I am attempting to empty my trash...

I am attempting to empty my trash bin, but I am getting a message that says:
"The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access some of the items.."
I have reviewed and confirmed my permissions and I have tried holding the option key while engaging the action, but still get the message...
Please HELP! I need the space...
I am using the latest and most current software/update - Maverick

Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks without erasing drive
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion, Mountain Lion, or Mavericks
OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

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IPhoto stalls attempting to empty iPhoto trash

iPhoto 9.3.2, OSX 10.7.4 on Mac Pro with 4x2TB internal drives RAID0.
In attempting to empty the iPhoto trash containing 3,493 photos, the "Emptying iPhoto Trash..." progress bar rapidly proceeds to 1% of the end, then stalls. No activity for hours. Forced Quit and repeated attempt with same result. There is plenty of empty space on disks. Total of over 30,000 photos in this iPhoto library. I can't find a work-around to empty the trash.

iPhoto will not empty a trash with that many images in it, and attempting to do so may damage the database.
Experienced users suggest trashing in batches of about 100 or so.
Regards
TD

Why do I get error code -8003 when attempting to empty the trash?

I moved a number of folders from a back-up drive (using Time Machine) to the trash, and have had no success in getting them out of the trash. Option+Empty, Option+Secure Empty Trash, after using Disk Utility to repair permissions and then try again, and the TrashIt! app.. nothing is working. I'm not in need of the space, I just want to get rid of the items. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated, as I can't even find 'Error Code -8003' anywhere. tx

The reason why some of the files are blocking the trash from emptying is because of specific ".app" files from third party companies like Adobe products. Not the user files or the various help documents but instead the actual mother program. Here's how to fix this problem:
1) remove from the trash all the actual software programs like Photoshop, InDesign, DreamWeaver and so on and put them on the desktop.
2) Command "I" (info) and when the dialog box opens go to the "Name & Extension" text box and remove the ".app" from the software name. Example: Photoshop.app change to Photoshop.
3) the program icon will change to a "folder icon".
4) put the folder icon back into the trash and you should be able to now empty the trash.
If you continue to get the error code 8003 it's because you may still have one or more software programs in the trash that needs to go through this process. Remember - it's not the user files or help documents or supporting files that is causing this but instead the "actual product programs".
JKai

I'm getting an error code -8003 when I try to empty my trash.

I recently emptied several old backup files from an external hard drive to the trash folder. Now when I attempt to empty the trash, I get this message: "The operation can't be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8003). What should I do? I just took the computer and external hard drive to an apple store for genius support a few days ago and the tech fixed a few things. He advised me to empty the backup files, which is what I'm trying to do.

See this general resume of trash problems.
I suspect you've been trying to remove some of your Time Machine back ups.   Not a good idea without doing the necessary research first. Read about ways to solve Trash problems.
From the X LAB.       Solving Trash Problems
Then, for clearing stubborn trash.                Download Trash It! for Mac
In particular related to Time Machine.       Time Machine - Troubleshooting
http://pondini.org/TM/E6.html
Can't empty the trash after deleting backups via the Finder

I get the beach ball of death when I empty the trash on my new 10.7 Mac. Even in safe mode

When I attempt to empty the trash I get the progress bar with message on how many items to empty and I get the barber pole lines but it never really starts to empty. I just have the beach ball of death. Everything else on the MacBook Pro comes to a halt (if you wait about 5 minutes an app selected to quit might quit). You can click on the X to stop emptying trash and it says it's stopping but it keeps showing the marching progress bar and the beach ball keeps spinning.
Running 10.7. 8 gigs ram 2.0 ghz i7. 15".
The only way to shut down is force quit holding down the power key. Tried it in Safe Mode with same results.

I had the same problem.
Your advice solved my problem.
Thank you for the original post. And the two updates.
I nominate you for "15 Points." 5 for your helpful answer. And another 10 because it was correct.
Apple's Support Community needs more people like you.
If I had posted a question and no one answered, I'd say, "the **** with it."
Instead, you came back - not once but twice - to provide updates.
Again, thank you.

What does error code -8003 mean regarding emptying the trash?

I have a MacBook Pro '08, w/OS 10.6.8. Need to clear the contents of my external drive, and keep getting this code while attempting to empty the trash. I cannot find this error code on the Apple website, and need to know where to turn. Any help would be appreciated.

Since asking this question, I've found a number of updated answers and solutions to my question.

My iPhoto 11, V 9.4.2, locks up/freezes when I attempt to empty the iPhoto trash bin. Originally, I thought it was due to 800 files in the trash, however, I removed ALL but 5 photos from the trash and it continues to lock up.

My iPhoto 11, V 9.4.2, locks up/freezes when I attempt to empty the iPhoto trash bin.
Originally, I thought it was due to 800+ files in the trash, however, I removed all but 5 photo files from the trash and it continues to lock up. Inititally the "progress" bar would get to about 1/2 way and then it would stop and stall. However, now the progress bar no longer shows a progress line it immediately freezes and locks up. Can anyone help?

You may have damaged the library - Back up your iPhoto library, Depress and hold the option (alt) and command keys and launch iPhoto - rebuild your iPhoto library
LN

Error code -8003 when attempting to empty trash

My download file was filled with a bunch of books on tape, so I sent those all to the trash, and attempted to empty and/or secure empty. the error code -8003 comes up, and I cannot empty.

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html

HT1199 when attempting to empty trash i get error code of 8003

when attempting to empty trash i get error message 'the operation cant be completed because of unexpected error occured error code 8003'
thanks!

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html
27" i7 iMac 10.6.8 , Mac OS X (10.7.3), G4 450 MP 1.5 GB RAM w/(10.5.8/10.4.11/9.2.2)

Error 8003 when attempting to empty trash

After setting up my new iMac and migrating my G4 over, I ran a back up of my new HD and then opened the backup drive and dragged the no longer needed G4 backup to the trash. Unfortunately I can't seem to empty the trash now. Every time I try I get an error 8003. Any insight to this problem would be appreciated.

I went back and looked at some previous discussions of this issue and found a post that recommended a utility called "Cocktail". I downloaded it and it worked beautifully. My trash is now empty. I'll have to go back to that discussion and give the poster an excellent recommendation.

I just emptied my trash and I deleted important files HELP!

I accidentally deleted files from "all my files" emptied my trash and realized what I did was not what I meant to do. Can I get these files back?

Easiest recovery method: Copy the file off a backup drive.
File recovery software: I'ts been a while since I did this. It is pretty involved and may require a complete file recovery attempt, not just on a single file. Try using an application such as Data Rescue 3 - http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php or FileSalvage - http://subrosasoft.com, or one of the ones listed in the somewhat old link below. Some have free trial versions that let you see if the software will help before you decide to buy. You will also need a second hard drive equal to or larger in size than your first drive as a destination drive for recovered files.
http://data-recovery-software-review.toptenreviews.com/mac-recovery-software
It is critical that you do not use the computer or even turn it on until you have rescued your files. Files only have the directory reference to them removed when you empty the trash or otherwise delete them from a computer (unless you use secure erase, in which case they are gone forever or can only be potentially be recovered by very expensive means) and are still present on the computer. However, their space is marked as available to any other file creation done on the computer (even done by you booting the computer) and there is risk that your files will be overwritten by the computer.

I can't empty the trash, I get this error code (-8003)

How can I force empty the trash, or get around this problem?

Can anyone tell me why I keep getting error -8003 or -36 when I try to copy my Time Machine backups to another drive? Since I was running out of room on my Time Machine drive, I was in the process of deleting all copies of my old Outlook 2011 Identity (using Time Machine, not the Finder), when the process abruptly stopped and the drive was no longer accessible. The only way I can mount the drive is to power it up after booting my system - (I've tried this on two different systems) - then using Disk Utility to attempt a repair on the drive. Disk Utility can't repair the drive and says I need to backup my data, then reformat the drive, which is why I'm trying to copy my backups to another drive. For reference, my Time Machine backups are on one partition of a two partition drive, and the other partition mounts just fine.

IPhoto won't let me empty my trash. It keeps shutting down.

My iPhoto has over 500 photos in it and will not let me empty the trash. Every time I try, it shuts down and does nothing to the trash problem. Anyone know anything about this?

Hi there,
This issue was reported and provided with some solutions attempts here before - http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10116513
Quick reading seams to be related to Time Machine, do you use it? Is your backup disk the same of your working disk?
Good luck.
Message was edited by: KXsig

How can I create hard disk space without emptying the Trash?

I moved everything in my Pictures folder into Trash, not realising the folder also had the iPhoto library.
So now all my photos have gone from iPhoto, though they are still in the Trash folder, which has not been emptied.
I have attempted to restore in two ways:
1) Through Time Machine (which has most but not all of the iPhoto library backed up, and
2) By dragging the iPhoto library from Trash into Pictures.
In both cases the restore action fails because during the process I get the message that the start up disk is running out of space.
One way to create space would be to empty the Trash, but I can't do that because I would lose the photos not backed up on Time Machine.
I was not aware of any space problems previously, so I wonder if something I have done in this process has filled up my hard disk? But in any case, the immediate problem remains - how to create space (which will hopefully allow me to restore the photo library), without clearing out the Trash folder.
Thanks for reading this, and any advice will be much appreciated.

The following comments are really off topic because unfortunately they come too late to help you in your particular case. They may even amount to venting.
The way iPhoto hides your photos in packages that are not readily accessible in the Finder—because you have to Control-Click and open the package to show its contents first—is the main reason I immediately delete iPhoto from my hard drive whenever it gets installed by an OS installation or upgrade. I hate the "Libraries" paradigm in Apple's Apperture and in Adobe's Lightroom.
I much prefer the Adobe Bridge paradigm which is totally transparent and instantly reflected in the Finder, just as any changes you make in the Finder is instantly reflected in Bridge.
After years of trying, I've given up trying to find somene's ear at Apple to let them know how unacceptable iPhoto is (on so many levels).
Similarly, I have disabled Time Machine on my Leopard boot drive, preferring to rely on SuperDuper, although my main working boot drive is a Tiger volume. Because of their intrusiveness, I've also permanently disabled Spotblight and the Dashboard on all my OS installs.
2.5 GHz Power Mac (PPC) G5-Quad; 16GB RAM; mutant, flashed 550MHz nVidia GeForce 7800GTX 1,700MHz 512MB VRAM; ATTO ExpressPCI UL5D LP SCSI card; Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11 and Leopard 10.5.8 boot drives; Spotblight, Dashboard and Time Machine permanently disabled; dual 22" CRT monitors; USB wireless 'n' available but connected to the Internet via wired Ethernet; FW flatbed scanner; 2 SCSI scanners (one tabloid-size transparency scanner and a film scanner); various internal & external HDs; FW Epson 2200 and Ethernet Samsung ML-2850ND printers; 2 X Back-UPS RS 1500 XS units.

Emptying the trash can in iphoto causes the grey exclamation point.

Shortly after buying my new mac I made the cardinal error of manipulating some of my photos directly through finder, and ended up totally messing up my iphoto library. It's basically fine now, after much heartache - and I back up disc copies regularly and I also use time machine now. However, the other day I noticed there was a ridiculous amount of photos in my iphoto trash can - so I emptied the trash can in iphoto. I immediately got the grey exclamation point of death back in probably one third of my pictures. I restored the library from time machine, and the ex points went away, but does this mean that the link is bouncing THROUGH my trash can to get to the file? Is there any way for me to safely empty that trash can without having to once again rebuild my photo library?? (I'm a total shutterbug and don't want or need that hassle...)
I'm running the new iphoto 09 - but the problem was there before I installed the upgrade.
Something tells me OldToad is going to reply to this one... (At least I'm hoping...)
Thanks for any and all input.

Well hello, Old Toad, thought you might find us.
Terence, last night I backed up my library in time machine, emptied the trash can in iphoto (took five or six attempts, iphoto kept shutting down) and then rebuilt the library. Just an fyi, when I said ridiculous amount, I meant it - there are 26000 plus photos in my trash can. (I know why, but I think it's unimportant to this issue).
When I rebuilt it found 13000 plus photos to reinstate. I said ok, and around three hours later it was all said and done. No change, I still have the grey exclamation point of death on about a third of my photos in the events. The reinstated photos are all in an album, not an event - I can't seem to move them from the album into an event, and there aren't a lot of them there anyways that I'm all that attached to.
SO...
I restored the backup copy from time machine. Tonight, I will try OldToad's recommendation and try to put these photos back into their original homes, but with that many pics It may be Tuesday or so before you here back from me...
Wish me luck, thanks SO MUCH for the suggestions, and I'll keep you posted.

I am attempting to empty my trash...

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