Trash Auto-Delete STILL Plaguing my MacBook

MacSinceWayBack · Apr 13, 2007

I have a problem with my trash can automatically emptying anything I put into it, iow it no longer functions as a safe 'holding bin'. I have received two replies with two different programming instructions. One was "rm -rf ~/.Trash" then "killall Finder" which had no effect. The other was "mkdir~/.Trash" then "sudo chmod 700~/.Trash" which prompted the following message:

"We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:

#1) Respect the privacy of others.
#2) Think before you type.
#3) With great power comes great responsibility.

Password:"

The password area for some reason is non-responsive. Need I add that I am totally new to OS X? and am unused to getting into the guts of the programming?

What can I do short of reinstalling the whole OS?

Feeling Daunted
Mark in HD

Discerptor · Apr 13, 2007

MacSinceWayBack said:
I have a problem with my trash can automatically emptying anything I put into it, iow it no longer functions as a safe 'holding bin'. I have received two replies with two different programming instructions. One was "rm -rf ~/.Trash" then "killall Finder" which had no effect. The other was "mkdir~/.Trash" then "sudo chmod 700~/.Trash" which prompted the following message:

"We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:

#1) Respect the privacy of others.
#2) Think before you type.
#3) With great power comes great responsibility.

Password:"

The password area for some reason is non-responsive. Need I add that I am totally new to OS X? and am unused to getting into the guts of the programming?

What can I do short of reinstalling the whole OS?

Feeling Daunted
Mark in HD

It's actually not non-responsive. It's supposed to keep on looking like a solid gray box one character wide.

MacSinceWayBack · Apr 14, 2007

That I did not know. THANK YOU Discerptor! So, NOW I have this:

usage: chmod [-fv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-a | +a | =a [# [ n]]] mode|entry file ...

Should I reboot? I haven't rebooted for daaays and my trash can is still eating everything I put in it.

johntalin · Apr 14, 2007

This is intriguing, because your trash bin is behaving as if you have Compost installed:

http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macgems/2005/04/compost/index.php

This is another link where it explains that a size limit put on Trash Can will empty it out Automatically. In his case, he prefered it that way. Maybe you can find out where to look for problems.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20061022114138978

MacSinceWayBack · Apr 15, 2007

Trash Autodeletes PROBLEM SOLVED!

Many thanks to those forum members who advised me on this problem.

Your time and efforts are appreciated even though, unfortunately in this case, they were to no avail. I did, however, find the solution outside of this venue. It was suggested by a member of another Mac forum, one who, ironically enough, designed a script to do precisely what my MacBook was doing without one. Mr Armstrong directed me to the following URL:

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html#Anchor-Files-46919

It was the key to it all.

Thank you, again.

MacSWB

bobtomay · Apr 15, 2007

glad you got it solved, and thnx for posting back the resolution

johntalin · Apr 15, 2007

MacSinceWayBack said:
Many thanks to those forum members who advised me on this problem.

Your time and efforts are appreciated even though, unfortunately in this case, they were to no avail. I did, however, find the solution outside of this venue. It was suggested by a member of another Mac forum, one who, ironically enough, designed a script to do precisely what my MacBook was doing without one. Mr Armstrong directed me to the following URL:

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html#Anchor-Files-46919

It was the key to it all.

Thank you, again.

MacSWB

Great link. You never know when I may need it.

rman · Apr 16, 2007

Have you tried running the disk utility application and repair permissions?