My Trash Won't Empty

[brn2ski00]

instead of putting it into the trash, open up a terminal and do the rm command.

> rm filename

if that does not work do this..

>rm -rf filename

and if that doesn't work, try this command:

rm -r *

JUST KIDDING - dont do that!

 

[kavon90]

instead of putting it into the trash, open up a terminal and do the rm command.

> rm filename

if that does not work do this..

>rm -rf filename

Generally not a good idea to use f with the r flag all the time if you're working in terminal.

 

[jman995x]

You:


Your Mac: What files???

Sorry, I should've clarified.
When I first noticed that I still had the paper icon in my trash icon I opened up the trash and there was nothing there.
In the course of trying to get the paper icon to disappear through emptying the trash (thinking that there might be some hidden files in the trash that were preventing it from emptying), upon subsequent openings of the trash, magically 17 files reappeared, and then I couldn't get rid of them.
So, originally, no files...then magically files I deleted the day before reappeared and couldn't be deleted.

Sorry for the confusion.

J.

 

[Gregg2]

When I first noticed that I still had the paper icon in my trash icon I opened up the trash and there was nothing there.

That's the part I was joking about. Sorry if the humor was a bit abstruse.

 

[jman995x]

That's the part I was joking about. Sorry if the humor was a bit abstruse.

Duh...I get it now...you were playing the part of the Trash.

J.

 

[Pinewood]

Evernote won't delete

I was unable to empty my trash and worked out that each update of the Evernote software prevents me from doing so. I find that if I remove the old Evernote from the trash can I can delete other files. Using Alt+empty trash does not work and NO WAY do I want to mess about in terminal mode (I want to use my computer, not know how it works!). OK so Evernote is free but I have contacted the company and they tell me to scan forums for a solution which is not really the answer.

 

[Gregg2]

So I'm guessing that Evernote does not have an uninstaller. (otherwise they'dve told you so) Download AppCleaner or another uninstaller. Put Evernote back in Applications, then try to "Clean" it.

 

[GeeLuv]

Terminal Command empty trash

OK I had this problem for day's and tried various methods and app's on my MBP running 10.7. I finally used this Terminal command and it worked for me.

sudo rm -Rf ~/.Trash/*

after I hit return it asked for my password I typed it in (it won't show you your typing it BTW) hit return done. Good Luck.

 

[milehigh]

simple solution

I had 103,000 files in my trash, and trash would not empty (system would hang).

I tried a few of the tricks mentioned, but what worked for me was to simply:

• move everything out of trash into another folder
• select a few hundred files/folders (I found if I did more than about 1,000 files at a time my system would crash {hang on the deleting part})
• delete them
• empty trash
• rinse & repeat until all files are deleted and trash is empty

BTW, the Trash It! script didn't work for me.