Can't empty trash or take file out of it.

iMac 27" OS 10.9.2. There is a file called "boot.efi" nested inside5 folders in the trash that apparently belongs to my TimeMachine disk (it dissapears if I unmount the disk but reappears when it remounts.) I have tried taking it out of the trash but it just copied back onto the TM or HD disks. I can delete these copies OK but the original stays put.
Any suggestions will be appreciated

This is either too hard or too dangerous, I have everything adequatly backed-up elswhere so have re-formatted the TimeMachine and startet again. This has solved the problem.
Thanks for the suggestions.

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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).

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

-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.

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.

Why is the "Empty Trash" option missing? All I have is "Secure Empty Trash" which takes a considerable amount of time.

Why is the “Empty Trash” option missing? All I have is “Secure Empty Trash” which takes a considerable amount of time.

check your finder preferences.

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

How can I make a small swf file out of InDesign

I have a 200 page book (PDF). I am trying to make a flip book to preview in web browser. How can I make a small swf file out of InDesign with the PDF I have?

There is another point:
if you are using JPEG images together with SWF as output file format, you could get smaller images by:
1. using the Export For Web menu for generating size optimized JPEGs in PhotoShop opposed to Save As JPEG
2. stripping all color management (ICC) information off the files (SWF is not very good in color management besides sRGB, I think…)
Uwe

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 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 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 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$

Can't empty Trash "file in use"?

The file referred to is called "Localised.rsrc" how can I find it and remove it soo that I can empty the trash?
The files in question are an aborted install of Palm Connection software if that's relevant and I suspect the file in use is some sort of diary event.
Can anyone advise?

Hi again - I went through the first page you referenced again and although it didn't fit the scenario (it's not a part downloaded file) I hadn't tried secure delete so this time I did and it worked.
For the record the "localized.rsrc" file wasn't even an active process so I don't know why it was a problem.
Must remember that for the future and thanks again for your help.

Can't empty trash or take file out of it.

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