can you please confirm that "sudo", "chown" and "username" in the above command all have a SINGLE space after and that there are no other spaces? IE. "sudo[space]chown[space]username[space]~/.Trash"

Yes that is correct.
The "chown" command is safe, can't hurt anything.

NB : this will work only if your account is an admin account.
If your account is standard (not admin), you will have to enter one command more.

This message : "The folder “.Trash” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents." says that you are no longer the owner of the Trash folder.

 

[spudexter]

It looks like you no longer are the owner of the Trash folder.

Run this in the Terminal :

sudo chown username ~/.Trash

Replace username to your actual user name (Home Folder).

Enter your admin password when asked for (will not display).

Then try again in the Finder : Go / Go to Folder : ~/.Trash

Apologies in advance but to clarify again...

"sudo[space]chown[space]username[space]~/.Trash" should be entered in Terminal with the following: "username" (as in what shows up under System PreferenceS>User & Groups>Admin "Full Name") should be replaced with "homefolder" actual user name? That is step 1...step 2 being enter admin pass that will not display

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bruno09]

The user name is not necessarily the same as the full name in System Pref / Users & groups.

BTW you can change the full name, this will not change the user name.

The user name is the one that shows against the "little house" in the Finder.
This is also the name of your home folder in Macintosh HD / Users.

If your user name is "spudexter", copy/paste in the Terminal :

sudo chown spudexter ~/.Trash

Hit Return.

The Terminal will ask : "Password :"

Enter your password (will not display) and hit Enter.

Again, this works only if your are in an admin account.

If you are not in an admin account, let us know, you will have one more command to enter.
If you have one account only on the Mac, it is an admin account.

 

[spudexter]

The user name is not necessarily the same as the full name in System Pref / Users & groups.

BTW you can change the full name, this will not change the user name.

The user name is the one that shows against the "little house" in the Finder.
This is also the name of your home folder in Macintosh HD / Users.

If your user name is "spudexter", copy/paste in the Terminal :

sudo chown spudexter ~/.Trash

Hit Return.

The Terminal will ask : "Password :"

Enter your password (will not display) and hit Enter.

Again, this works only if your are in an admin account.

If you are not in an admin account, let us know, you will have one more command to enter.
If you have one account only on the Mac, it is an admin account.

So I followed this and was able to empty trash no prob, did a test and it worked fine. I also opened iTunes, found an audio file, deleted it in iTunes, it showed up in the Trash and was able to empty trash no prob once again. Goodbye audio file. Thanks for the help, this worked great.

Only issue now is what do I do with all these Audio Files that are now no longer in my iTunes but still on my HD? To be clear, the Audio files that show up in my iTunes are what I want to keep. In username>music>iTunes>iTunes Music I now have a bunch of folders I should have deleted previously interspersed with folders I want to keep. What to do?

Cheers and thanks for the help

 

[Bruno09]

Good news.

Only issue now is what do I do with all these Audio Files that are now no longer in my iTunes but still on my HD? To be clear, the Audio files that show up in my iTunes are what I want to keep. In username>music>iTunes>iTunes Music I now have a bunch of folders I should have deleted previously interspersed with folders I want to keep. What to do?

Now use PowerTunes to search for "orphaned" files (files that are no longer in your iTunes list but still are in your iTunes Media or Music folder).

http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powertunes/

"Orphans" : http://hpics.li/9edbac4

 

[spudexter]

Good news.



Now use PowerTunes to search for "orphaned" files (files that are no longer in your iTunes list but still are in your iTunes Media or Music folder).

http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powertunes/

"Orphans" : http://hpics.li/9edbac4

Amazing. Truly amazeballs-awesome. Fixed and done. Used the 'orphans' option in the program to ID the files that were in my iTunes library but not in iTunes and was able to trash and free up 25+ gb worth of space on my HD. Can't thank you enough. Great app too, I was looking at other potential options but this one was by far the easiest. Many thanks for the top notch advice. There is a ~6 GB difference b/w what PowerTunes says is in my iTunes vs. what iTunes proper says is there but chalk that up as my error and it is no biggie as I was able to free up the bulk of it.

BIG THANKS and thumbs up.

 

[Bruno09]