Can't empty trash on a few files. Permissions?

Good Day.
I am logged in as Admin (Only acct on this machine) and there are several files in the trash that will not allow me to empty.
None of which are in use.
Tells me I don't have the permission to empty/delete which I do.
Can someone please advise.
Thank you.
Tom

Thank you Texas Mac....
Well, i used terminal and it appears that even the unix os cannot find
my Trash.. please see....
Tom-Aellis-Computer-3:~ tomaellis$ ls -al !/.Trash
-bash: !/.Trash: event not found
Tom-Aellis-Computer-3:~ tomaellis$ ls -al ~/.Trash
ls: /Users/tomaellis/.Trash: No such file or directory
Tom-Aellis-Computer-3:~ tomaellis$ cd /.Trash
-bash: cd: /.Trash: No such file or directory
Tom-Aellis-Computer-3:~ tomaellis$ sudo rm -ri ~/.Trash
rm: /Users/tomaellis/.Trash: No such file or directory
Tom-Aellis-Computer-3:~ tomaellis$

Similar Messages

  • Have file in Trash and can not empty trash . Showing 63 files and tried to shut down and restart and still will not empty

    Have file in Trash and can not empty trash . Showing 63 files and tried to shut down and restart and still will not empty.Anyone know what can be done?

    You are welcome. Glad I could help/
    Allan

  • Can´t empty my trashcan and my files are not locked

    Can´t empty my trashcan and my files are not locked?

    See the X-Labs troubleshooting FAQ for the Trash - http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html.
    You should find an answer therein.
    Good luck,
    Clinton

  • -8003 Error "Can't Empty Trash" only with specific item

    Tried to get rid of a folder for an applicaiton that I'd downloaded & installed on a trial basis, then decided not to buy.
    Any time I trash this folder with the app and related files, I get the "Can't Empty Trash -8003" error.
    If I remove that folder, I can empty the trash fine.
    Any ideas?
    (the download app is Extensis Portfolio 8.5)

    You could try using TrashIt!
    Here's a cnet article about -8003:
    Here's another discussion on the same topic.
    Here's a general article on solving trash problems.

  • Emailing Excel sheets-can't empty trash

    I notice anytime I send someone an Excel spreadsheet & then dump that excel into trash I can't empty trash, why is this? I close down all excel worksheets. I even trash the sent mail that had the excel attachment. Why does it think there's still an open Excel running? Is there a simpler solution then having to use Mac Janitor or Onyx everytime I do this?

    Sometimes the Mail application will hold up the process. I can't explain why, but next time try quiting Mail when you have that problem. Then you should be able to empty the trash.

  • How can I empty trash? It won't empty. I received error code -8003.

    How can I empty trash? It won't empty. I received error code -8003.

    Usually rebooting clears it so you can empty the trash, otherwise:
    Can't empty trash:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1526?viewlocale=en_US
    How to Force Empty the Trash:
    http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html#Anchor-Force-11481

  • Can't empty trash because of error code -8003

    I can't empty trash which contains numerous items because of error code -8003. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

    Read other postings. Downloaded Trash It. Problem solved. EC

  • Can't empty trash in OSX10.6.8. Used Trashit unsucessfully. If I run sudo rm -ri ~/.Trash, terminal crashes

    Can't empty trash in OSX10.6.8. Used Trashit unsucessfully. If I run sudo rm -ri ~/.Trash, terminal crashes. PowerMac G-5

    This should do the job without all the Ys. BUT you must be 100% certain you have entered the command EXACTLY as written below. One typo and you could lose all the data in your user. Copy/paste only and TRIPLE check it's entered properly in Terminal. The -f option, instead of the -i option will force empty and delete immediately. No questions. (rm is remove/delete, -r is everything inside the folder, -f is force, no questions)
    sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash
    There is a single space between sudo and rm
                                               "          rm and -rf
                                               "        -rf and ~/.Trash
    NO SPACES IN  ~/.Trash
    It may take a while, depending on how many items are being deleted. You'll know it's done when you get a new $ sign prompt.

  • Can't Empty Trash With Large Number of Files

    Running OS X 10.8.3
    I have a very large external drive that had a Time Machine backup on the main partition. At some point, I created a second partition, then started doing backups on the new partition. On Wed, I finally got around to doing some "housecleaning" tasks I'd been putting off. As part of that, I decided to clean up my external drive. So... I moved the old, unused and unwanted Backups.backupdb that used to be the Time Machine backup, and dragged it to the Trash.
    Bad idea.
    Now I've spent the last 3-4 days trying various strategies to actually empty the trash and reclaim the gig or so of space on my external drive.  Initially I just tried to "Empty Trash", but that took about four hours to count up the files just to "prepare to delete" them. After the file counter stopped counting up, and finally started counting down... "Deleting 482,832 files..." "Deleting 482,831 files..." etc, etc...  I decided I was on the path to success, so left the machine alone for 12-14 hours.
    When I came back, the results were not what I expected. "Deleting -582,032 files..."  What the...?
    So after leaving that to run for another few hours with no results, I stopped that process.  Tried a few other tools like Onyx, TrashIt, etc...  No luck.
    So finally decided to say the **** with the window manager, pulled up a terminal, and cd'ed to the .Trash directory for my UID on the USB volume and did a rm -rfv Backups.backupdb
    While it seemed to run okay for a while, I started getting errors saying "File not found..." and "Invalid file name..." and various other weird things.  So now I'm doing a combination of rm -rfing individual directories, and using the finder to rename/cleanup individual Folders when OSX refuses to delete them.
    Has anyone else had this weird overflow issue with deleting large numbers of files in 10.8.x? Doesn't seem like things should be this hard...

    I'm not sure I understand this bit:
    If you're on Leopard 10.5.x, be sure you have the "action" or "gear" icon in your Finder's toolbar (Finder > View > Customize Toolbar).  If there's no toolbar, click the lozenge at the upper-right of the Finder window's title bar.  If the "gear" icon isn’t in the toolbar, selectView > Customize Toolbar from the menubar.
    Then use the Time Machine "Star Wars" display:  Enter Time Machine by clicking the Time Machine icon in your Dock or select the TM icon in your Menubar.
    And this seems to defeat the whole purpose:
    If you delete an entire backup, it will disappear from the Timeline and the "cascade" of Finder windows, but it will not actually delete the backup copy of any item that was present at the time of any remaining backup. Thus you may not gain much space. This is usually fairly quick
    I'm trying to reclaim space on a volume that had a time machine backup, but that isn't needed anymore. I'm deleting it so I can get that 1GB+ of space back. Is there some "official" way you're supposed to delete these things where you get your hard drive space back?

  • Can't empty trash and icon never indicates files are in the trash.

    What could cause this? Despite having several files in the trash, its icon never changes (always shows an empty trash) and the "Empty Trash" option is dimmed (that is, cannot be used). OnyX ws the only solution but it's temporary. What's the fix I should apply to Mac OS X?
    Also, why is it that every time I want to move a file to trash I must enter my password? It's annoying to say the least.
    Please help me as I don't want to go through the royal pains of installing everything again, Windows-style. I think Mac OS X should be better than that. Or is it? Let's hear it, guys and gals!
    Thanks!
    Fernando

    Sorry, I posted my last message in the wrong thread without realizing it. This is what I meant to post:
    Repairing the permissions of a home folder in Lion is a complicated procedure. I don’t know of a simpler one that always works.
    Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
    ☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
    ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the page that opens.
    Drag or copy — do not type — the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:
    chmod -R -N ~
    The command will take a noticeable amount of time to run. When a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) appears below what you entered, it’s done. You may see a few error messages about an “invalid argument” while the command is running. You can ignore those. If you get an error message with the words “Permission denied,” enter this:
    sudo !!
    You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up.
    Next, boot from your recovery partition by holding down the key combination command-R at startup. Release the keys when you see a gray screen with a spinning dial.
    When the recovery desktop appears, select Utilities ▹ Terminal from the menu bar.
    In the Terminal window, enter “resetpassword” (without the quotes) and press return. A Reset Password window opens. You’re not going to reset the password.
    Select your boot volume if not already selected.
    Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
    Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.
    Select  ▹ Restart from the menu bar.

  • Help-can not empty trash due to localized.rsrc file

    I have dumped all of the contents of my cloned backup hard drive to the trash. Usually I can empty it w/ no problem. However, it will now permit me to empty only part of the contents, and returns a message that it is stopped because the item "Localized.rsrc" is in use. When I use spotlight to find this glitch it shows me that Localized.rsrc is a Unix exe file in the following location: Library/Frameworks/Stuffit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/English.|proj'
    I tried the suggestions from this forum at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2313873&#2313873 with no success. How can I empty the trash and get on with my life? Thank you!
    Bob

    If I were you I would put the Palm stuff back where it came from, that is drag it out of the trash and onto your backup drive, and then empty the trash. This would at least get everything else out of the trash. You could then try the Terminal remove command on the Palm folder:
    sudo rm -R [drag the Palm folder here]
    Hit return and enter your password. The command would look something like this:
    Tiger:~ francine$ sudo rm -R /Volumes/BackUpDrive/PalmWhatever/
    Password:
    Does that return an error message?
    Francine
    Francine
    Schwieder

  • Can't empty trash, time machine files into it

    I put my old backup time machine files in the trash. I can't empty it.
    I get: The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8003).
    Message was edited by: cglusman

    Hi, and welcome to the forums.
    Unfortunately, Apple doesn't do a very good job of warning folks: +*never move, change, or delete things from your backups via the Finder.+* It can hopelessly corrupt them. You shouldn't have to delete things, since Time Machine will do that automatically, but you can. See #12 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
    If you're trying to delete all the backups, just erase the disk with Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder). That will get the trash on that disk, too.
    If not, try holding down the Option key while deleting the trash (but do not use Secure Delete).
    If that doesn't help, try this:
    Open the Terminal app (in your Applications/Utilities folder). Be *very careful* with this app. It's a direct link into UNIX, the underpinnings of OSX, but without the protections of OSX.
    In Terminal, the prompt looks like this: user-xxxxxx:~ <your name>$
    (where <your name> is your short user name). It's followed by a non-blinking block cursor.
    Type the following exactly as shown, placing the name of your Time Machine partition between the quotes, and be sure to place spaces where shown:
    cd /Volumes/"Time Machine Backups"/
    and press Return. The prompt should then change to include the name of your Time Machine drive. Then copy or type:
    sudo rm -rf .Trashes
    and press Return. It should then ask for your Admin password (which won't be displayed). Press Return.
    If there were many items involved, this may take quite a long time. Unless there are problems, once the deletion is complete, you'll see another prompt (there's no completion message).
    Once you get the trash emptied, repair your backups, per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

  • Library crashes/can't empty trash

    I have this problematic library which I'm trying to salvage. I can't remember exactly what happened, but I think I "overloaded" iPhoto with too many photos which included JPG and RAW equivalents, so it crashed. I've tried all sorts of things including suggestions given here to fix it, but as I'm left with lots of "empty" images in addition to the normal photos (iPhoto seems to display those empty ones as normal photos as they have their filenames/keywords, but they just have the background color of iPhoto -there's nothing but empty frames there).
    (Oh, before you mention trashing the iPhoto preference files etc. I can say that I have no problem with other libraries, so iPhoto itself seems OK).
    ...So I've found out that I really just need to save all the "real" photos in folders on my Finder desktop, then create a new library where I import those folders (I use "iPhoto buddy" which allows me to create several iPhoto libraries, which has allowed me to split up my photos into several much smaller ones -iPhoto seems to become pretty fragile if trying to handle a lot of photos and often crashes when I exit).
    Anyway, the "ghost" (empty) images that show up in my albums also seem to make iPhoto work hard. Whenever there are any such empty images in an album I'm viewing, the Mac "beachball" spins for a while (probably about a minute or so, depending on how many empty images there are) not allowing me to do anything but wait. so I really have to delete those images (I think they're actually thumbnails of non-existing images) in order to make iPhoto respond, or exporting my "real" images will take forever to do.
    I've found a solution on how to display only a few "ghost" images at a time: by creating a smart-album with the keyword "Raw image" along with the date range (keeping the date range small).
    OK, so I'm able to display just a few "ghost" images at a time, which I choose to trash.
    When I'm done with several files and want to call it quits for the time being I want to empty the trash which works fine.
    But when that's done and I want to quit I get an error message saying that iPhoto has unexpectedly quit (or something like that). I also notice (by using the "Activity monitor") that iPhoto is using an awful lot of CPU power (80% or something, which turns my Powerbook fan on) when I try to empty the trash.
    So when I restart iPhoto again all the files that I've trashed are still there and everything I've done has been reverted to the way it was before (I've understood that if iPhoto crashes all my editing is lost and I have to start all over again).
    I don't know if the trashcan is the main problem, or if my library is generally messed up which just happens to crash iPhoto when I want to exit, but is there a way I can manually (i.e. via the Finder, accessing iPhoto's files/folders directly) empty its trash?
    Is there anything else I can do to in order to fix some of these problems while I'm trying to export the photos to various folders on the desktop?

    Yes, but the problem with the rebuilding is that the library usually gets altered in some way. I've spent considerable time perfecting my library with albums and folders, so what I want to do is just keep the damaged library unchanged so I can try to recreate a different library by looking at how my damaged one is set up.
    But, the "ghost" images have to go. I've had a closer look at everything and I have a theory about what's going on.
    The "ghost" images are probably thumbnails of non-existing images (probably the RAW files that I deleted a while back, creating a different library), and iPhoto probably crashed after I had deleted the images, but before the setup files was re-written (iPhoto seems to do this sort of thing while it quits, so if it crashes while quitting I get into trouble).
    Now, I'm thinking that if the actual RAW images are gone, but iPhoto doesn't understand that (because the library setup files weren't updated with that information) it'll still try to create thumbnails, but from non-existing images.
    I've found lots of zero length JPG files within the library folder (I used the "Find" function in the Finder to search for files less than 1 KB in that library folder).
    So I've tried to delete all those zero image files (from the Finder), then restart iPhoto, but the "ghost" thumbnails are still there.
    So I guess the trick is to make iPhoto rewrite its index file(s), but omitting the zero filelength JPGs for those missing RAW images. And all while NOT changing anything else in the library setup.
    How do I do that?

  • Error 8003 - can't empty trash

    I have deleted loads of ex-vidio clip files from iMovie and have got down to the last few. The trash will not delete these saying Error 8003. I am trying to reduce the files in my external 1TB drive which also contains back-ups of my hard drive and Time Machine. Is there anyway I can get rid of these remaining files.
    Thanks
    I am using 10.6.8 on an iMac

    sydneyjames wrote:
    EJECT the external drive from the desktop, empty trash WORKED, then disconnect and reconnect the external drive USB to use it again.
    That makes the trash on the external HD disappear from the trash shown on your Mac, but doesn't empty it.
    I'm having to do this every time I want to empty trash so it's not solving the root problem, but at least I can empty the HUGE time machine backups.
    You shouldn't have to delete Time Machine backups, as Time Machine will automatically delete the oldest ones when it needs room for new ones.  If you do want to delete any manually,don't use the Finder.  Use the Time Machine display.  See #12 inTime Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
    For the ones you've already got hung up in the external's trash, see #E6 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

  • Error code -8003? Can't empty trash

    All I'm trying to do is empty my trash. All that's in the trash are a bunch of empty folders, but whenever I go "Finder > Empty Trash," I get the usual thermometer bar for a few seconds (which seems odd in itself, considering how small the files in the Trash are), then this error message:
    The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8003).
    I ran Disk Utility, Repaired Permissions, it gave me a clean bill of health. I then re-started the iMac, and when it was fully booted, tried to empty the trash again. Same error message.
    Then I ran OnyX v2.1.4, no problems, restarted, tried to empty the trash, same result.
    Then I ran Maintenance v1.3.2, no problems, restarted, tried to empty the trash, same result.
    In each case of verifying or repairing disk or permissions, all three utilities generated humongous logs, which I've saved.
    I looked on Apple's Support site for error codes. I was directed to this page:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2088?viewlocale=en_US
    Which says "Mac OS System Error Codes: 1 to 32767," which one would think to be inclusive of error code -8033… but it ain't: the error codes go from 103 (ds32BitMode (booting in 32-bit on a 24-bit sys) to 20000 (dsShutDownOrRestart user choice between ShutDown and Restart)
    I've tried several other sites that claim to have listings of Mac error codes, but it's my understanding -- please correct me if I'm wrong -- that error codes are not static; they evolve with the system.
    BTW, all this happened after installing the latest software update, which included the 356th new driver for HP Printers this week alone, and something else I can't remember.
    Whatever the case, I can't get rid of these empty folders. Any ideas?
    Thanks!
    Bart Brown

    Thanks for the links and tips -- I was so brain-fogged last night (allergies + incredible pollen count = brain fog), and it's been so long since I had an "empty trash" problem, I completely forgot about the option key.
    What's REALLY bizarre (to me) is how I accidentally fixed the problem:
    I opened the Trash window (in "list" view), and did a Command-Option-Right Arrow (which opens all folders and subfolders), trying to see if I could find anything OTHER than empty folders. There were a few files, but nothing out of the ordinary. I closed the Trash window, and decided -- just for the **** of it -- to empty the Trash again. Finder > Empty Trash, and poof! All gone!
    Thanks again -- very useful links!
    Bart Brown

Maybe you are looking for