Nested Applications folders in iMac

[oliomedia]

I've found nested Applications folders on my new iMac running 10.6.8.
There are three levels: Applications>Applications>Applications.

NONE of these are aliases!

The most deeply nested folder went to Trash (with all its contents), and emptied from Trash. The middle folder (one level down from the main Apps folder) will go to trash but will not empty from trash - neither will any of the items in it, not even one at a time. I get "The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8003)."

I've repaired permissions and verified the startup disk.

Help please.

 

[GGJstudios]

I've found nested Applications folders on my new iMac running 10.6.8.
There are three levels: Applications>Applications>Applications.

NONE of these are aliases!

The most deeply nested folder went to Trash (with all its contents), and emptied from Trash. The middle folder (one level down from the main Apps folder) will go to trash but will not empty from trash - neither will any of the items in it, not even one at a time. I get "The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8003)."

I've repaired permissions and verified the startup disk.

Help please.

You should only have one folder for apps, and that's the /Applications folder. What do you have in the /Applications/Applications folder?

You can't empty the Trash or move a file to the Trash
Solving Trash Problems
Can't move files to trash

 

[jackrv]

If you are sure you do not need any files in the nested folder, you can try the following:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2138034?start=0&tstart=0
(8003 error when deleting files - used a program called Trash It to delete)

or

Try force emptying the trash in terminal as root via sudo.
http://www.lancelhoff.com/cant-empty-trash-on-a-mac/

Just check your login and startup items to make sure that the files aren't in use by some process.

 

[oliomedia]

Problem solved

Thanks for your replies.

Just to answer your question

- GGJ Studios: the Apps>Apps folder contained all the applications in the Apps folder - actual applications totalling 93GB. (The Apps>Apps>Apps folder contained most of the application files, but that trashed and emptied fine).

- jackrv: I'd already tried force emptying to no avail.

Before seeing any of your replies I persevered!

I tried copying all the apps files in the trash to a new folder on a different hard drive. I then trashed that new folder, and it duly appeared in the trash, alongside all the existing apps files - again all the files were real files, not aliases.

Emptying the trash then worked perfectly!!

This nested Apps folder problem has occurred before a couple times since I bought my iMac last Summer. It's certainly not the result of anything I have done - the system seems to do it all on its own. This time is the first time I've had the emptying trash problem.

Thanks again for your help. I've noted the links you recommended.

 

[Gregg2]

Well, it is most certainly due to something that someone has done to the computer. They don't do things on their own, yet. Now, that's not to say that the instruction given was correct, or that there is not a bug that caused it to do something other that Apple intended. But, it required input of some sort.