By Manny Fernandez

December 31, 2019

Unable to empty Trash in macOS X

The Problem

There is nothing more annoying to me on my macOS or IOS for that matter than to see the red circle showing unread messages or updates available and the Trash being full.  I am constantly emptying the Trash.  Every once in a while, when I try to empty the trash on my MacBook Pro running Catalina, I get an error….

2019-12-31_12-30-54.png
Trying to empty Trash the normal way
2019-12-31_12-31-04
Error Message
"Trash" can't be opened right now because it's being used by another task, such as moving or copying an item or emptying the Trash.  Try again when the current task is complete.

Since I have nothing else really running and especially nothing interacting with the Trash, I was confused.

The Fix

So to fix this problem, we are going to need to go to the top left where the Apple logo is..

2019-12-31_12-38-37.png

And choose Force Quit Finder

2019-12-31_12-31-42.png

Additionally, you can hit the ⌘ ⌥ ⎋ (Command, Option, Escape)

2019-12-31_12-32-06 (1).png

  1. Look for Finder on the list
  2. Click Relaunch

2019-12-31_12-32-19.png

Validate the decision to Relaunch (This should not cause any issues or reboots)

You should now be able to delete all you want.

123-1234514_empty-trash-png.png

Hope this helps.

 

Recent posts

  • At its core, IEEE 802.1X is a network layer... Full Story

  • In case you did not see the previous FortiNAC... Full Story

  • This is our 5th session where we are going... Full Story

  • Now that we have Wireshark installed and somewhat configured,... Full Story

  • The Philosophy of Packet Analysis Troubleshooting isn't about looking... Full Story