Can’t empty trash in OS X file is in use
January 18th, 2006 by Brandon
If you get the “File is in use” and it cannot be deleted from the trash can, there is a simple fix. This command will overwrite all permissions and delete the file that can’t be deleted. You may need to be logged in as an Administrator and type your password into the terminal box.
Open ‘Terminal’ and type this in:
sudo rm -R ~/.Trash/*
Always be carefule when using Terminal and the sudo command. Use at your own risk.
Hope that helps,
Apple Happy Staff
Posted in OS X Help
September 7th, 2008 at 2:14 AM
It just worked perfectly on my Macbook. It’s important to note that is necessary to drag the folders and files in trash inside the terminal window in order to run the command and type y for each one of them, as needed.
Thanks.