Strange file in Trash that just won't go away.

Since installing Snow Leopard, I have a strange file in the Trash that I can't get rid of. It appears to be a zero KB "Alias" file with "unknown" permissions. At first glance it looks as if it's called \\\Õ\\.Õ\ but the diagonal lines are actually the word "Nul" made up of a superscript 'N', a normal 'u' and a subscript 'l'- all in very small font size.
I can't drag it out of the Trash to see what it does. It's info window holds no clues, apart from the "unknown permissions" thing.
I have tried repairing permissions and have since upgraded to 10.6.1 and repaired them again.
Any suggestions on what this file is - and on how to lose it would be gratefully received.

Bob Bridges1 wrote:
Since installing Snow Leopard, I have a strange file in the Trash that I can't get rid of. It appears to be a zero KB "Alias" file with "unknown" permissions. At first glance it looks as if it's called \\\Õ\\.Õ\ but the diagonal lines are actually the word "Nul" made up of a superscript 'N', a normal 'u' and a subscript 'l'- all in very small font size.
I can't drag it out of the Trash to see what it does. It's info window holds no clues, apart from the "unknown permissions" thing.
Are you willing to use Terminal to try to eliminate that file? If so, launch Terminal, then type the commands below.
WARNING: In general, the "rm" command can be very dangerous. That's why the commands below (1) show what's there to be deleted and (2) ask for confirmation for each file to be deleted.
cd ~/.Trash
ls -a
file *
The "ls" command should show you three things: a single period, a double period, and your mystery file. The "file" command should show you the mystery file and an explanation of what type of file it is. If you're feeling nervous, you might want to mention here the reported type. If all is well so far, type this command
rm -i *
You should be prompted for deleting that file. If you like what you see, press the "y" key, then press the <return> key. If you see anything that makes you nervous, either (1) type control-c or (2) press the "n" key, then press the <return> key.
If the system refused to delete that file, then (if you're feeling brave), type this command:
sudo rm -i *
That command will prompt you for your administrative password, then prompt you to delete your mystery file. The same responses apply.

Similar Messages

Strange file in trash and it won't empty

I have a strange file in trash and it will not empty.
There is an alias file that has a strange name and a date of dec. 31, 1903. It will not go away when I empty. I put other files in the trash to see if they would be deleted and they do, but the other will not be deleted.
In the name of the file there is small characters that say "null" then õ's as well.
I took a few screen shots and posted them on photobucket, Take a look. Any suggestions or theories?
This is a first
Link is http://s227.photobucket.com/albums/dd228/pschmidt63/
phil

pschmidt63 wrote:
I have a strange file in trash and it will not empty.
There is an alias file that has a strange name and a date of dec. 31, 1903. It will not go away when I empty. I put other files in the trash to see if they would be deleted and they do, but the other will not be deleted.
On the Mac there are actually multiple Trashes. The user Trash ".Trash" in user's home folder, and multiple (depending on number of volumes in machine) ".Trashes" folder(s) one each in root of volume. In the ".Trashes" folder there can be a trash folder for the user.
It looks like you have a corrupted/illegal character file which you can't delete via the UI. Via the terminal you may be able to. But... you have to go to the "trash" where the file actually is - and it may not be in "~/.Trash". But in the Mac desktop you will see it in your Trash icon.
Have a look at my post here
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5864381#5864381
and the rest of the thread.
Get into Terminal and check your home trash folder, see if the file is there then go to the other trash folders ".Trashes" and look for it there and kill it with "sudo" command as shown in my other post here.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5864569#5864569
*Can you let us know if this solves it for you* - as I am interested to know if this is definite fix.
Cheers

Strange file in trash that won't go away?

I have a strange file that appeared in my Trash the other day. I tried to empty the trash multiple times, but it won't go away. Secure empty trash doesn't help, as it just gets stuck. Double-clicking on the file, getting info on the file, or dragging the file out of the trash just results in the item disappearing, only to reappear shortly thereafter. Here is a screenshot of the filename, as it is very strange (I am posting it as a picture so there are no font issues):
Click on the image if it doesn't appear.
I have no idea what's going on. I tried repairing permissions to no avail. Should I run a disk utility such as Techtool or Diskwarrior? Is this a virus? Could this be related to my weird Time Machine issues (where Time Machine will come up with an error, see below for picture)?
Click on the image if it doesn't appear.

from Apple docs worked for me. Mine was \\\\\\\.\\\ derived from installing Windows.
If there are several locked files in the Trash, you can unlock them all at the same time at the command line. Follow these steps:
1. Open Terminal. It's located in /Applications/Utilities.  Type: chflags -R nouchg  Note: Type one space (not pictured) after nouchg in the line above, so that it ends in "nouchg ". Do not press Return yet. 
2. Double-click the Trash icon in the Dock to reveal the contents of the Trash. If necessary, arrange the Finder window so that a portion of the Terminal window is still visible.
3. Press the Command-A key combination to select all files in the Trash.
4. Drag the files from the Trash to the Terminal window.  Note: This automatically enters the pathname for each file. This eliminates the need to individually empty multiple Trash directories, particularly when multiple disks or volumes are present. 
5. Press Return. No special text message will be shown indicating that the command was successful.
6. Empty the Trash.
If the Trash does not empty or if you see a message in Terminal that says "usage: chflags [-R [-H | -L | -P]] flags file..." you most likely did not type the text in step 2 as indicated or did not leave a space. Repeat the steps if this happens.

Strange item in Trash that I can't remove

Hello - there is an "file/item" in my Trash that I just can't seem to remove. It looks something like "///O//.//" except the "O" is a lot smaller and has a "-" above it.
I have no idea where this has come from. get info shows: volumes/BOOTCAMP/trashes/501 and is Zero Bytes.
I have emptied the Trash securely, I also tried Cleaning the HD using "OnyX" and run the Weekly and monthly scripts, it it just won't go away and it annoying ! I know it's only a small think but it's just bugging me.
Please help.
Any suggestions?

Run the chkdsk tool from Windows.
(47051)

I disconnected my iPad unconsciously while it was updating ios 7.0.4 and it just stuck on that screen showing apple logo and a loading bar that just won't move on what to do now ????

I disconnected my iPad unconsciously while it was updating ios 7.0.4 and it just stuck on that screen showing apple logo and a loading bar that just won't move on what to do now ????

It's not uncommon for it to not work the first time and sometimes, you have to try it a few times. Turn off your antivirus software and your firewall while you are trying to restore the iPad. Enable them again after you restore.
If that still won't work, post back with detailed information as to what exactly does happen as you go through the process.

Strange Null file in Trash that wont delete.

I have a strange file in my Trash that I can't delete. It has a name of "␀␀␀␀␀␀␀.␀␀␀". It appears as if all the characters are Null.
These are the actions I have taken:
1. Using Tech Tool Pro, performed file system check. Now problems found.
2. Using Terminal, changed directory to .Trash, performed ls -A and no files were found.
3. Attempted a delete (rm) of all files in trash. No luck. File remains.
4. When I select file and do a Get Info, the file disappears and the Trash Icon shows empty, but opening the trash again brings this strange file back.
5. Tried renaming the file but the rename fails with an error -43.
6. I booted from another disk and rand Disk utility which found and corrected incorrect file count problem. Still the file persists, and the verify of the disk now returns no errors.
7. Ran verify disk permissions. No problems found.
I believe the file first appeared after installing Leopard 10.5.3 update, but I'm not sure if this is related.
Any help would be appreciated.
Jeff Cameron

Thank you! That was it.
Although my Windows Partition is FAT32 instead of NTFS, after booting XP, I found a null file in C:\.Trashes\501\. I could not delete it there either. My next step was to run CHKDSK C: /F, which converted the 501 folder into a file, which I could delete.
Booting back into OSX, the null file was now gone.
Thanks again for your help.
Jeff

Can't get rid of Strange file in Trash

There is a strange file in my trash that i cant get rid of. It's called "␀␀␀õ␀␀.␀␀"
If i click get info on it the file disappears, but anytime i send a file into the Trash or open it up it reappears
Any help would be appreciated

this worked for me and I had the same file name as you described.
you must have win installed.
1. Open Terminal. It's located in /Applications/Utilities.  Type: chflags -R nouchg  Note: Type one space (not pictured) after nouchg in the line above, so that it ends in "nouchg ". Do not press Return yet. 
2. Double-click the Trash icon in the Dock to reveal the contents of the Trash. If necessary, arrange the Finder window so that a portion of the Terminal window is still visible.
3. Press the Command-A key combination to select all files in the Trash.
4. Drag the files from the Trash to the Terminal window.  Note: This automatically enters the pathname for each file. This eliminates the need to individually empty multiple Trash directories, particularly when multiple disks or volumes are present. 
5. Press Return. No special text message will be shown indicating that the command was successful.
6. Empty the Trash.
If the Trash does not empty or if you see a message in Terminal that says "usage: chflags [-R [-H | -L | -P]] flags file..." you most likely did not type the text in step 2 as indicated or did not leave a space. Repeat the steps if this happens.

Strange items in trash, and they won't empty out.

A couple of days ago, I noticed these really odd items in the trash. They won't open, and if I try to empty the trash they just stay there. Restarting doesn't work.

Hi,
Go here for help with that.
Solving Trash Problems - X Lab
Carolyn

Problem with processes that just won't die...

Hi,
first off, hullo everybody
I'm new to Arch Linux, but I do already like it very much. I have just installed it on my workstation and it works fine, except for the following problem.
My home directory here is mounted via NFS from a central server. My username is malte (we're using YP/NIS for central authentication) and my home dir is /WW/home/malte/
The network file system that is mounted at boot time is /WW
malte@bombadil $ grep nfs /etc/fstab
quarterback:/WW /WW nfs defaults 0 0
Everything is setup at boot time automatically and all works fine so far. However, when I reboot my machine using sudo reboot, or even when cleanly logging out and using the Shutdown/Reboot button in GDM, what happens is that Arch tries to unmount the net file systems (that is, /WW in this case), but fails and outputs
/WW: device is busy
(or something to that effect); so it gives up, and goes on shutting down all the other services, like the network etc. At the very end, when "Unmounting all filesystems", it then again tries to unmount the net file system, which of course won't work since the network is already shut down. It tries for about a minute or so before timing out, giving up and just rebooting
This of course is quite annoying, as I have to wait more than a minute each time I want to reboot (or I would have to press the reset button on the computer, which I really don't want to).
So why doesn't Arch succeed in unmounting the net file system when it should? Using lsof, I have traced down the problem further:
When I do not login as user in GDM after booting up the system, but immediately reboot again after GDM has just been started, there is no problem: /WW is unmounted properly, and my system reboots flawlessly.
The problem is when I log in to my WM as user. Even if I log out cleanly to GDM again, there are two processes belonging to user malte that go on living and that access to /WW/home/malte, and I suppose that is why unmounting fails at reboot time, saying the device is busy.
I have found out that (and which these processes are) by closely observing the output of watch 'lsof | grep WW' run as root on vc/1, just after I log out from my WM as user:
root@bombadil $ lsof | grep WW # executed closely after logging out as user malte
menu-cach 3410 malte cwd DIR 0,16 1536 8785908 /WW/home/malte (quarterback:/WW)
gam_serve 5391 malte cwd DIR 0,16 1536 8785908 /WW/home/malte (quarterback:/WW)
More information on those two processes:
root@bombadil $ ps aux | grep -e gam_serv -e menu-cach
malte 3410 0.0 0.1 41540 2680 ? S 14:46 0:00 /usr/bin/menu-cached
malte 5391 0.0 0.0 17444 1476 ? S 15:38 0:00 /usr/lib/gamin/gam_server
root 5473 0.0 0.0 9324 740 tty1 R+ 15:38 0:00 grep -e gam-serv -e menu-cach
So! In short, even after logging out, menu-cached and gam_server keep on living, and access to /WW/home/malte, and that is why when I try to reboot, Arch does not succeed in unmounting /WW, and that is why it tries to unmount it again at a later time, after networking has already been shut down, and that is why it waits for a time-out for about a minute at the end of the reboot procedure.
In fact, gam_server only keeps on living for about 20 seconds after I logged out, then it is terminated. As for menu-cached, it goes on and on living, at least for 5 minutes, which is when I got tired of watching the output of watch 'lsof | grep WW' ;-)
Any ideas how this could be remedied? Ideally, I'd like to be able to reboot using sudo reboot rather than by logging out and using GDM to reboot, but I guess that then there will be even more processes alive and accessing the NFS file system when already Arch tries to unmount it.
Oh yes, maybe this is of some interest also:
malte@bombadil $ grep DAEMONS /etc/rc.conf
# DAEMONS
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network portmap nfslock @netfs ypbind sshd crond)
Please help
Cheers,
Malte
Last edited by einheitlix (2009-03-31 14:20:35)

I have the same problem. menu-caches doesn't die after user logs out of the session (don't have the gamin issue though). I too am running LXDE. When a different user logs in via gdm you'll still see the menu-cached processes for other users and I end up having to kill them as root. I do believe this is a bug with either menu-caches and/or LXDE (or perhaps, more specifically, its session manager). I've looked high and low through the system to figure out where menu-cached is invoked from and for any sort of associated configuration file to no avail. I'm left with the conclusion that the invocation of menu-cached is hard-coded into start-lxde.
As a ugly-hack workaround you might try making a shell script like the following in /etc/gdm/PostSession/ directory:
#!/bin/sh
killall menu-cached
This of course is only applicable for those running gdm as their display manager. Also don't forget to make it executable.
I would imagine that menu-cached not closing on user logout is very much a bug. Or perhaps, more precisely, something that hadn't gotten put in yet. Afterall, LXDE is still a relatively new desktop. A good one at that so far, if you don't mind some of the missing polish that its dev haven't had a chance to add yet.
If someone else knows a more elegant solution than that please let me, and the other LXDE users, know.
Last edited by PingFloyd (2009-04-04 02:08:29)

Files in Trash that I want back in my media pool

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Does anyone else have this problem?
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Before you suggest any combination of deleting/reinstalling from iTunes or the iPhone, I have done every combination you can think of.
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Can I bump this? Has anybody else ever seen anything like this?

I have recently upgraded to Lion on y iMac. I find that the OS is running much slower that the previous version snow lepard. I found in my applications some files which are rated Power PC which I want to get rid off, but they just won't go away.

Any suggestions on getting the machine run faster ??

Upgrade the RAM. It's cheap, and easy to do yourself.

Cross-post: strange file in trash

In my trash I have found a file associated with iTunes/iPod: iPod2,12.2.1_5H11aRestore.ipsw
I didn't put it there, and don't know why it should be there - the trash was empty not long before, and I haven't restored my iPod for years.
My questions: is it safe to trash it? If not, where does it properly belong?
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My final device that just won't connect!

Hi Folks, I have a BT HomeHub2 which has been working fine for about a year now. I have three Macs, a PC, an XBox 360, a Wii and my ipod all successfully connecting to this without any problems at all.
I've just bought a San Francisco Orange phone - this is really a ZTE Blade android phone that Orange have changed the name. It can connect to my sisters BT Homehub2 no problems, but it's just not connecting to mine.
It sees the network, I put in the correct password and it hangs at 'obtaining IP address'.
The curious thing is that it will happily connect via BTopenzone and seeing as I live in the middle of nowhere this will be taking my homehub connection. However, this isn't satisfactory as everytime I wake my phone up I have to then re-register via BTfon on the internet phone app.
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Hi Geaves,
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I get the impression that this is something to do with the homehub setup - other people are having this issue, though only a handful it has to be said. Also, I have managed to get it to connect immediately with my sister's homehub2 - sadly she lives 450 miles away
Here's a snippet of something that may or may not spark some suggestions with those familiar with the ins and out of the BT homehub (which I ain't):
Taken from the modaco forum:
'Aside from the SF's known v1.0 wifi quirks, it sounds as though there may be something strange in the router setup limiting the number of connections available to you, possibly because of maximising the number available to other passing BT customers ... I think you need to ensure that you aren't being excluded from your own router because of the way it is setup. Ordinarily your security might be setup to limit the number of (in-house) connections (by restricting the DHCP pool of addresses), or permit only devices already known (a MAC whitelist), or even having DHCP turned off with everything having its own static IP address. Those would normally be deliberate (manual) security setup choices, (but I dunno how your thing sets itself up). And all those (and probably many other) things could give the sort of grief you are encountering. But, although (or maybe because) I simply don't know the detail of how much of your router is reserved for your own use, I'd suspect that might be where the trouble lies. Certainly the first thing I'd want to investigate.'
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Also, as a comment:
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Just putting two sides of the story down here as I really have no idea wether the fault is the hubs or the phones.
Suns

Strange file in Trash

Hi, I have a file that i cannot delete from the Trash. it is labeled with 5 rows of slanted dots followed by a period, an N with a tilde over it and one quote. the date modified is 12/31/1903 at 5PM.
when i try and delete it it returns immediately, when i Get Info it disappears and re-appears immediately.
does anyone know what this could be ?? maybe an intrusion or virus?? how might i get rid of it?
Thanks
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sounds like a windows ghost. do you have bootcamp? If so boot into windows and repair the drive using [chkdsk|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107297].

Strange file in Trash that just won't go away.

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