Item in use (want to trash). can't find why.

Have you rebooted then tried to delete them?

 

Ah that might be the problem! If you dragged the file off the compact flash into the trash then you need to remount the compact flash then erase.

 

Although it sounds like they were saved to his computer and then trashed, not trashed directly from the card.

Can you drag them out of the trash, re-open them in an application, quite the app, re-trash and delete? It sounds like they were never properly closed.

You could also try Option-Empty Trash, which may work (but I think that's only for locked files).

 

For any stubborn files I would just use a program like Onyx to force empty the trash. And the computer can just cope.

 

You could try Terminal...

Type 'cd .Trash' and press enter to get into Trash, check if the files are actually there by doing a 'ls' and remove with 'rm file1.jpg file2.jpg' or, if they're real stubborn, 'sudo rm file1.jpg file2.jpg'.

 

From an Apple support doc

Rename the file to "remove.rtf"
Open TextEdit (/Applications/TextEdit)
From the File menu, choose Save As
Type: "remove" in the Save As field
Select the location where the file is located
Click Save, then Replace
Quit TextEdit
Drag remove.rtf to the Trash

 

Close down Mail next time.

If you send an atttachment of an image, Mail will latch on to it sometimes.