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If that particular space is needed to save new data, the old files, which were supposedly deleted, will be overwritten.
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When a file is deleted, the operating system tags its storage space as being available for use. After some time, the deleted data will eventually be written over with new data. It has not been deleted but has been marked for reuse by OS X or macOS. However, the data on your physical drive is still there and could potentially be recovered when you use third-party software.
![cant get mac trash folder to empty cant get mac trash folder to empty](https://www.askdavetaylor.com/2-blog-pics/mac-trash-folder-empty-securely.png)
You’ll notice that the space occupied by the files on the Trash is recovered. When you delete the Trash on your Mac, all the files in there will be gone. When You Empty the Trash on a Mac, Is It Gone? When you drop data into the trash icon to empty it, the popup box comes up normally, prompting if you are sure and you get an active option to click ‘Continue.’ But once in the trash bin, the emptying process seems to be taking forever. The confusing part is that your Mac seemingly works well. If you have experienced a slow-running Mac, you have surely typed: “why emptying trash is slow on my Mac” in your Safari search bar. About Outbyte, uninstall instructions, EULA, Privacy Policy. If emptying your Trash takes a very long time or gets stuck, there must be something wrong somewhere. But it shouldn’t take more than five minutes or an hour, just like other Mac users are complaining of. That’s when your system starts purging all the files you dragged to the Trash folder.Įmptying trash usually takes just a couple of seconds, depending on how many files you need to delete. To completely delete your files, you need to right-click on the Trash icon on the Dock, then choose Empty Trash. It’s just like moving your files to a different folder, so dragging any file to the Trash usually does not cause any problem. Take note that dragging any file to the Trash does not really delete them. It can get so bad such that, even when you drop just one simple picture into the trash bin, then empty the trash, it takes ‘forever’ to carry out the command. The speed of a good Mac is almost always instant.īut when your Mac starts slowing down, the reduction in speed is easily noticeable. Let us know in the comments below.If your Mac is in an excellent condition, you expect it to follow any commands promptly. It seems it should not be required while in Recovery mode, but I haven't tested it. I don't know if that was actually required or not. Note: I actually ran csrutil disable before step 8 and then csrutil enable after step 9, to temporarily disable the System Integrity Protection. Rm -rf /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/bob/.Trash/?* Verify by running this in Terminal: ls /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/bob/.Trash/?*Īnd check that it contains those files you want to delete. Remember to replace bob there with the right user name.
#CANT GET MAC TRASH FOLDER TO EMPTY FULL#
The full path to your trash will be something like this: /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/bob/.Trash/?* Prefix the path you noted down with that. The "Macintosh HD" will be available under /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD. Click the Utilities menu and select Terminal.Mount your "Macintosh HD" volume (the main one).Immediately hold down command R to boot into Recovery mode.Should be something like /Users/bob/.Trash/?*.
#CANT GET MAC TRASH FOLDER TO EMPTY MAC OS#
Here are the steps that worked for me on Mac OS 10.15.4:įind out the path to your Trash by running this command in Terminal echo /Users/$(whoami)/.Trash/?* However you must first mount your Macintosh disk (at least on Catalina) to get access to the Trash while in Recovery mode. I also verified that this file is on the read-write Data partition: sh-3.2# ls -l /System/Volumes/Data/Users/elliott/.Trash/Security/usr/Īs mentioned, you can fix this in Recovery mode itself. Write_nocancel(0x2, "Operation not permitted\n\0", 0x18) = 24 0 I have already given Terminal full disk access in System Preferences.Ĭhecking the rm command with dtruss I see it fails here: unlink(".Trash/Security/usr/X11R6\0", 0x0, 0x0) = -1 Err#1 Rm: Security//usr/X11R6: Operation not permittedįifteen.Trash elliott$ ls -l Security/usr/ DS_Storeĭrwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 96 Nov 11 21:42 Securityįifteen.Trash elliott$ sudo rm -rf Security/ OK let's try in Terminal: fifteen.Trash elliott$ pwd ls -alĭrwx- 4 elliott staff 128 Nov 11 21:44 125 elliott staff 4000 Nov 10 22:23 1 elliott staff 135172 Nov 11 21:44. It's a link to /opt/X11 which is a regular directory. Trying to empty from Finder warns X11R6 can't be modified or deleted because it's required by macOS. I'm having trouble emptying the trash on Catalina.