Trash

javiergautier · Dec 6, 2015

Please advise on how to empty trash, I just can not do it.

Steps: right clic on the can/empty trash/secure empty trash

Then a message promt appears: There are some locked items in the Trash. Do you want to remove all the items, including the locked ones, or just the unlocked items?

Steps: remove all items

A message appears indicating "emptying the trash" but it disappears very quickly and the can remains full

I appreciate your guidelines.

Best regards,

Javier

Rod · Dec 6, 2015

Welcome to MacForums javiergautier, what Operating System are you using? Methods to solve your problem vary dependent on OS. But in the mean time you can try holding down the Option key while clicking Empty Trash. This works for some later OSX but not all situations. Let us know if that works.

chas_m · Dec 6, 2015

Why do you have "secure empty trash" even enabled?

toMACsh · Dec 6, 2015

javiergautier said:
Steps: right clic on the can/empty trash/secure empty trash

Then a message prompt appears: There are some locked items in the Trash. Do you want to remove all the items, including the locked ones, or just the unlocked items?

There are numerous users who would love it if the Trash would actually do what the message says it will do! Some people like to clean up their folders, but not permanently delete items until a later time when they've determined they really, really don't need them. If you could get that to work, you'd be their hero!

MacInWin · Dec 6, 2015

toMACsh, what you stated is exactly how it works. However, Trash wasn't intended as a "holding pen" for files for very long. If you want to use your method for a long time, create a folder named "PreTrash" and when you want to "test" something you might want to delete, just move it from wherever it is to "PreTrash" and then when you're confident you don't need it, move it to Trash. However, that two-step isn't absolutely required to do what you described, and one doesn't need a hero because that's how it works.

Rod · Dec 6, 2015

I suppose I was concentrating on the first sentence from our OP that they were unable to empty trash at all, at least locked items. So whether they want to secure empty or not did not occur to me. It is more a matter of forcing trash to empty(I thought).

MacInWin · Dec 7, 2015

Rod, that's how I read it as well. Secure or not, some items won't let the deletion complete.

When I've seen that error message, what I've had to do was reboot and not let applications restart on reboot. (Don't let open windows reopen.) That action generally unlocks the locked files and the trash can then be emptied.

toMACsh · Dec 7, 2015

MacInWin said:
toMACsh, what you stated is exactly how it works. However, Trash wasn't intended as a "holding pen" for files for very long. If you want to use your method for a long time, create a folder named "PreTrash" and when you want to "test" something you might want to delete, just move it from wherever it is to "PreTrash" and then when you're confident you don't need it, move it to Trash. However, that two-step isn't absolutely required to do what you described, and one doesn't need a hero because that's how it works.

I wasn't writing about myself. And I think there's a small communication gap. The people who want to use Trash the way you say is not intended would often need to delete some items from the Trash without deleting the "Pre Trash" items. That's not the way it works.

MacInWin · Dec 7, 2015

toMACsh, let's try to clear it up a bit. For me, when I get that "some items are locked" message I can select it to delete just unlocked ones and it does that perfectly, leave in the trash whatever it thinks is locked. That's how I find out what items are locked and start the process of finding out why they are locked. Is that not happening with your system?

I shouldn't have called it "your method" or made my post personal to you. I meant to say that if people in general use Trash to hold things they may or may not want to delete, there is a decided risk because items in the trash CAN be overwritten if the system needs the space. So, IMHO, it's not wise to use Trash as a holding pen. If one wants to delete something but not erase it, putting it somewhere other than Trash is better because the system won't overwrite it in that non-Trash folder. I just suggested a PreTrash folder name so that I would be reminded every time I saw the folder that "Oh, yeah, I need to go ahead and trash X now."

And I'm very sorry but I don't understand what you meant in this sentence:

The people who want to use Trash the way you say is not intended would often need to delete some items from the Trash without deleting the "Pre Trash" items.

Can you restate that for me?

Rod · Dec 7, 2015

MacInWin said:
Rod, that's how I read it as well. Secure or not, some items won't let the deletion complete.

When I've seen that error message, what I've had to do was reboot and not let applications restart on reboot. (Don't let open windows reopen.) That action generally unlocks the locked files and the trash can then be emptied.

That's a great tip. Because I never tick the box "Reopen Windows on Restart/Startup" I have never encountered that particular problem.

toMACsh · Dec 8, 2015

MacInWin said:
toMACsh, let's try to clear it up a bit. For me, when I get that "some items are locked" message I can select it to delete just unlocked ones and it does that perfectly, leave in the trash whatever it thinks is locked. That's how I find out what items are locked and start the process of finding out why they are locked. Is that not happening with your system?

I shouldn't have called it "your method" or made my post personal to you. I meant to say that if people in general use Trash to hold things they may or may not want to delete, there is a decided risk because items in the trash CAN be overwritten if the system needs the space. So, IMHO, it's not wise to use Trash as a holding pen. If one wants to delete something but not erase it, putting it somewhere other than Trash is better because the system won't overwrite it in that non-Trash folder. I just suggested a PreTrash folder name so that I would be reminded every time I saw the folder that "Oh, yeah, I need to go ahead and trash X now."

And I'm very sorry but I don't understand what you meant in this sentence:Can you restate that for me?

Well, I guess I kind of lost focus on the locked items bit. Such are the vicissitudes of typing faster than I think on my lunch break.

What many people complain about is the inability to delete only selected items from Trash, because you can do that in Windows, and without having to lock items. So I guess the OP's scenario would not be "hero-worthy" after all. What some people want is a Trash that works like the Recycle Bin. And yes, I get the reasons why Trash does not work that way, and why it's not a good idea to try to use it that way. For that matter, it's probably not a good long, long-term solution with the Recycle Bin either.

MacInWin · Dec 8, 2015

Ah, I get it now. Yes, I also have wished on occasion to be able to delete selected items from the trash, not all of them. But I've learned to just live with it as it is and to use it as it is designed. Maybe I'm getting mellow as I age...

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