Mac Tip: Force empty the Trash

Sometimes the Trash on your Mac won't empty - even when you tell it to. Ever since I dragged and dropped a bunch of leftover Windows system files into my Mac's Trash bin, no matter how many times I tried to empty it, there those trashed files stayed, staring at me in defiance.

If the affected account is: Then type the Terminal command: Your Admin account: sudo rm -ri ~/.Trash Another user account: sudo rm -ri /Users/user_name/.Trashwhere user_name is the short name of the affected account.

Luckily, The X Lab site offers a few options for force-emptying the Mac's Trash. Being acommand line gal, I used the old rm -rf ~/.Trash/* technique in Terminal, but apparently holding down the Option key while emptying does the trick too. Here's to empty trash bins!— Gina Trapani

Solving Trash Problems [The X Lab]

Posted in: Mac OS