Apr
5
Empty Stubborn Trash in Mac OS X
I dunno if it’s me or OS X, but I run into errors quite often when trying to empty the Trash in Mac OS X. I’ve tried most of the apps that claim to “Force Empty Trash” with very little success.
Anyways, this is what solves the problem most of the time for me -
- Get Info on the trashed files and make sure you have write permissions
- In Terminal, type cd ~/.Trash && sudo rm -rf
- Add a space after the last letter f
- Then drag a trashed file or files into the Terminal window
- Press Enter (your system PW will be required)
Depending on what you’re deleting, it may take a little bit of time to finish deleting. So wait until you see the prompt in Terminal again or until you see the file or files gone from your Trash before closing Terminal. This is why I tend to do it in smaller batches instead of all at once.
