Secure empty trash not working

I am unable to invoke secure empty trash. When I try to do it, it tells me that there are both locked and unlocked items and gives me the option of either emptying unlocked items or all items. Whichever option I choose, it tells me there are 7511 items, starts the emptying process, then quits without emptying any of them.

Any suggestions?

Secure empty trash is not working

I posted this 2 weeks ago and to my surprise received no replies. Is this a really exotic problem?

I am unable to invoke secure empty trash. When I try to do it, it tells me that there are both locked and unlocked items and gives me the option of either emptying unlocked items or all items. Whichever option I choose, it tells me there are 7511 items, starts the emptying process, then almost instantly quits without emptying any of them.

Any suggestions?

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-applications-games/236859-cant-empty-trash-locked-files.html

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple-notebooks/236554-trash-doesnt-empty.html

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/234535-trash-will-not-empty.html

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple-notebooks/232558-cant-empty-trash.html


A few of the threads from the last couple of weeks. (Note: Merged duplicate threads. You can bump a thread back to the top of the list by posting in it again, rather than creating another duplicate.)

Is there a particular reason you need to Secure Empty Trash other than the fact its 'secure'? First time I hit Secure Empty Trash, it took forever and sucked up most of my processing power. I googled it and the Secure Empty Trash function actually writes 0s and 1s, just meaningly data everywhere so the your data can't be potentially recovered through computer forensics. Secure Empty Trash takes a long time and shortens the life of your drive. If you're just trying to empty old files from your Trash I'd recommend just using the standard Empty Trash function.

Try iEmpty

Secure empty trash aborts immediately

This is a re-post of a problem I reported a while ago that hasn't been resolved. There are now about 12,000 files in my trash. When I invoke Secure Empty Trash I get a message that some items are "locked," and do I want to empty locked items or all items. Whichever I choose, the emptying process seems to start but immediately aborts and nothing is emptied. I really do want to delete securely for valid reasons.

Aye

I'm having the exact same problem with no resolve. So weird.

stellman said:

This is a re-post of a problem I reported a while ago that hasn't been resolved. There are now about 12,000 files in my trash. When I invoke Secure Empty Trash I get a message that some items are "locked," and do I want to empty locked items or all items. Whichever I choose, the emptying process seems to start but immediately aborts and nothing is emptied. I really do want to delete securely for valid reasons.

Click to expand...

Restating the issue will not move this discussion forward. If you followed the links in the post by bobtomay, report on what happened when you tried any of the suggestions given. That will provide more clues to move this forward.

Too early in the morning? That post from member "stellman" is from 6-18-2011. ;D

Ha!

It would help if posts more than 1 week, 1 month, 1 year old had a different background color or something.