Trash Can won't EMPTY!

Folks
Cant get the Trash can to empty - get following message
“501” can’t be opened right now because it’s being used by another task, such as moving or copying an item or emptying the Trash. Try again when the current task is complete.
Nothing is running etc at a loss any ideas??
Thanks
Steve

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html
BTW, update your product info. It shows 10.6.4.

Similar Messages

  • HT2674 I have an iMac purchased in May 2011.  OSX Lion 10.7.3.  I deleted backup file from the external hard drive. Now, the trash can will not empty some of the files deleted.  File folder: "Core Services" contains a locked file: "boot.efi".  It will not

    I have an iMac purchased in May 2011.  OSX Lion 10.7.3.  I deleted backup file from the external hard drive which operates from Time Machine.
    Now, the trash can will not empty some of the files deleted from the backup harddrive.
    The trash contains-- File folder: "Core Services" which contains a locked file: "boot.efi". 
    It will not delete.
    How do I get the trash can empty of these files?

    Yes, the Old Master file has a folder for each year where I find all photos from that specific year. I am attaching a screen shot of the file.
    In the meantime i have managed to download all photos (it did not download any video files though in mpg, avi, 3gp, m4v,mp4 and mov format) to a new iphoto library. Unfortunately the photos are quite mixed and often doubled up. I ma considering to purchase iphoto library which checks all duplicates in iphoto. this will save me a lot of time. What do you think?

  • My Macbook Air can delete files and folders and take them to Trash Can but cannot delete from Trash Can . Cannot empty trash securely.

    My Macbook Air can delete files and folders and take them to Trash Can but cannot delete from Trash Can . Cannot empty trash securely.

    Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
    ☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
    ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
    Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
    View ▹ Show Log List
    from the menu bar.
    Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the action that you're having trouble with again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
    When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
    Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
    Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

  • When I delete photos from my iPad 2 do they go into a trash can which needs emptied or are they permanently and totally deleted?

    When I delete photos from my iPad 2 do they go into a trash can which needs emptied or are they permanently and totally deleted?

    No trash can on iPad. Delete, and it's gone.

  • I have one thing in trash that won't empty.  What to do?

    I have a file that is the name of my desktop that is a copy of backup.   Not even sure how it got there.   But trash won't empty it.  It's a folder of 182 items so it needs to be deleted.
    How to do that?
    Thanks, Tzipora

    Alberto, did you give up on me?   I think there's a major corruption now that started with iphoto corruption.  Then I moved to trashing a lot of extra stuff.   Now, can't open trash because it's frozen into 'move to trash' mode.  So, can't shut down my computer either since Finder is now busy with all this.
    Seems my whole computer is in trouble.  Thankfully I can still send these notes.  
    Someone out there that can help?   I need to get rid of the frozen 'moving to trash window' before anything else.
    Thanks in advance,
    Tzipora

  • Trash can't be emptied

    I always clean the trash whenever I move a file to it, and not able to empty it is just very annoying. This file is from a harddisk and I'm not sure why it can't be emptied. After clicking the empty trash the trash says "The operation can't be complited because the file 'abc' is in use" This is a file and not an application btw. Anyway, the items turns to be white and it says 0kb.
    How can I empty the trash?
    And another problem. There was another file that whenever I tried to empty trash it cause my mac to crash and ask me to press the power button. How do I fix this problems?

    I've tried the trash it but it needed the file to be in the desktop. My files are already in trash and can't be dragged to the desktop.

  • Trash can won't open from dock

    hi,
    i can't open my trash can from the dock. i can right click and empty it, however, if i try to double click or right click to open, it doesn't open. i can look up the trash can file in the finder, but i don't want to keep doing that. please help. =( i'm pretty limited in my mac knowledge so if you have an answer, please be explain in detail. thanks again for all your help and even reading this, i appreciate it alot. =)

    Search these forums for trash and peruse the returns. Additionally, see http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html

  • My trash can will not empty.

    Hi,
    Would appreciate some help!
    I deleted a bunch of time machine files because my hard drive was full and now they are in my trash can and will not empty
    the root file is a boot.efi
    Any help would be appreciated!
    Thanks
    Tavakr

    baltwo wrote:
    See Pondini's TM FAQs, for details. IIRC, bad move to manually remove stuff from TM.
    Totally agree. NEVER EVER EVER manually delete stuff from a TM. Right click and delet the backup from WITHIN the TM app. If you cna "put back" stuff you inadvertently deleted, try that, but you may have to reformat your TM and start over.

  • My iPhoto trash can will not empty properly-what can I do?

    After using duplicate annihilator, i tried to empty IPhoto trash, it worked for hours, trashed a few photos but rest are not outlines only with images missing and still show as present in trash can.  Help.

    Please read my response to your question here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18141092#18141092.

  • My trash can won't open up

    When I click on my little trash can icon, Finder becomes the active application but it doesn't open. It just started doing this randomly. Anybody have any suggestions?

    you are not the only one seeing this problem:
    http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=92379&page=2
    I booted off the OSX install DVD and ran disk utility (disk repair, then repair permissions) and that solved the problem. First thing after I logged back in was to test 'franktinsley's suggestion and used quicklook and selected "add to iphoto" and BINGO - the bug was back.
    Message was edited by: peace_frog
    Message was edited by: peace_frog

  • Lion trash can won't open

    When I click on the Trash Can nothing happens. I was in it recently recovering a deleted document. Don't know where the trash caan is stored so I caannot find it manually. New MAC user.
    Also, having endless hangs and crashes trying to reorganize my 1.3TB of data stored on Seagate external drives.

    I used a suggestion from another post that said I should create a document then send to Trash and then search for it. Voila!
    Now I at least know that I haven't lost my Trash folder before I shut down for the night.
    Still don't know how to get it to open . Maybe will fix itself when I restart (Which I have to do all the time because of Finder/Seagate drives causing hangs and crashes. GRUMBLE, GRUMBLE.

  • Trash STILL won't empty ..

    Hi,
    I asked this question a while back:
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1199164&tstart=0
    I still can't empty my trash, and got to thinking that maybe it's a .Trash directory on some other volume. My Mail is all on /Volumes/shirele and when I look in there, I see ...
    *cd /Volumes/shirele/.Trashes/
    [email protected]% /Volumes/shirele/.Trashes (2) ll
    total 0
    drwx------ 3 desmond desmond 102 Nov 16 15:29 .
    drwx------ 70 desmond desmond 2482 Jan 17 13:51 ..
    drwx------ 2 desmond desmond 68 Jan 17 13:53 501*
    If I do a sudo rm -Rf * in there ..?

    hi guys sorry, i waited a while before answering this. OK, first thing is that there is one volume that refuses to unmount, even after closing all the programmes.
    I tried that tutorial, but no joy: it refuses to empty.
    Isn't there some sort of trick where you can really force things by booting off the CD and emptying that way?

  • I deleted my back up files from my external hard drive and my trash won't empty. I get an error code -22. Can anyone tell me how to fix this?

    I deleted my back up files from my external hard drive and my trash won't empty. I get an error code -22. Can anyone tell me how to fix this?

    JLCruz wrote:
    I deleted my back up files from my external hard drive ...
    If this is related to Time Machine Backups...
    See here  >  Should I delete old backups?  If so, How?
    From Here  >  http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html
    If the TRASH still won’t Empty...
    See Here  >  http://pondini.org/TM/E6.html

  • Cannot empty iPhoto trash can why ?

    i have 70000 images in trash can but cannot empty iPhoto trash can why ?

    If that 70,000 is your entire library just drag the library to the Trash bin in the Dock and empty it.
    However, if you have other photos in the library that you want to keep the try this:  go into iPhoto's General preference pane and uncheck the Show item counts checkbox:
    and then try emptying the iPhoto Trash bin again. 
    If that fails and you don't use the Rating stars you can do the following: select all of the photos in the trash and Control-click to bringup the contextual menu.  There will be the 5 stars for the ratings.  Select either 5 or 1 to apply that rating to the photos.
    Next create a smart album with the criteria:
    selecting the number of start you applied to those in the Trash bin.
    Move the photos from the Trash bin to the Library and the Smart Album will immediately be populated with those photos. 
    You can now select about 100 photos or so at a time and use the Command+Option+Delete key combination to move them back to the Trash bin and empty it.  Repeat with groups of about 100 or so photos till they are all deleted. Then delete the Trash bin in the Dock to completely remove them from your hard drive.
    OT

  • Trash can icon always shows as empty after upgrade to 10.6.2

    I searched the archives and didn't see any information about this particular situation: my trash can icon always shows as empty even though the trash has items in it.
    If I right click on the icon, "Empty Trash" is grayed out, but if I click on the icon I can open the trash can and choose "empty" at the top right of the window. It's not really a big deal, just weird.
    Anyone else have this happen?
    Kim

    V.K., I hadn't had the chance to try creating a new user account yet, but I just noticed the trash showed it had trash and I right clicked the icon and the empty trash option is now available. I chose empty trash and it worked.
    I don't what changed...but it seems to be OK now...
    Thanks!
    Kim

Maybe you are looking for