Resolved Unable to delete Time machine backups from trash

[saha-med]

I wanted to delete time machine backups so what i did was delete them from the TM window. Didnt work, so i went to delete the Backups.backupdb folders. The folders moved to trash, and now i have a problem of emptying my trash.

When i empty the trash, it calculates how many files there are, then proceeds to delete those files. However the process is never ending, as you can see in the screenshot below (items to delete counts down, then when it reaches 0 it counts up in the negative domain)

Ive tried
- option+command+shift+delete
- sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/*

Didnt work... My "ls -al .Trash/" output shows the folder as empty.

Any solutions to this?

 

[Bruno09]

i went to delete the Backups.backupdb folders. The folders moved to trash, and now i have a problem of emptying my trash.

Hi,

you can empty the Trash by using Onyx or Maintenance.

They both are able to delete Time Machine backups folders moved to the Trash.

I would suggest you use Maintenance over Onyx, as it is easier and safer to use.

Check that its "Trash" tick box is actually checked before running it.

Check the "run maintenance scripts" tick box.

Uncheck "browsing history" if you want to keep it.

http://www.titanium.free.fr/downloadmaintenance.php

 

[Dark Dragoon]

- sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/*

Didnt work... My "ls -al .Trash/" output shows the folder as empty.

Thats the trash folder in the user account, instead you would need to delete the files from the .Trash folder located in the root of the drive you used for Time Machine.

 

[saha-med]

Hi,

you can empty the Trash by using Onyx or Maintenance.

They both are able to delete Time Machine backups folders moved to the Trash.

I would suggest you use Maintenance over Onyx, as it is easier and safer to use.

Check that its "Trash" tick box is actually checked before running it.

Check the "run maintenance scripts" tick box.

Uncheck "browsing history" if you want to keep it.

http://www.titanium.free.fr/downloadmaintenance.php

Maintanance works, as in it does say command executed successfully. But the trash folder still contains the backups

Thats the trash folder in the user account, instead you would need to delete the files from the .Trash folder located in the root of the drive you used for Time Machine.

/.Trashes/ is empty as well.


I think the problem here is the GUI trash folder is not refreshed. That is why the Trash icon doesnt look empty, and when i open the folder via finder, it is not empty as well

However both trashes folder look empty via the terminal as seen below

Last login: Mon Aug 4 14:39:06 on console
sahamed-mini:~ saha$ ls -al .Trash/
total 0
drwx------ 2 saha staff 68 Aug 4 14:41 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 29 saha staff 986 Aug 3 14:38 ..
sahamed-mini:~ saha$ ls -al /.Trashes/
ls: : Permission denied
sahamed-mini:~ saha$ sudo ls -al /.Trashes/
Password:
total 0
d-wx-wx-wt@ 2 root wheel 68 May 7 20:29 .
drwxr-xr-x 33 root wheel 1190 Aug 4 14:39 ..
sahamed-mini:~ saha$

 

[Dark Dragoon]

/.Trashes/ is empty as well.

That is the .Trashes folder located at the root, you need to delete the files from the .Trash folder located in the root of the drive you used for Time Machine.
It should be located at: "\Volumes\[Backup HD Name]\.Trashes\"
Check that one instead.

 

[saha-med]

That is the .Trashes folder located at the root, you need to delete the files from the .Trash folder located in the root of the drive you used for Time Machine.
It should be located at: "\Volumes\[Backup HD Name]\.Trashes\"
Check that one instead.

Great, this works. Thanks

 

[TriciaT]

Hi,

you can empty the Trash by using Onyx or Maintenance.

They both are able to delete Time Machine backups folders moved to the Trash.

I would suggest you use Maintenance over Onyx, as it is easier and safer to use.

Check that its "Trash" tick box is actually checked before running it.

Check the "run maintenance scripts" tick box.

Uncheck "browsing history" if you want to keep it.

http://www.titanium.free.fr/downloadmaintenance.php

Using "Maintenance" exactly as you described did the trick for me. "Onyx" did not work - it would hang on the "empty trash" after a few seconds. Thanks so much for your help.

 

[erikb80]

Same thing here, Onyx frozen and Maintenance did the work... took around 20 minutes but it solved my issue! thanks @Bruno09 !

 

[Lizziejh]

Where do I find Maintenance please?

 

[CoastalOR]

Where do I find Maintenance please?

Maintenance app link:
http://www.titanium.free.fr/maintenance.html

 

[Lizziejh]

Thank you very much.