Empty Trash extremely slow

Lots of Fan noise and slowly counting down while emptying trash. We're talking one item per second here. Not good if you wanna flush 1600 items (used to take 1 sec in total).
This is a clean install of 10.6. I did that because of the same problem after updating 10.5 to 10.6.
Any 'fix' known?

Try using the terminal. Go to
~.Trash
and use the "rm" command, e.g., >> rm *
if that does work see >> man rm
for details using the "rm" command
rm -rf *
cures most any issues with the quickness.
I hope this helps.

Similar Messages

Emptying Trash extremely slow

I have to wait hours and still the Trash is not emptied
Then I restart the computer. But it would not help
The Trash cannot be emptied.

Relaunch the Finder, then from the Finder menu bar, select
Finder ▹ Preferences... ▹ Advanced
and uncheck the box marked
Empty Trash securely
Try again to empty the Trash.

Why is emptying trash so slow in Snow Leopard??

Why is emptying trash so slow in Snow Leopard!?
t

Have you just upgraded by the sound of it? Snow Leopard's trash is fine here.
Check to see if your Finder Preferences > Advanced tab has Empty Trash securely selected. That will slow things down. If so, deselect it to speed things up.

Why is emptying trash so slow? Is there a way to make it faster?

I am trying to clean up my external hard drives, by moving things to trash. There are several several items, but this is A MacBook PRO and I thought emptying trash would be a fast process. It's taken about 24 hours to delete roughly 200 items. Is there a faster way to delete stuff?

Relaunch the Finder, then from the Finder menu bar, select
Finder ▹ Preferences... ▹ Advanced
and uncheck the box marked
Empty Trash securely
Try again to empty the Trash.

Secure empty trash very slow

Are there suggestions for speeding up Secure Empty Trash?

I got a tip from a Genius at the Green Hills (Nashville) Apple Support Bar today on how to instantly empty the Trash folder. This comes with a big warning/disclaimer: you will not be prompted about any of the action to delete the contents of your Trash as this sequence of steps force deletes all trash. In other words, there's no turning back. I did this after facing 8 hours of a trash emptying cycle to get rid of 280,000 files...
Here it is: while simultaneosly holding down Command + Option keys, press Shift and then press Delete (all four, in that order).
It works - it's instant! But be sure you want to take this action.

Emptying trash very slow

Mysterious delay in moving items to trash by selecting them then clicking command-delete. Takes about 10 seconds for system to respond. Only been happening since moving up to Leopard. Any ideas?

Force quit. Your Library is damaged.
Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords, faces and places back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
Regards
TD

Empty Trash is S-L-O-W.

Can anyone explain and/or help me with this problem? I am running my iPhoto library on a 2TB, w/Firewire 800, external HD attached to my Mac Mini. I have updated my OS to the latest version and am running the latest version of iPhoto 09. (With all the yelling I hear about iPhoto 11, there is no way I am going to try that!) I am combining several Libraries into one which is why I bought a huge eHD.
I have used Library Manager to combine very similiar libraries and had the "don't move duplicates" on when I did that. Afetr I combined them, my total went from about 15,000 to about 19,000 images. I then ran Duplicate Annilator which identified about 3,000+ duplicates. (Looks like Library Manager was not a total solution to eliminating the transfer of duplicates.) Empty Trash was slow. Then I ran the rebuild function in iPhoto using only the first button "rebuild thumbnails."
Empty Trash is still slow. I only put between 80 and 120 images in the trash before I try and do the empty function. It works but this takes close to one hour. You can quickly see I have roughly 30 hours of work to get rid of 3,000 at 100 per pop. And since I don't sit here waiting, this may take me a week to empty all the duplicates out of the library. Not to mention that I don't really trust it too much.
I also find it irritating that there is no progress bar on empty trash. My only way of knowing I have started is that before you punch the "are you sure" button it is glowing brighter back and forth. The minute I punch it, it stops glowing and goes very still which tells me the machine is doing the job. But there is no indication of how much has been done until suddenly the number of images in the trash goes to (0).
Any idea how this can be speeded up?
FYI: Once this is completed, I am going to ditch iPhoto and have already purchased a copy of Aperture. Most of my work is done in RAW.
BTW: I just got my Apple TV working the the rec room and it is WONDERFUL to see the pictures on the big TV. Very cool.
Thanks. Maury

The problem is solved. I tried to run some more pictures and this time when it finished, I was left with a beach ball (NOT spinning) instead of my arrow pointer. What the ****? Could not make it go away but it did work for clicking. So I decided to RESTART and when the computer came back to life, the pointer had returned. So I loaded up another 120 images to trash. But now the trash was gone in just a few minutes. WOW. So I loaded 250. Again, gone is just a few minutes. WAZOO. This time I loaded up 650 pictures. Again gone in just a few minutes. GREAT.
But I still do not get a progress bar, just the pulsating OK buttton which going still when I press it.
I don't have any idea what was wrong or what fixed it. But RESTART did the trick.
Thsi problem is solved.
Maury

Finder extremely slow, trash takes ages and some USB-devices don't work

My MacPro is lightning fast when booted without extensions (shift down), but when I boot normally some apps work fine, but the Eye TV usb receiver won't work.
Emptying trash might take hours for 1 or 2 files.
Copying files from one HDD to another takes ages
Finder is extremely slow (takes forever to show contents of a mounted DMG).
installing software will often not work.
awkwardly enough FCP seems to work fine while simple use of the finder is nerve wrecking.
iTunes won't launch.
I've tried adding extra memory (got screwed into buying 4GB at extorniate price at the Apple retaier), cleaning up cache, flushing pram, removing Norton AV, removing all old Adobe apps, all tools I never use...
I tried booting without USB and firewire devices.
now the pc HDD connected show full size empty disks where one cannot write...
I already learned to live with the fact that Snow leopard makes my HP Designjet and all my labelprinters from Brother useless, but I need to work. Does someone have an idea on how to get Snow Laggard to become a Snow Leopard?

See:
Mac Maintenance Quick Assist,
Mac OS X speed FAQ,
Speeding up Macs,
Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up,
Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines,
Maintaining OS X,
Five Mac maintenance myths, and
Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X for information.

MacBook Pro 10.7 very slow to empty trash

I have 32 items in my trash and it's been trying to empty the trash for over 30min. now.
Here is what I've tried:
1. Option > Click > Empty Trash ; Didn't work
2. Restarted computer > Empty Trash : Didn't work
3. Shutdown compuer > Empty Trash: Didn't work
4. Booted up off recovery jump drive > Ran Disk Utilities > Fixed HD > Fixed Permissions > Rebooted > Empty Trash: Didn't Work
5. Emptied font cache > Restarted > Empty Trash: Didn't Work.

Go to /Applications /Utilities/Terminal and launch it.
At the prompt, copy and paste this command
sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash
Press Return.
You will be asked to enter your admin password. It will be invisible.
Enter it and press Return.
Log out and back in or restart.
Let us know.

My Macbook Air has suddenly become extremely slow and is always crashing?

Hi, I would really appriciate some help right now.
I have had my Macbook Air for a little more than 2 years. It has always worked pretty well. However, recently I went on vacation for 1 week without my laptop. When I returned home and went to turn on my computer, I noticed that it had become extremely slow. Firstly, turning on my computer has become an abnormally long process. It used to take about 2-3 minutes to turn on. Now, it takes a solid 10 minutes. Not only this, but once my computer has finally turned in, it usually takes another 10 minutes before I can open an internet browser. When I click on the browser (I used Google Chrome) no window will pop up, and after a few more clicks, my screen will freeze completely. Sometimes I will get the rainbow wheel and sometimes the screen just completely freezes without it. Sometimes I will try closing the lid of my computer and then reopening it, but when I do this, the screen stays black for a long period of time even after I have reopened it, almost as if the computer is off. After an excessive amount of key smashing and an abnormally large amount of time, the screen will finally stop being in sleep mode and show my desktop. Even then, my computer will still barely work. Once I finally get a window open and start using the internet, google chrome will end up crashing within at least 20 minutes. The entire screen will freeze, I won't be able to scroll down or exit out of the window, and I then usually have to repeat the painful process that I described above when I attempt to open my broswer.
It has been over a week since I returned from vacation, and I deal with these issues every time. My computer has always been fine in the past, why is this suddenly happening?
I have tried to remove some of my applications my going into Finder and highlighting the application and clicking Move to Trash, and then emptying the trash. This hasn't helped at all. Do you think that it would help to delete some of my files and data (pictures, documents, screenshots, downloads, ect) or is this irrevevant?
I would really appricate some help! I am really sick of having to deal with this. I have no idea what is going on or how to fix it, or why this has suddenly happened after a week of being away from my computer.
Thank you so much. If you need any more detail or have any more questions, please ask.

It's likely that the internal drive is failing, or you have some other hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested.
Back up all data on the internal drive(s) before you hand over your computer to anyone. If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros (do this only if you have at least two complete, independent backups, and you know how to restore to bare metal from any of them.) Don’t erase the Lion recovery partition, if present.

MacBook Pro Extremely slow for unknown reason.

Even typing this message is taking an age.
I woke up this morning, picked up my laptop and it's just being a right toad!
It's extremely slow and sluggish and won't even open some apps (Skype seems to be causing MAJOR problems and made the computer freeze big time - which I've never seen before) And mail just throws a hissy fit when checking for mail.
I uninstalled skype and it seems to have made a LITTLE bit of difference.
Even doing a spellcheck takes about a minute, it's silly.
I've done SMC and PRAM reset but it's had no effect at all. I've also repaired disk permissions.
I'm all out of options now. I've reset the computer about 10 times, deleted some temp files, emptied the trash, cleared the HDD - Everything.
The one thing I'm worried about is that it STINKS of a virus.....
I'm tired of seeing the beach ball of death and the power button is nearly worn out.
Any help is mucho appreciated

First your machine is NOT affected by a virus because none as in zero, nada, zip, nope exist for OS X. What it sounds like to me though is 1 of 2 possibilities, both related to your HD. First is it's too full, Mac's need a minimum of 10-15% of the disk available at all times. For example if your drive is 250GB it always should have at least 25-38GB available. If you aren't sure how much yours has in Finder click it and then type Command + I and it will tell you the size and how much is available.
The next thing I think it might be is that it's failing. I would recommend running Apple Hardware Test in Extended Mode immediately and see if it reports any errors.
Roger

Extremely slow time machine backup

Hi,
I tried my first backup on snow leopard and I found it extremely slow compared to leopard. What used to take 20 minutes in leopard now takes 3 to 4 hours.
This was my first backup on snow leopard.
Is there any known issue for slow TM backup? If not, this must be a bug in this new OS.
If there is any assistance needed (i.e. logs etc) do let me know.
Thanks,
Apurva

Hi every one had the same problem for a while and had tried everything but discovered a solution that has helped me out and hope that it helps others as hours have been burnt trying to get this running.
so here we go.
Restart your Mac with the boot up media/ CD/ DVD
open disk utility
repair back up drive
repair local disk
repair permission local disk
boot back in to SL
go to your back up drive
open Backups.backupdb folder
find your back up folder (it will be named the same as your machine)
locate your current backup temporary file (this is not a folder but a file that is used to store and create your latest backup of your system it will look different so don't remove the wrong one)
move it to the trash
empty the trash (this will take a while depending on the size of temp file)
once completed run time machine again.
this time time machine will run a lot faster in determining the backup required, the the actual back up process will be a lot quicker once the first back up is created.
I went from waiting over 24 hours for a backup which ended up either failing or crashing my system to a 1st time complete back up in less than an hour and the incremental backups are much quicker.
for some reason the temp file gets corrupted no idea why but this has seemed to fix it for me.
I am backing up over 150 GB on my local disk and about 350GB on another external disk drive to my back up drive.
Drives is connected by Firewire 800
let me know if I can b of further assistance.
""Cheers

MacBook Pro Running EXTREMELY Slow (Information from EtreCheck attached). HELP!

Problem description:
I am having issues with my mac becoming extremely SLOW. I upgraded the RAM (Doubled it up) and it was working well for a while, but it’s now back to being extremely slow. I noticed the change when I upgraded to Mavericks. I’m still running Mavericks and haven’t upgraded to Yosemite yet.
What could be causing this to happen? SO slow and keep in mind I'm usually always multi-tasking when operating my laptop.
If you can offer any suggestions then please let me know!
Thanks in advance,
Mike
EtreCheck version: 2.1.2 (105)
Report generated December 12, 2014 at 6:19:03 PM MST
Hardware Information: ℹ️
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009) (Verified)
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro5,5
1 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2-core
8 GB RAM Upgradeable
BANK 0/DIMM0
4 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
4 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Video Information: ℹ️
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M - VRAM: 256 MB
Color LCD 1280 x 800
ASUS MX239 spdisplays_1080p
System Software: ℹ️
OS X 10.9.4 (13E28) - Uptime: 1:44:28
Disk Information: ℹ️
FUJITSU MJA2250BH FFS G1 disk0 : (250.06 GB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 249.20 GB (3.71 GB free) (Low!)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5960S
USB Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
Logitech USB Receiver
Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Configuration files: ℹ️
/etc/hosts - Count: 31
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
Anywhere
Kernel Extensions: ℹ️
/Applications/Toast 10 Titanium/Toast Titanium.app
[not loaded] com.roxio.BluRaySupport (1.1.6) [Support]
/System/Library/Extensions
[loaded] com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverInt (0.0.74) [Support]
[not loaded] com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverVSP (0.0.74) [Support]
/Users/[redacted]/Library/Services/ToastIt.service/Contents/MacOS
[not loaded] com.roxio.TDIXController (2.0) [Support]
Launch Agents: ℹ️
[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist [Support]
[running] com.brother.LOGINserver.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.hp.help.tocgenerator.plist [Support]
[running] com.rim.BBAlbumArtCacher.plist [Support]
[running] com.rim.BBLaunchAgent.plist [Support]
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Support]
[invalid?] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Support]
[running] com.rim.BBDaemon.plist [Support]
[running] com.starfield.backupservice.plist [Support]
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Support]
[invalid?] com.citrixonline.GoToMeeting.G2MUpdate.plist [Support]
[running] com.spotify.webhelper.plist [Support]
User Login Items: ℹ️
HPEventHandler UNKNOWN (missing value)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.38.6.0 - SDK 10.8 [Support]
Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 6.0 [Support]
Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 3.0.0.126   - SDK 10.8 [Support]
OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin: Version: 12.3.6 [Support]
Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30317.0 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.246 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.246 - SDK 10.6 Mismatch! Adobe recommends 16.0.0.235
iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0
googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.38.6.0 - SDK 10.8 [Support]
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
AdobePDFViewer: Version: 10.0.2 [Support]
SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.3 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
EPPEX Plugin: Version: 4.1.0.0 [Support]
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.9.0 - SDK 10.7 Check version
User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: Version: 1.0.105 [Support]
WbeTools64_14: Version: 1.0.23.53 © 2013 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
fileEditTool64_15: Version: 1.0.35.65 © 2013 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
Safari Extensions: ℹ️
Open in Internet Explorer
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
Flash Player [Support]
Flip4Mac WMV [Support]
Growl [Support]
MacFUSE [Support]
Perian [Support]
Time Machine: ℹ️
Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
      6% Google Chrome
      6% WindowServer
      5% coreaudiod
      0% BBLaunchAgent
      0% GoogleTalkPlugin
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
206 MB Google Chrome Helper
198 MB Google Chrome
129 MB com.apple.IconServicesAgent
77 MB mds_stores
77 MB Dock
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
3.91 GB Free RAM
2.73 GB Active RAM
930 MB Inactive RAM
759 MB Wired RAM
1.23 GB Page-ins
0 B Page-outs
Diagnostics Information: ℹ️
Dec 12, 2014, 04:35:10 PM Self test - passed

Your startup disk has no free space!
Smoke-A-Lot wrote:
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 249.20 GB (3.71 GB free) (Low!)
You need to spend some time removing files you no longer need. I'd suggest you reboot & connect an external HD, then slowy start copying files off this Mac. You need to take care because the Mac can run out of memory & put you into a 'must reboot now' situation, don't forget to delete files once they are copied off the system. Reboot to keep the memory usage to a minimum.
You need at least 20GB free at all times to allow the Mac some breathing room for temporary files & virtual memory storage. More free space is better, especially on spinning disks.
There are many tips on this site for removing old files & finding large files or folders
http://pondini.org/OSX/DiskSpace.html (and search this site).
These two can also help to find large files & folders.
http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/
http://whatsizemac.com/
See Király's post for a way to make these apps search all folders (by default it will be limited by your permissions).
drive space not adding up - deleted user?
Don't forget that certain apps have their own 'trash' so open iPhoto, iMovie or any other app that has it's own trash & check the built in trash is empty, otherwise the items in the trash will be taking up disk space.
I'd also consider removing any of the system modifications you do not use, like Blackberry's software, Citrix, Toast's extensions. Otherwise check that the installed versions are up to date & compatible with the OS. http://roaringapps.com can indicate if other users are happy with these apps on your OS.

What do I need to do if my macbook pro is extremely slow?

I got my macbook pro this past july and for the past week it has been acting extremely slow and I'm not sure what to do. I asked one of my friends with a mac what I should do and she said that I needed to delete my browser history, delete my cookies, and empty my trash can. Well after I did all that it's still being extremely slow and I dont know what to do. I'm supposed to be acceting a call from apple support tonight around 10 but I was wondering if there was anything else that I could do. Any suggestions?

Sorry for the delay. The SUID file thing is something that shows up in
Permissions Repairs you can safely ignore. No need to worry.
Have you tried anything in ds stores tip 2 posts above?
Can you tell us how much RAM (Memory) you have? It's listed by clicking on the  in your title bar....go to About This Mac and it's in the 1st window.
We would also like to know what size hard drive you have and how much free space is on it.
If you click on your Hard drive icon (should be upper right hand corner of your screen), or the Finder in your Dock...when the window opens it says at the bottom how much Free Space you have on your drive.
If you go to the , click on About This Mac, click on More Info... in that window. The next window says how big your hard drive is under Hardware....click on Serial-ATA.....look under Capacity:
We need to know this cause if a hard drive is too full it slows things down and creates operational difficulties.
DALE

What does empty trash do?

As I am typing, my external disk is thrashing its way through removing far more than 1 million items. I put a few folders in the trash and emptied it. While this was going on, I went to the terminal and deleted a few other folders on another disk using rm. The method using rm resulted in the space being instantly freed. Empty trash just keeps going. I did not use secure empty trash. What is it doing besides deleting data? Why is emptying the trash so slow?
The disk is a firewire hard drive. I'm deleting an old Time Machine folder to make room for a Time Machine sparseimage when I connect this disk to the Airport Extreme.

What is it doing besides deleting data?
With a simple 'Empty Trash' no data at all is deleted. The 'trashed' items may be recovered by methods of data recovery. What is deleted is the record in the disk directory of where an item is to be found on the disk. The trashed items are at first all still there, but the drive has now marked their addresses as available, and so those 'trashed' files will gradually be overwritten by fresh items being saved to disk and by other disk activities.
The bottleneck, the reason for the slowness, is mainly due to the slowness of the Finder to do the necessary updating.

Empty Trash extremely slow

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