Odd, hidden files in my trash?

when emptying my trash, i encounter 3 separate errors which read:
1. The operation cannot be completed because the item "The Exorcist v0.95b5" is locked.
2. The operation cannot be completed because the item "Graphics Accelerator" is locked.
3. The operation cannot be completed because the item "666" is locked.
i can choose stop or continue. i continue and the emptying finishes.
I cannot find any evidence of these files anywhere in the trash or on the rest of the HD. ***?

Try holding down the Option key when you empty the trash, that should remove locked items, don't think it matters whether they are visible or not.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Similar Messages

View hidden files in my trash

okay first off I feel like the biggest idiot. I'm transferring my data to a new imac. the songs in iTunes were duplicated so I decided to delete the songs in itunes and re-import the library. well after I deleted them I go into the trash and they are not there. At the bottom of the trash it says there are 9,717 files in the trash - I just can not see them!!! How can i view them?? please help!

what you describe sounds strange. those files should not be hidden. Regardless, you can make hidden files visible with a 3rd party utility like TinkerTool
http://www.bresink.com/osx/0TinkerTool/download.html

USB/SDcard deleted/hidden files

Hi All
I realised myself quite recently that files that were 'deleted' on a USB stick were still taking up space on the USB dongle. Anyway it didn't occur to me to empty the trash because 'windows' doesn't work like that, until that is I read some of the other posts.
Even so when USB dongles or SD cards that contain or have contained 'deleted' files I've seen that the iMAC has inserted new folders on the external dongle/SD called .Trash & .Spotlight. I only saw these folders & their contents when the dongle/SD card was connected to a Cyclone Micro Media device. This explained why the Cyclone doesn't recognise these 'deleted' photo JPGs & stops the slide show i.e. because they have two dots in the filename (eg .IMAGE001.JPG) which the Cyclone doesn't like.
Sorry to whitter on ... my questions are:
+- can the Mac OS display files that are hidden (as you can do on windows) in the Trash (or elsewhere for that matter)+
+- why doesn't the Finder display of the Trash identify the full path name - by that I mean identify the actual device that holds the 'deleted' file. It doesn't seem to me that the 'deleted' files on a particular device can be identified from the list? or havn't I found the method yet?+
+- would dropping into unix reveal such information and could you then delete the 'deleted' files held on a specific external device?+
thanks -- keith

HI red4vr,
welcome to the forums.
http://osxdaily.com/2009/02/25/show-hidden-files-in-os-x/ explains how to hide/show hidden files in the finder. As well as how to list hidden files in the terminal, and in the save/open dialog box. There are lots of hidden files on the computer that you should under no circumstance try to delete. A good rule of thumb is if you didn't make the folder, or what's in the folder; don't delete it. don't rename it, don't move it.
If this is some thing you want to do on a regular basis you may want to use a program like 'blind." http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/22495/blind this program adds a tool bar button to hide/show hidden files.
You are correct about the trash can, it shows every thing (not counting hidden files) in the trash for all the drives connected. If you want to tell what is on a specific external volume. You can goto that trash folder.
ie: finder, menu bar, go menu, goto folder, /volumes/NameOfVolume/.Trash
Have a great new year

Help!!! HD collateral of DiskDrill/.cleverfile/hlink.ref = trashed but not showing but in it as hidden file

Hi guys,
it seems that the saga of DiskDrill's collateral goes on... sigh ...
I'll try to keep it short and concise...
- More or less 535 GB of space discpreancy
- Culprit is .cleverfile/hlink.ref <= FreeDiskSpace.app reads a uses of 1,28 Tb of space on a HD of 750 Gb (my guess: possible through multi layers of memory!)
- deleted it after deleting DiskDrill.app and all related files, whether in OS X sys or lib...
- deleted the hlink.ref monster of 1,29 Tb => into the trash...
- the .cleverfile dir/hlink.ref never showed up in the trash, trash shows empty as 0 Kb
Steps taken:
- No backup, timecapsule... of any sorts, I have made sure that there is not any processes (at least apprent ones) running and blocking virtual memory
- checked HD
- Repaired permissions
- Erased empty space
- reindexed HD
- restarted MacBook Pro
Results:
- still the same 535 GB of memory discrepancy!
I remembered that in Preferences/Security-Privacy/Firewall/FirewallOptions I had a blocked incoming connection in deep in a folder, deep in that hlink.ref in that .cleverfliel folder! I went to check the blocked connection was still there, so I right clicked opened in the finder!!!
THIS IS SO UNREAL?!?!? SEE IT FOR YOURSELF! IT'S ALL ON THE SCREENSHOT:
- 1 TRASH FOLDER WITH 0 FILES AND 1,28 TB
- ANOTHER TRASH FOLDER WITH 0 FILES AND 5 MB
- HD CAPACITY OF 750 Gb WITH 50 Gb OF MEMORY AVAILABLE
- HD FINDER FOLDER WITH ONLY +/- 160GB OF USED MEMORY ACCOUNTED FOR
CAN SOMEONE HELP ME AND GIVE ME A TERMINAL OR SUDO COMMAND TO DELETE THAT HIDDEN FOLDER FROM THE TRASH BIN!!!
PLEASE... HELP ME SOLVE IT THIS MISTERY OF HIDDEN FOLDER...
Thanks a million...
Max
P.S.: Guys, if there is a lesson out it, is the following I will never use DiskDrill, ever again! it isn't worth it at all, it just creates a mess!

Hi xmetienne,
The Mac operating system may have difficulty emptying the Trash if it contains files with names containing special characters. If you rename those files, you should be able to Empty them from the Trash. See this article -
You can't empty the Trash or move a file to the Trash
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1526
Very likely the files or folders with names starting with a period, such as .cleverfiles are treated in this fashion.
Renaming files and folders is described in this article -
OS X Mountain Lion: Rename files and folders
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10646
Note that while the article says it is about Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, the same procedure applies to Mavericks.
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

A third party soft crashed. I removed the application to the trash, I got rid of every preference, cache and so on (easyFind to fide hidden files). When I reinstall it, it shows the beginning of the license text for 5 seconds and closes automatically.

A third party soft crashed (Episode). When I reinstall and relaunch it, it opens the window showing the licensing instructions, but only for a few seconds, not allowing me to go further and enter the license number. I did put the application to the trash and remove every trace of it (preferences, caches and even hidden files using EasyFind), zapped the PRAM, I ran Onyx and disk utility, and reinstalled. And it is still the same. Anyone have an idea ?

As I did this a few times, I tried using Uapp and AppTrap. Just the same. My version of the soft is not an updated one, but the same works well on my office machine, with the same OSX snow leopard.

Making the HIDDEN File(.DS&Trashes) visible in USB FLASH Memory

Mac always has this .DS and TRASHES folder everytime I use my USB Flash memory, and it consumes spaces A LOT. The problem is I cant see it on my PB, so what I discovered was to connect it to a windows computer to erase those hidden files.
Is there a way I can erase/see these files on my Mac? Finding a windows computer is not always easy here, and quite inconvenient. Thanks!

Try this, it works well for me...especially when transferring files between Mac and PC when all those Finder files show up and get very confusing.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/systemdiskutilities/findercleaner.html

Anti-Virus Soft. Finds Hidden File/ Odd Name - But Not Virus. How Do I Find

I used my anti-virus software CLAMXav to check files. It found odd named file that starts with dot. Apparently file is not a virus. Tried finding above file with Terminal (and Spotlight); but no go. So how do I do it.

There are lots of hidden files and folders in OS X that start with a dot. When a file has a dot at the beginning of its name, it's automatically hidden from the user. That's why programs won't let you save a file with a dot as its first character.
In short, they're hidden for a reason. To keep the user from saying, "What are these for?", and then deleting all of them simply because they don't know whey they're there.
You'll find tons of .DS_Store files. Pretty much each and every folder has one, including your desktop. These keep track of that folder's location on the desktop, size, position, listing option and a few other things. You can delete them, but the OS will just keep recreating them.

Odd recovered files in trash

Not sure if I should post this here or in the MBP forum...
On bootup a couple of days ago, I found another "recovered files" folder in the trash on my MBP; I usually look at the contents and simply empty the trash, but when I checked it this time, it had a strange sub folder "tempfolder aaa" which contains the following:
DPLib, IMLLib, MacromediaRuntime Lib, ProjLib (all shared libraries) and a folder "xtras" with:
Animated GIF Asset, Buddy API OSX Xtra, Font Asset PPC, Font Xtra PPC, TextAsset PPC, and TextXtra PPC (all Final Cut Express plugin files, version 9.0 Director MX).
I've since done a search on all of these, but can't find anything. The one thing they all seem to have in common is the "version 9.0 Director MX". I do have FCE installed, but have not used it at all. The only thing I did at the time these files apparently went into the trash was to uninstall my Epson printer because I purchased a new one. I uninstalled the same printer on my iMac and did not get any of these strange files in the trash.
I'm hesitant to empty the trash because they are all libraries and some are FCE plugins. The MBP seems to be working fine, but I haven't had a need to really use any application in the last few days.
Any helpful suggestions are much appreciated!

Hi Barbara,
This from the Apple Help Viewer.
*If Trash contains “Recovered Files”*
One or more Recovered Files folders may appear in your Trash after restarting your computer.
The recovered files are temporary files used by Mac OS X applications. Usually temporary files are deleted by an application when it no longer needs them. If an application quits unexpectedly, the temporary files may not be deleted by the application. When you restart your computer, Mac OS X moves these temporary files to the Trash.
You can retrieve useful files by dragging them out of the Trash. In most cases, however, the temporary files are not important and it is safe to empty your Trash. Check with the manufacturer of the application if you are not sure.
Carolyn

Trashed files on a Toshiba stick , found by turning on show hidden files.

I rescued a bunch of files from a memory stick by the above method. I dropped these into a new folder on the laptop.
When I went into the folder , all were available. But After turning off "show all hidden files," I lost some , but not all , files. They are retrievable by using the switch again of course.
I was wondering if there is some code that might be modified in these files to make them all be "not hidden."
Thanks.
8 gig TOSHIBA STICK. SNOW LEOPARD ON MBP.

If you are not comfortable with the command line...
once you have turned on "show hidden files," note the names of the now unhidden files.
Each one should start with "."
remove the "." and the files will be visible when you turn off the show hidden files flag

How do I find and free the hidden files on external drive?

I cannot see , or free, space on my external drive.
It is a Seagate Freeagent 500 GB disk. I am using 100GB for photos and music. Only 38 MB are reported free. How can I reclaim the rest of the space?
I had used in the past as Time machine backup. To create space I moved to trash the file Backups.backupd (as I now have another disk for Time Machine). I can't see this file in the Trash, and I can't see the space in Finder. How do I find / free the space?
The disk format is MAC OS Extended journaled. Disk utility reports no errors. I have run verify and fix, and also erase free space, with no result.
Thank you for your help.

Erase free space only wipes clean the 38 MBs that are already free. Click here to see hidden files.
However, I'd just make a copy of the 100 GBs in use, and then complely wipe the disk.
Don't try to delete the Backups.backupd folder by Finder. It's not a good idea to mix Finder and TM.

How do I find and remove hidden files

For some reason, after the recent install of SL my 1TB drive is extremely bloated. I have deleted or moved just about everything possible from the disk (excluding system files and applications) and it still shows that I only have 94.08 GB of space available.
Is there a good piece of software out there that will help me to find out if there are several hidden files and remove what is unnecessary?

Wow ... that was enlightening. I discovered that somehow there is a hidden folder on the 1TB drive entitled "volumes" and within that folder is a subfolder entitled "Mega Drive" (my self-titled name for the 1TB boot drive), which is an exact duplicate of my previous hard drive.
A little more about how I got here. I had to computer in to the Apple Store, after upgrading to SL, for what I initially though was a hardware issue. The Genius felt it was software, did an erase and install. When I got the macing back I tried to us Migration Assistant to copy files from my Time Machine drive, it took all night so I wasn't awake when it finished. I suspect that is where this folder came from, as the next day I could not find the information on my computer, so I started manually moving the files from that drive.
The bottom line is this ... is it safe to remove trash this entire folder?

Can't get rid of the file in the trash

There is a very odd file in my trash and I cannot remove it. I've tried using Secure Empty Trash as well as holding down the Option key and also reformatting my hard drive by doing Erase and Install. Is there anyway i can remove it or does anyone have this weird file in their trash too?

Click here and here for information.
(31437)

Opening hidden files

I've seen the posting on how to make hidden files visible in Finder by changing com.apple.finder and this works fine for the Finder window. However I would like to be able to open a hidden file directly from the File/Open command in one of my programs. This isn't possible as these hidden files don't show up in the open file window.
Does anyone know how to make these hidden files visible in these other windows?

Thanks for the reply. That's a pity but not disastrous, just Lion adding another step to a process.
As baltwo says, this has nothing to do with Lion.
I use Komodo when I'm developing web programs to examine Perl scripts and web pages. I wanted to have a look at the .htaccess file to see if it needed changing and found I couldn't open it from Komodo
That's odd, but perhaps should signal you that you should try a different editor. TextWrangler, for example, can open literally anything from the Open dialog... there's a check box to show hidden items and a menu that'll let you tell it what to allow you to select (one choice is "Everything"). I don't know how TextWrangler, and it's big brother BBEdit, compare to Komodo, but it does a great job editing all kinds of code for me.
Alternately, you could try something like this in the Terminal:
open -a Komodo.app ~/Sites/somesite/.htaccess

Deleting hidden files

Silly question...but I need help! I have a flash drive that all the data has been erased from, yet the memory if full. I am pretty sure the deleted files are being stored in a hidden trash folder, however, I can find anyway to view the hidden files. Do you know how I can view the hidden trash folder on a flash drive, so I can erase it and free up the memory? Thanks!!

Ok, now you have two posts listed there so I am going to assume you are new to Macs and just not familiar with how they do things.
Now the terminal is the Mac equivalent of the Windows Command Prompt. (I'm also assuming you're a switcher).
If you navigate to the applications folder within it you'll find another folder called 'Utilities'. Open it and double click the icon called Terminal. A small window will appear.
If you copy and paste the text that VK suggested-then press enter, (defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles True; killall Finder) it should enable the hidden files, by the way when done use this new command to disable hidden files, (defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles False; killall Finder).
But as suggested if you plug the flash drive back in wait a few seconds the Mac should find it. (make the finder the active application ie. make sure it says finder in the top left of your screen and open finder prefs by pressing ⌘, go to the general tab and ensure that the show external discs box is checked).
The flash drive icon should pop up on your desktop. Once that happens click and hold on the trash icon until empty trash appears and select it. Your space should come back to you.
As for formatting, I believe VK has just posted.
Message was edited by: gumsie

Showing hidden files white screen upon restart

I put in the command to show hidden files and restarted my iMac. It only shows a white screen. Completely blank. How do I fix it? It runs on Lion and has a Time Machine backup.

Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
Step 1
The first step in dealing with a boot failure is to secure your data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since your last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Boot into the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
b. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
c. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Step 2
Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to boot, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can boot now, one of the devices you disconnected, or a combination of them, is causing the problem. Finding out which one is a process of elimination.
If you've booted from an external storage device, make sure that your internal boot volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
Step 3
Boot in safe mode. Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Post for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
When you boot in safe mode, it's normal to see a dark gray progress bar on a light gray background. If the progress bar gets stuck for more than a few minutes, or if the system shuts down automatically while the progress bar is displayed, your boot volume is corrupt and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to Step 5.
If you can boot and log in now, empty the Trash, and then open the Finder Info window on your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) Check that you have at least 9 GB of available space, as shown in the window. If you don't, copy as many files as necessary to another volume (not another folder on the same volume) and delete the originals. Deletion isn't complete until you empty the Trash again. Do this until the available space is more than 9 GB. Then reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)
If the boot process hangs again, the problem is likely caused by a third-party system modification that you installed. Post for further instructions.
Step 4
Sometimes a boot failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 5
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) Select your startup volume, then run Repair Disk. If any problems are found, repeat until clear. If Disk Utility reports that the volume can't be repaired, the drive has malfunctioned and should be replaced. You might choose to tolerate one such malfunction in the life of the drive. In that case, erase the volume and restore from a backup. If the same thing ever happens again, replace the drive immediately.
This is one of the rare situations in which you should also run Repair Permissions, ignoring the false warnings it may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then reboot as usual.
Step 6
Reinstall the OS. If your Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
Step 7
Repeat step 6, but this time erase the boot volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically reboot into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer your data from a Time Machine or other backup.
Step 8
This step applies only to a pre-2013 Mac Pro tower, not to any other model. A dead logic-board battery can cause a gray screen at boot. Typically the boot failure will be preceded by loss of the startup disk and system clock settings. See the user manual for replacement instructions.
Step 9
If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested.

Odd, hidden files in my trash?

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