Cannot clear my trash!

Hi, I have upgraded to Lion and found that I am unable to clear my trash. When I click to empty my trash, it asks me if I want to erase and I click "Secure Empty Trash". It then tells me I have locked items, even when I have only one item selected. There are two options, "Remove Unlocked Items" and "Remove All Items", both giving me the same result: It gets into the "Emptying the Trash" dialogue box, which disappears after running for about 2 seconds.

The guy at the shop said it was because I have anti-virus running (I have 'iVirus' and 'VirusBarrier Express') and in particular, he identified the AVG link-scanner, which doesn't make sense to me as that came as a Firefox add-on and only scans links on the browser.

Appreciate any help.

Get rid of all the virus software especially the one from AVG. AVG is a resource hog and is known to be troublesome. I don't know if that's the reason your Trash can't be emptied, but it's a good start. If you must run AV software, download and use the free ClamXav which is made for OS X.

I had virus barrier when I first started out. I unloaded that quickly. It is such a resource hog. Another alternative to ClamXav is Sophos.

How do I delete the anti virus?

Thanks chscag for such a speedy reply

I have problem trying to delete them as I understand that they do not delete just by dragging them to trash:

iAntiVirus: Using the uninstall icon in the folder, I tried clicking onto the "Uninstall" button but nothing happened. I was connected to Internet at that point.

AVG: Did a search online and there was a website that advised that I need the .dmg file but I couldn't find it - probably because it was a Firefox add-on.

VirusBarrier - can't find any way to uninstall.

The strange thing was that I use to empty my trash regularly on my old laptop under Snow Leopard (can't remember if I emptied after upgrading to Lion). I migrated to my new laptop by restoring from Time Capsule and that is where the problems started. What was really strange was that it afflicted both old and new laptops. Coincidentally (?) my Parallels did not work as well.

jimkhong said:

Thanks chscag for such a speedy reply

I have problem trying to delete them as I understand that they do not delete just by dragging them to trash:

iAntiVirus: Using the uninstall icon in the folder, I tried clicking onto the "Uninstall" button but nothing happened. I was connected to Internet at that point.

AVG: Did a search online and there was a website that advised that I need the .dmg file but I couldn't find it - probably because it was a Firefox add-on.

VirusBarrier - can't find any way to uninstall.

The strange thing was that I use to empty my trash regularly on my old laptop under Snow Leopard (can't remember if I emptied after upgrading to Lion). I migrated to my new laptop by restoring from Time Capsule and that is where the problems started. What was really strange was that it afflicted both old and new laptops. Coincidentally (?) my Parallels did not work as well.

Click to expand...

I had the same problem with uninstalling Virus barrier. I end up googling it. "virus barrier uninstall" and was able to get rid of it.

Thanks firesidedog

I took your tip and got MacKeeper. It shreded all my files and now, only the locked items are left in my Trash. Still can't delete them. As I am not the author of those files, I cannot unlock them.

MacKeeper is even worse than the anti-virus. There are many advisers on here that will tell you to get rid of it pronto

I do not have an antivirus on my MAC with Lion but I am still unable to empty the trash can. Please help!!!!!!!! It does the same thing, starts to delete then after 2 seconds it disappears.

1. Get rid of MacKeeper if you can.

2. Get rid of your antivirus software.

3. Follow our staff member's good advice and use ClamXAV and chscag has even provided a link to it.

4. Susan try a reboot.

I used this to delete the files in trash: sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash

I didn't have MacKeeper or an Antivirus ... but I will check out ClamXAV.

Thank you!!!!!

Finally managed to do it

Found an app that will clear items on my trashcan - TrashIt. Recommended by the guy from Apple. It gives a choice of (i) finding an item hard to trash (ii) trashing of items are taking too long.

I have had to use this "Terminal" command a few times in the past years and it works perfect everytime and clears all files from my Trash.

sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash