I'm having a problem emptying the trash.

im cleaing up my mac and i have 87 items in my trash. when i try to empty it the window pops up and just stays there like its stuck.. need help.

you should not shut down the computer using the power button on a regular basis. verify your hard drive with disk utility every time you do so. do it now. verify disk, not permissions. if it reports errors boot from the snow leopard dVD and repair the drive using disk utility there. also, reset your finder preferences. delete the file homedirectory/library/preferences/com.apple.finder.plist. then control-option-click on finder in the dock and choose "relaunch".

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Problem emptying the trash

Hi
I have a problem when emptying the Trash on OS X Lion
It just says "emptying however many items" and it just stays like that for ages, i've left for hours and still nothing, which forces me to have to reset finder
I've tried holding option to empty the trash but still the same thing happens
Any suggestions?

Select  ▹ Force Quit... from the menu bar, then select Finder and press return. From the Finder menu bar, select Finder ▹ Preferences ▹ Advanced and uncheck the box labeled Empty Trash securely. Try again to empty the Trash.

My Macbook air doesn't let me empty the trash

I have a Macbook Air 2013, and I am having a trouble emptying the trash. I have some video files but every time
I tried to empty the trash, it says the item (the video file) is in use so the operation cannot be completed.
But I closed all the video clips and none of them are in use. Can you please help me?

I assume you're using the 3 slot mini jack of the Apple earbuds/ mic. Use a 2 slot headphone jack that doesn't make contact with the the microphone contact in the headset jack on the AIr.
The Air has a HEADSET jack, in which either headphones or headsets can be used.
headset jack on left, for both MIC and headset...............headphone jack for earbuds/ speakers on right (listening only)

Am having problems emptying my trash. Takes forever and then the contents don't delete. What must i do?

a) Am having problems emptying my trash.
Takes forever and then the contents don't delete.
What must i do? My trash box is full and it's affecting my operating system?
b) Does the items in trash slow down my operating system?

Abu,
There may be something going on with your ownership if the Trash if the files aren't deleting. OK, let's try this:
Launch Terminal (found in Applications>Utilities folder). At the $ prompt, type (or paste):
ls -la
and hit Return. In the right hand column, you should see .Trash listed and to the left, you will see the "owners" name (in my case, clintondyches). If the owners name shows as root then the following will fix the problem. At the same $ prompt enter
sudo chown yourusername .Trash
(replace yourusername with your actual user name - such as mine being clintondyches).
At the prompt $ again, type or paste:
ls -la
If this was successful, you should see yourusername instead of root.
You should be in business now. You should have ownership of .Trash and be able to empty your Trash, drag items to it and empty it, etc.
Call back and let me know...
Clinton

I am deleting files through my trash in my macbook pro (2010) and then emptying the trash can, but my hard disk space is not increasing! i recently upgraded to lion and the problem is new, wasn't the same with snow leopard! HELP!!!!!

i am deleting files through my trash in my macbook pro (2010) and then emptying the trash can, but my hard disk space is not increasing! i recently upgraded to lion and the problem is new, wasn't the same with snow leopard! HELP!!!!!
When i press command+I (Get Info) i see that there is 140 GB "Available Space" on my hard disk but when i click on my hard disk icon on the desktop, and then press "space" i only see 102 GB free!! What the f*???
Please HELP!!!!!! Getting second thoughts on Lion!!!!

Hi b,
Have you restarted yet?

When I empty the trash I receive (error code -8003). How do I fix the problem?

When I empty the trash I receive (error code -8003). How do I fix the problem?

see
https://discussions.apple.com/message/22345364#22345364

I'm having a problem with the application Dropbox and I want to uninstall it. In finder it does not allow me to move it to trash telling me the dopbox application is open. How do I close it? when it shows up nowhere as an open application?

I'm having a problem with the application Dropbox and I want to uninstall it. In finder it does not allow me to move it to trash telling me the dopbox application is open. How do I close it? when it shows up nowhere as an open application?

Is there a DropBox icon up in the menubar you can click on & see quit DropBox?
https://www.dropbox.com/help/41

I don't have permission to empty the trash securely.

The initial cause of the problem may be that accidentally dragged my downloads folder from the tool bar into the trash. I do not see the downloads folder in the trash. When I try to empty the trash, I see indication that many files are being deleted. I eventually get a message telling me that I do not have sufficient permission to empty the trash. My options are STOP or CONTINUE. Seems that no matter what option I choose, no more trash disappears. Please advise. Thanks in advance.

Repairing permissions is important, and should always be carried out both before and after any software installation or update.
Go to Disk Utility (this is in your Utilities Folder in your Application folder) and click on the icon of your hard disk (not the one with all the numbers).
In First Aid, click on Repair Permissions.
This only takes a minute or two in Tiger, but much longer in Leopard.
Background information here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751
and here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302672
An article on troubleshooting Permissions can be found here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2963
By the way, you can ignore any messages about SUID or ACL file permissions, as explained here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448?viewlocale=en_US
If you were having any serious problems with your Mac you might as well complete the exercise by repairing your hard disk as well. You cannot do this from the same start-up disk. Reboot from your install disk (holding down the C key). Once it opens, select your language, and then go to Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Select your hard disk as before and click Repair.
Once that is complete reboot again from your usual start-up disk.
More useful reading here:
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417?viewlocale=en_US
For a full description of how to resolve Disk, Permission and Cache Corruption, you should read this FAQ from the X Lab:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/repairprocess.html

Unable to empty the Trash in iPhoto.

I'm unable to empty the Trash in iPhoto. I have uploaded all my photos to iPhotos and then deleted any duplicates. Consequently I have 33,000 photos in the trash but every time I select 'Empty Trash', the iPhoto app crashes. Any Ideas?

iPhoto has a big problem, if the Trash is too full. Put only small numbers of photos in the trash, to delete at once.
To solve this, put the images back into an event, and trash them again, in smaller installments, no more than 1000 images at a time.
The question is, how to remove them from the trash, without having to track them down again - if you use the "Put Back" command, all photos will be restored to their projects. I'd suggest you create a new project "MyTrash" and add a new image to it, so that this project will appear as the current "Recent Project". Drag your images from the Trash to this recent project; leave only 1000 or less images in the trash; then try to empty trash. If this succeeds, continue to trash images from the "My Trash" project, until all are gone. You might wish to empty the system Trash in between.
Regards
Léonie

Can not copy any file or empty the trash

Hello,
I'm using a Macbook (white) with OSX 10.6.4 and am having an extremely annoying problem which has three symptoms:
1. I *can not empty the trash* (safely or not) at all.
2. I *can not copy any file*, anywhere.
3. I *can not move anything to the "Applications"* folder.
I try restarting the computer, repairing the permissions, running the latest version of Onyx and so on, but nothing works. I always get the following error message (when copying a file or emptying the trash)
"The operation can't be completed because you don't have the permission to access some of the items".
And this even though I repaired the permissions three times today.
To be honest, this makes my Mac pretty useless, and is very frustrating.
Can anybody help? I've browsed a lot of other threads about this, tried everything, but to no avail.
Come on, this is my first Mac, don't tell me I have to reinstall the OS from zero, Windows-style.

Those are the normal permissions but if you are logged in as admin, hit the unlock button and enter your password they should no longer be greyed out.
You can try chmoding them from root through the terminal if you are up for it. I'd also try booting up in SafeMode and seeing if that allows access.

Mail won't empty the Trash

OK, this isn't the end of the world or anything but it is annoying.
I upgraded to Snow Leopard and I have my mail account set to empty the trash when I quit mail. So, like a dummy, I expect that when I open mail, the trash will be empty - wrong. Since the upgrade, this hasn't worked (it worked fine before). Now I'm having to go in and tell the trash can to empty itself.
Anyone else having this problem?

Yes that does seem to fix the problem, but it also destroys all mailbox info. I have 8 mailboxes. Setting them all up again is way too much work. I will continue to force empty the trash until Apple fixes this problem, or a simpler solution is found. I restored my com.apple.mail.plist using Time Machine, so I'm back to where I was.

Emptying the Trash

I have read recommendations about not emptying the trash before your iMovie HD6 project is finished (otherwise there are problems editing photos that have Ken Burns effect applied). If I do not empty the iMovie Trash, can I empty the OS X Trash without fear of having editing problems? Or should I not empty either of the trash containers?

It's only the project trash that you have to worry about.

I have accidentally emptied the trash and deleted files that i was trying to put back

I have emptied the trash accidentally, deleting files that i was trying to put back! Can you help me to recover them?

I cannot recommend any specific data recovery software because I have not been in a situation where I needed it. I am fairly diligent having my important data backed up (two copies) so this is not a problem for me. Do look at Time Machine (one of my two backups) since it is very easy to set up and use. Look through these forums for situations where others have had to recover data and see if they mention specific recovery software.
Do not take these remarks as my being condescending. I am simply stating the facts. Try to view the price of the software as punishment for your faux pas. We all make mistakes and I have committed my share, but not in data loss.
Ciao.

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.

Emptying the trash issue

My trash is empty. I throw 1 item in there and then empty the trash. It says it is emptying FOUR items. It takes a long time to empty the 1 item. After it empties and I verify it has no items in it, I do it again and the same thing happens. And it keep shappening over and over. What is going on with my trash and how do I fix it? It does NOT acknowledge the 3 extra items in it once the trash is deleted, but mysteriously puts in 3 extra items which can;t be seen when I go to do the next cleaning. What is going on????

Note to everyone:
Eric, thank you. This solved my problem of having the trash take forever to empty. The 4 files versus only 1 file problem however, kept showing up when I went to delete only 1 file in the trash.
WZZZ: I tried this and nothing happened.
Seventy One: You prompted me to realize there is an "Empty Trash" and a "Secure Empty Trash" toggle and when I switched it back to "Empty Trash", I no longer get the 4 files prompt (even though Secure Empty Trash has 3 extra files each time I empty it). The "Empty Trash" feature just empties it and is done with it. SO the answer to my problem ws a hybrid between both you and Eric.
Anyway guys, thank you so much! I am now Trash normalized and I thank you all!

I'm having a problem emptying the trash.

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