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My Mac Won’t Empty the Trash
If you are a Mac user then I know you have experienced this. You’ve been deleting files and your Trash Can is showing that there are items in it. You try to empty the trash and all of a sudden an error window appears. It probably looks something like this.
What in the world is error code 8003? You’ve probably tried both buttons only to get the same result. The trash can remains full. You might have even gone as far as to restart your computer and try again. Sometimes this may actually work, a lot of times it doesn’t. At this point, you’re probably pretty frustrated and wondering why your computer won’t allow you to complete a simple task like emptying your trash can. The simple reason in layman’s terms is that there is a file or multiple files in the trash bin that have been locked. The cause for this could be various reasons which you may not even care about. The important thing is that there are several ways to fix it and while I will list these ways, I will be focusing on the easiest way. Because that is what you are probably looking for, no muss no fuss.
Forcing the Trash to Empty
Double click on the trash can so that it opens up in Finder and you can see the contents.
Hold the “Option” key while clicking on “Empty Trash”, which is found in the Finder menu bar.
If that doesn’t work, try “Secure Empty Trash”
From the Terminal
Open up a terminal window. You can do this by navigating to Applications->Utilities and then clicking on the Terminal icon.
Type the following (without the quotes) in the terminal window. “sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/”
Press Enter
After running this command you may experience your Trash Bin trying to permanently delete files. If this is the case you can try the following.
First, try rebooting your computer. This will usually solve the issue.
If that doesn’t work then simply run “sudo mkdir ~/.Trash” to resolve it. The reason this is happening is that the .Trash folder isn’t getting re-created for some reason. Normally it gets created automatically.
The two methods described above are simple ways to try and and resolve this issue. Sometimes they do not work though. There is a third party application called “Trash It” that will enable you to empty your trash with only a couple mouse clicks. It is a small free utility and definitely worth grabbing if you do not already have it. I definitely recommend it.
Trash It
You can download Trash It from the here
Once you have downloaded it, go ahead and install it and run it.
When Trash It runs, you will see this window
Simply type your administrative password and click “OK”. That’s it. It’s just that simple.
The application will take care of the rest. Now you may notice that there is an option for a secure delete. This option is completely up to you. If the documents in your trash can contain sensitive information then you may want to use this option, otherwise the default selection of “Just Delete” will do just fine.
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This worked for me: sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/ THANKS!
Awesome! You’re welcome!!
Terminal Command worked for me too thank you!
trashit worked. THANKS!!!
You’re Welcome!!!
Thank you for taking the time to clearly explain this sort of problems with mac OS. Empty the trash with option key work for me.
You’re welcome Oscar. Glad you were able to get your trash emptied!
This worked for me as well “sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/”. Thank you very much for this.
No problem! Glad I could help!
Thanks a bunch Jay!!! The first option worked for me. You’re my HeRo!!!!!
You’re welcome Carol!
🙁 none of the above worked for me 🙁 i even started the PC in safe mode and tried emptying the trash like that. nothing worked…help
THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!
You’re welcome Pablo!!!! Glad I could help!
Trash it worked! Thank you so much!!!
Hello! Thanks for sharing the “sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/” trick! It worked great! The only problem is that I only wanted the “Empty Trash” function to work. Now, however, whenever I throw anything into the Trash it deletes it permanently. How can I restore the Trash function to be back to normal? Please let me know. It’s important because I do a lot of media management on my Mac and it could be very dangerous alteration to my Trash bin settings. Thank you and looking forward to some help!
Thanks! That problem was driving me nuts!
I tried most everything and nothing worked. Then I simply unhooked the backup hard drive and it worked easily.
Aha! Yeah, sometimes external devices can hold on to files and lock them.
Glad you figured it out!
i tried all of the above, nothing is working….
Hey Linda,
Try disconnecting any removable devices such as external hard drives, USB thumb drives, etc and try again.
You can also try rebooting your computer and trying again.
Thanks. Typing
sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/
in Terminal cleared out the trash.
🙂
The sudo command did the job OK, but when I throw stuff into the Trash, now it asks if I want to delete the item irrevokably or Cancel.Trash used to just accept the item and store it until I emptied trash from the Finder. How do I fix this to return Trash to its normal behaviour?
John
Hey John,
You can simply run this command line and it should resolve your issue. If not, contact me again and I’ll help you troubleshoot.
Sudo mkdir ~/.Trash
What happens if you get the same error code if you are trying to copy and paste files from one directory or hard disc to another or to an external drive?
“The operation can’t be completed because an expected error occurred (error code -8003).
Hey Kip,
If you are getting this error during a file transfer, one cause can be disk format. What format are your disks? Source and Destination? Is there a FAT32 drive in there somewhere?
Also, what version of OSX are you using?
Does it happen with all files to that particular disk, or just certain ones? If it is file specific I would look at those files and find out what is unique about them.
Let me know how it goes.
Hello I’m having the same problem. I tried all your solutions and those found online but nothing. Still the same error. Yes the time machine hard drive is FAT32 and I’m running 10.6OS. The files that are not deleting are the backup files. Plssss Help! I don’t want to delete my other files but I need to free up all the space those backup files are taking ;(
Hey Andy,
You say that they are backup files? And that you are using Time Machine? You may need to shut down the Time Machine service temporarily. It’s possible that it’s the culprit that’s holding on to those files.
I’ll look into it some more. Let me know how it goes.
I got cold feet about using the sudo mkdir ~/.Trash fix, then kept reading and followed the advice to disconnect the external drive. MY TRASH IS EMPTY. That was easy and felt safe.
Awesome Maureen! I’m glad one of the solutions worked for you!
After getting the “start-up disk is getting full” I got the dreaded 8003 error. Google search found Trashit first but it was for Mavericks. Still running 10.6.8 and “sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/” did the trick. Thanks so much for taking the time to clearly lay this out step by step.
You’re welcome Larry! Glad you found the article useful!!
Whenn I type in sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/ it asks me for a password but doesn’t let me type on in. Also Where is the option for secure empty trash? I can only see empty. Please help.
Hi Carola,
When you type your password in, the characters or placeholders are not shown. So go a little slower to make sure you haven’t mistyped, and then press Enter. It will go. The Secure Empty Trash is in the Finder menu. Or you can hold the “Option” key while selecting Empty Trash.
Let me know if that helps.
Same here so I followed you advise and typed slowly for the password. The cursor moved down to the next line and that’s it. sounds like my HD is clicking every now and then but nothing is happening on the screen. should I just let it ride?
Hey Rob,
It sounds like it’s doing what’ it’s supposed to. Does the trash empty?
Worked so easy for me right away……many thanks
I can’t get any of things you mention to work. Sometimes after I have typed in sudo.. it will not allow me to type in password. Other times it does not ask for a password and nothinghappens after I type the code in.Also do you type in the spaces in the code? I tired it both ways. I do not know how to disconnect time machine if that is the problem.
gosh I would be so happy if I could figure this out. Thanks so much in advance for the help. Mary
I’m running 10.6.8 and have downloaded TrashIt!… but it crashes every time I try to open it. I dragged it to my desktop, as directed to. I even downloaded it from two different browsers. Help!
Hey Nathan,
Sorry to hear that, but thanks for bringing that to my attention! I just ran a test on Snow Leopard VM and ran into the same problem. It looks like they have updated the app since I wrote this tutorial. I’ll have to figure out what’s wrong with this new version. Anyway, the good news is that you can still download the old version and it still works just fine. Here is the link: http://nonamescriptware.com/trash-it-5_2-now-available/
When you get there just click on the “Trash It 5.2” hyperlink on the page. You should be up and running in no time! Let me know if you still have trouble with it.
Jay,
Still not working.
I have a MacBook Pro with OS 10.6. When I disconnect my G-DRIVE mini the Trash is OK. If my G-DRIVE is connected, Trash includes additional content (Time Machine backups). When I select Empty Trash, I get error code 8003. Is there a way to “fix” the problem on the external drive?
Hi Don,
Have you tried using some of the methods listed here while the G-Drive is plugged in?
Hi Jay,
Tried it both ways. No luck
Went through remedies in order, disconnected external devices – and nothing worked (TrashIt repeatedly crashed!) – BUT
returned to Finder’s “Secure Empty Trash” option which I’d previously assumed was permanently hanging and just waited.
Very slowly, the number of deleted item(s) diminished – pretty soon it sped up… within about half an hour, all gone!
Hi Steve,
Yeah, there have been reports of Trashit crashing lately. I hope it hasn’t been broken, because it’s a really good utility. I need to investigate and update the tutorial if necessary.
But, that is awesome you were able to resolve your issue!! Nice!
I have more of a question. My little black Comcast remote would give me a list from a guide. Now it has disappeared and I never did this before so please be patient with a girl that misses that feature. And tell me how to get it back if you can.
Thank you!! sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/ worked
Thanks, I am not sure which option worked, as I tried them all, but only when I disconnected the expansion drives I realised the trash from the MAC was emptied.
The trash in the expansion drives is still there though. What would be the best way to now solve this now please? All the other options don’t work. Thanks a million for your help!!
Thanks. I disconnected my external drive and used option 1 – worked immediately.
Hey man thanks the sudo command did it great but, i got the same problem as John H. I tried the revert part typing Sudo mkdir ~/.Trash , but it only says the file does exist, so what can i do now? need help please!!
Unfortunately none of these options worked for me. I’m still trying! I downloaded Trash it and it doesn’t work on my Mac. I have OS X 10.6.8
Any Ideas?
Another funny thing happens: when I delete a file, it goes into the trash bin. But when I try to trash it, it returns to the original folder! Strange!
Thanks so much! Trash It worked great. You have a great way of explaining this to a neophyte like me.