Trash always has thousands of files

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I have a 2007 MBP, running OS X 10.6.3. I've been having an issue for a while where my trash can fills up with thousands of files in it. These aren't visible files, as if I open the trash, there are maybe 20-30 files in it. But when I go to empty it, it says there are thousands. This is incredibly frustrating, and happens all the time. Just this morning it said I had over 8000 files in my trash. I let it empty it for 2.5 hours, and it still had over 1000 left to delete. Meanwhile, my fans are all on overdrive, and my system runs slow as snot.

What I'm wondering, is *** is going on? Why do I get thousands of files every day that end up in my trash can? Does it have something to do with FileVault being on?
 

chscag

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I don't know if it has anything to do with FileVault or not, but unless you have Atomic secrets on your machine, I would NOT use FileVault. You can do a search in these forums to discover how many folks have lost some or all of their data because of FileVault.

Turn off FileVault and give it a go to see if you're still getting thousands of files to delete from the trash.

Regards.
 
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10000 files in trash, every 3 weeks

I'm having this too. Nobody could answer yet, what it is. "Invisible files". Doesn't say much about what they are and why they are deleted when I delete trash.
 

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Do the following for me. Open up Terminal and execute the following:
Code:
ls ~/.Trash/ > ~/Desktop/trash_contents
Once that's done, you should have a file called trash_contents on your Desktop. Open that to see what's in your trash. If you're uncertain about what some of it is, post it here.
 
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Thanks. Right now it's empty. I will try that in a few days.
 
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If I might amend that command:
Code:
ls -a ~/.Trash/ > ~Desktop/trash_contents
The -a will let you see if there are any hidden files.
 

vansmith

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Good call. The files may very well be hidden and adding the -a switch will certainly include any files that might be causing this.
 
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The second terminal phrase does not work. The first only brought the same results as those that I can see in my trash folder. Nothing that would explain something like 300 times the amount... isn't there a command that lets you see all invisible files on your computer?
 

vansmith

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Whoops, I notice that cradom made a small mistake (forgot the / after the tilde). Try the following:
Code:
ls -a ~/.Trash/ > ~/Desktop/trash_contents
 
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Yup! Thx! Difference are these files:

.
..
.DS_Store

Whatever they mean.

So there are 21 objects in the trash now. Let's see what the dialog of "empty trash" will tell me...

****... no dialog!

Waiting for another 3 days...
 

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.DS_Store files are present in every folder on your machine and hold various properties for how they should be displayed in Finder.
 
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Right... remember now. They are responsible for this yet unaddressed OS10.6.-bug, where all the icons of the desktop appear on the right side of the screen.

I think I will have to collect more trash before I can run the test again, so this may take 2 weeks now.
 
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Whoops, I notice that cradom made a small mistake (forgot the / after the tilde). Try the following:
Code:
ls -a ~/.Trash/ > ~/Desktop/trash_contents

Sorry 'bout that :) It's heck to get old.
 

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@ceadom Does this mean that if I continue my steadfast refusal to use Terminal I won't get any older? Probably not but I can hope.
 

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@ceadom Does this mean that if I continue my steadfast refusal to use Terminal I won't get any older? Probably not but I can hope.
It might mean you're getting older because you misspelled cradom's name. ;)
 

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It might mean you're getting older because you misspelled cradom's name. ;)
lol Apologies to cradom. No offense intended obviously. I did not even notice that till I read your post. That's at least the second time today I have done something like similar.

Can we have a rule which says forum members must use names I can spell correctly?

BTW Van: I was expecting you to say that the mental gyrations needed to learn all that Terminal geekery would keep me young. lol
 

vansmith

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BTW Van: I was expecting you to say that the mental gyrations needed to learn all that Terminal geekery would keep me young. lol
Hmm, you know, the mental gyrations needed to learn all that Terminal geekery will keep you young.
 
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OK... time to check this again. Trash says I got 67 objects in there. The Terminal command, incl. the hidden files, only gives me 40. So that doesn't seem to lead anywhere. But I got another idea: When I empty trash, I do indeed empty the trashes of all volumes, right? So that would include those on the TimeMachine disc. Those are not displayed in the trash, unless I open the trash of that disc. Same with data sticks. You empty them by emptying the trash of your computer, while the stick is plugged in. So that would explain the enormous data load that's deleted every time I empty trash. Could that be the solution?
 
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Not sure about the "Time Machine disc". Is that an external hard drive?

But for "memory" sticks, yeah, the files stay in the Trash until it's emptied when the stick is mounted.

P.S. Technically "memory" stick is a misnomer. Memory is RAM. A flash drive is storage, not RAM.
 

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