Secure Empty Trash reports wrong number of files

Something that's been bugging me since even before OS 10.6: when I use Secure Empty Trash, the progress box always shows exactly 9 more files to be deleted than there are in the Trash (but counts down to 0 normally). Any idea what's up with that? All I can come up with is (a) it's intentional, and 9 fake files are created and then overwritten, as some sort of additional security (in which case, why 9?), or (b) there are 9 files in a .Trashes directory somewhere which cannot be deleted due to some extended attribute (in which case why no error message or notification?).
Has anyone seen this? Ideas?

In addition to your Home/Trash folder, there is a hidden .Trash folder at the top level of your hard drive, and also hidden .Trashes folders on each of your external drives, each containing a subfolder for every user account on your Mac. Even if they are all empty, the hidden folders themselves are all deleted when you Secure Empty, which accounts for the increased number of items that are being reported.

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MacBook Pro: Unable to Empty Trash (secure or otherwise). Have tried all remedies suggested on Apple's site. I think "Secure Empty Trash" bogs at the first file "iPhone4, 1_8.02_12A495_Restore.ipsw" at 1.78 GB size and goes no further.

MacBook Pro: Unable to Empty Trash (secure or otherwise). Have tried all remedies suggested on Apple's site. I think "Secure Empty Trash" bogs at the first file "iPhone4, 1_8.02_12A495_Restore.ipsw" at 1.78 GB size and goes no further. When I try to move it out of Trash to a temporary location so I can empty remainder of Trash, I get the message "Some of the items you are moving are in use by another application. Moving the items can cause problems with the application using them. Are you sure you want to move these items?" at which point I select "Stop" to avoid possible disaster. Can you help? Thanks.

01/05/15 6:01:27.000 pm kernel[0]: Previous shutdown cause: -62
That usually indicates an abnormal shutdown due to a hardware fault. The exact cause can only be determined by Apple, so schedule a Genius Bar Reservation.

Secure empty trash wants to kill all files

Trying to open up space and speed up my iMac by emptying trash, which has worked fine in the past.
Now, with 376 items in the trash bin, when I hit "secure empty trash" it tells me it is killing 12K+ files.
Why is it doing that, and how to I get rid of the trash without erasing the whole disk?
Addendum: Now it's up to 32K+ files. Does this mean it is trying to overwrite every file I have ever deleted? Also, "Secure empty trash" is the only option available. No plain-vanilla "empty trash" to be found.

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

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?

Secure empty trash: How many passes?

When performing a +Secure Empty Trash+ I presume the deleted files are zeroed out, much like when using the +Erase Free Space+ function in the Disk Utility. My question is, if this is indeed the case, how many passes are performed during a +Secure Empty Trash+?

Way too many. I believe it's seven passes. Don't use it if you are deleting a large number of files because it could literally take days to complete.
Unless you work for an employer that mandates such security I wouldn't suggest using it. If it needs to be securely erased, then it needs to be encrypted. If it's encrypted then there really isn't a need to use the secure erase option.

Secure Empty Trash fails

When trying to Secure Empty Trash if it contains locked files I select the "Remove Locked Items" option but the action fails and the trash isn't emptied. It can be emptied using the "Remove Locked Items" option and just using the normal empty trash option.
Additionally it reports locked files in trash which on examination via "Get Info" are unlocked - these can't be securely emptied either but again can be using Empty Trash.
It seems therefore that there might be a problem with secure empty and files which are or have been locked.
I did a clean install of Yosemite and transferred user files back from a Time Machine backup. All went perfectly - no other issues.
I have tried new files i.e. ones created under Yosemite rather than Mavericks - no difference.
I have repaired permissions via disk utility and reset home directory permissions and ACL's which has made no difference. It happens on more than one account.
Anyone else experienced this or could try it for me?
Thanks

I've bumped this as I'm still having problems and wonder if someone could try and secure empty trash with a locked file in it and see what happens. I've created a new account and the same thing happens.
If someone could create say a simple text file, lock it via the "Get Info" option and then delete it to trash. Try to secure empty trash and see if the "remove locked items" works and the trash is emptied and the locked file removed.
Much appreciated if someone could do this
Terry

Does secure empty trash save disk space?

Secure empty trash takes so much longer than just emptying the trash. Is secure empty trash just used to prevent files from being recovered, or does it actually save disk space on the iMac?

I am aware that everyone said that it doesn't save any disk space, because I read through the thread.
HOWEVER.
I had gotten down to 500 mb of disk space and was going crazy trying to delete photos and movies.
Finally I read about the secure delete, tried it. It took 24 hours, and then i hat 36 free gigabites.
THIRTY SIX GIGS OF MEMORY THAT I DIDNT HAVE BEFORE.
Only thing is I have no idea why, because everyone else says that it doesnt clear space.

Secure Empty Trash Setting not working HELP!!!

Im trying to turn off the secure empty trash I dont know how it got turned on
but its not working
Ive tried going to Finder > Preference > advanced > uncheck the secure empty box
but it doesnt work it keeps asking me if im sure to delete the item
I dont want secure empty trash i like keeping the files for a while just in case
HELP please

Click on the item in the Finder's sidebar with the house icon and verify that you are able to write to this folder in the Ownership & Permissions section of the Get Info window, and that it isn't locked; if it is already set this way and you get that error, open the Terminal in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder and run the following:
mkdir ~/.Trash
If you get a message stating that the folder exists, run the following:
sudo chown $UID ~/.Trash
chmod u+rwx ~/.Trash
The first command in the second set will prompt you for your administrator password; nothing will appear in the Terminal window while it is being typed. In either case, click on the Finder icon in the Dock with the Control and Option keys pressed, and relaunch it.
(55512)

Huge number of files in 'Secure Empty Trash'

I'm not sure if this is that noteworthy or not, but I went to go and 'Secure Empty Trash' recently, and I had 2.1 million files. It has been deleting for about 4 days now, and I'm about halfway through it. I perform this function monthly to keep things clear, but I'm used to 2,000 - not 2 million. The only thing I can think of is that I installed FCS upgrade recently but I don't know why I'd have that many files to get rid of.
Thoughts..

I've called the big guys to help you. Good luck.
BTW, did you post this from the wife's computer?
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Under the main banner, press the button; '''Copy Text To Clipboard.'''.
Then in the reply box at the bottom of this page,
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Is it possible to create a secure empty trash shortcut in file menu?

I have second finger click enabled so that I can quickly move files to the trash bin from the contextual menu. This is fine and dandy, however, for files containing sensitive informaton, I'd like to have a "Secure File Delete" option available (file bypasses the trash bin and is wiped after selecting said option).
I've searched the threads and checked system prefs. Only options are to change "empty trash" to "secure empty trash". This wouldn't work as I have more files that are typically trashed and not wiped. It'd be nice to have it available as a convenience I suppose
I know theres an app in the app store that offers this functionality. It's $3-4.
So my question...is it possible to create such a contextual menu option on my own?
heres an example of what I'm ltalking about...

Create a new Service in Automator.
Set it to receive files an folders in the Finder.
Drag in an Ask for Confirmation action if you want it.
Drag in a Run Shell Script action from the Utilities section of the Library.
Set it to Pass Input as Arguments and Replace the code with:
srm -r "$@"
--That's ess-ar-em for Secure ReMove (just copy and paste)
Save it and it will show up in the Services menu when you right-click on an item in the Finder.
There are options you can add to it like -s for simple, -m for medium. The default (without options) is 35-pass Gutman.
You can see what options are available by opening Terminal and typeing
man srm
Hit space to scroll down. Q to quit the man page.
The Verbose and Interactive options won't work since you can respond.
Note that depending on the algorithm chosen, it may take some time for the file/folder to disappear from the Finder view.

Hi, Question about secure empty trash. I moved some Time Machine backup files to the trash from an external hard drive. Now I can't secure empty trash. It starts, finds 74,003 files, and does nothing. The external hard drive shows it's empty, but it isn't

I moved some time machine backup files from an external USB hard drive to the trash. Tried secure empty trash. It counts 74,003 items, then just sits there. The external hard drive window shows it's empty, but the info pane says it only has 50G of memory left. I left the secure empty trash on over night. It did nothing. Ideas?
Thanks,
Ron

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.

Help, I deleted some files and then secure empty trashed it.

I accidently deleted important files, and also secure empty trash, is there any way to recover those files?

no, unless you have a backup.

My secure empty trash keeps stopping and saying 'I do not have permission to trash" I ahve checked the file info and there is no tick in the locked box also the files are from a memroy stick

My secure empty trash stops and will not let me empty the trash. It says; I do not have access to some of the items. I have clicked continue, but it will not empty them. I have tried looking at the files in the trash box and the file info does not have the "locked box" ticked. Any suggestions please.

Open Terminal.app(/Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and type
sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash
Be careful all of files in the trash are deleted with above command.

Is it possible to change zero options in "Secure empty trash"?

In the "Secure Empty Trash" feature in Tiger, is it possible to change the settings regarding how many times the file being deleted is zeroed out? Can I choose a 1-pass or a 7-pass, etc?

I don't think the "Finder" itself offers a way to change the number of overwrites performed during a "secure empty trash". Note that "secure empty trash" just calls '/usr/bin/srm', using the '-m' option -- 7 passes, including zeroes, FF, F6 and random according to the 'man' page.
Depending on what you are after, and being mindful of the different possible paths for items in the "Trash" in OS X, you might be able to use 'srm' directly, using the options of your choice. Though not recommended, if you get into hacking system files, the options probably can also be changed to some extent from there.

Secure Empty Trash seems to repeat itself

If I use "Secure Empty Trash..." I may (for example) see that 8 files are being deleted and the Trash is now empty. If I then delete 1 file and repeat the aforementioned process I see that once again 8 files are being deleted. Why would this happen? Thanks.

Hi,
That doesn't explain some of my own findings - the numbers don't add up. In my system, if only the startup disk is mounted and a single file is placed in the Trash, a secure-delete progress window will show four items being deleted.
Just mounting an additional external volume will add two items to the apparent number of items being secure-deleted for each such volume added, even though no files on the additional volumes are placed in the Trash to begin with.
Here are the tests I did.
Start with a text file that is on the DeskTop.
For each test:
1) duplicate the text file
2) move the duplicate copy to the Trash
3) secure-empty the Trash,
4) repeat step 1
5) repeat step 2
6) repeat step 3
Steps 1-3 were done to be sure the Trash folders were truly empty before performing the actual test in steps 4-6.
To be determined:
In step 6, after that single file has been placed in the startup volume's Trash, how many items does the secure-delete progress window show as being deleted?
Results:
In my system, if the test is run with no disk volumes other than the startup disk mounted, the secure-delete progress window shows four items being deleted.
If I run the test after first mounting a single external volume, then the secure-delete progress window shows six items being deleted. Again, just one file was in the Trash after step 5, the same as for the first test.
If I mount a second external volume and repeat the test, again with only a single file in the Trash after step 5, the secure-delete progress window now shows 8 items being deleted.
If I first mount all 15 of my external partitions and run the same test, again with a single file in the Trash after step 5, the secure-delete progress window shows 34 items being deleted!

Secure Empty Trash reports wrong number of files

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