Mac OS - Trashed files do not empty

Mac OS - Trashed files do not empty

Problem

A Mac OS user encounters a problem where they are unable to permanently delete files from the trash, an error message may appear indicating it is unable to delete the files.

Applies to

  1. Mac OS

Resolution

In Mac OS one can force deletion of trahsed files using the steps below.

  1. Press COMMAND+SPACE then enter the command Terminal and press ENTER.  The Terminal app will launch.
  2. Within Terminal window at the command prompt copy/paste the command below:

    sudo rm -rf 

  3. With the Terminal window open click on the the Trash icon in the dock to bring up the list of trashed files.
  4. Drag one or more files from trash into the terminal window command line.  The files will then show at the end of the command entered in step two above.
  5. Then press ENTER to run the command to perform deletion.
  6. When prompted enter the password you log into your Mac with to authorise the action then press ENTER and close the Terminal window afterwards
  7. Then return to the Finder window showing trashed files which should no longer have the files you dragged over because they have been deleted.


Notes
Note
The above steps have been verified up to Mac OS 14 Sonoma.


Further action

If the above does not help pleases consider using Disk Utility for repairing disk permissions.  Afterwards try the steps above to remove trashed files.