Trash trouble

[rockstarsbl]

I've been trying to empty my trash for a few days now and every time I select "empty trash" it starts "preparing to empty trash" and even though there are only 180something items in the trash, if I let it go the number climbs to the thousands! I'm afraid it's trying to delete documents that are not in the trash.

I downloaded Trash It, which gets stuck every time I try to start it, so that doesn't work. I also tried option - empty trash and that didn't help either.

There's nothing in the trash that specifically gets stuck though I suspect some iMovie files are causing the drama here.

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks for the help!

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Do you have any applications in the trash? These are common culprits for this sort of thing, due to the fact that they are actually packages with numerous files and folders inside them, which all must be deleted and accounted for.

 

[rockstarsbl]

No applications just .docs, .pdfs, .mp4s, a few imovies, and .dmgs.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

No applications just .docs, .pdfs, .mp4s, a few imovies, and .dmgs.

There's a good way to check: Right-click / control-click the iMovies, and look for an option called show package contents. If there is one, then that would explain why there appears to only be 180 items in the trash, but in reality there are several thousand - those iMovie files are actually packages too, just like the applications I mentioned.

 

[John T]

Just a thought.....

Why not drag a reasonable number of items (say 75%) from the trash onto the desktop and then try emptying the trash?

 

[rockstarsbl]

Thanks for the tip. I went ahead and let the trash empty and it climbed to over 310,000 files. The computer seems fine...so far. I appreciate the suggestions very much!