Help Emptying Trash

TidBITS Talk
21

Interesting that you propose this “blunderbuss” approach. It is one I am currently considering. Well, a modification of your approach.

This problem was caused by the Test user account, which was created to solve a prior problem. That was the inability of Keynote to access the built-in MBA camera. I realized later that this problem also prevents Zoom from accessing the camera. (I never Zoom from the MBA, always my desktop Mac mini.) That problem was, I am 99% certain, caused by installed an app called Immersed, which creates virtual camera and microphone. That app was never installed on the Mac mini, so it has none of these problems. And now, of course, I have the Trash problem when I tried to delete the Test user account folder.

So, one approach would be:

  1. Backup the MBA with Carbon Copy Cloner, which I do use.
  2. I originally migrated from the Mac mini to this MBA.
  3. So, wipe the MBA as if I were selling it.
  4. Migrate again from the Mac mini. For this, I have Time Machine backups on a SSD. I would connect the SSD to the “virgin out of the box? MBA, and do the migration.
  5. If any local files on the MBA were lost in the wipe that are not on the Mac mini, I can retrieve them from the CCC backup of the MBA (e.g., stuff in the Downloads folder, or perhaps some photo in the Pictures folder).

This will in effect solve THREE problems: both of the original camera issues, and the current Trash issue.

I cannot make a full backup with CCC of the MBA and then use that as the source for migration, because that would migrate the problem. (Which is why you said to uncheck options that might leave remnants of the deleted account.)

I know well how to wipe a computer for giving it away, I do this from time to time with my old computers that I give to my son. I know well how to migrate from the Mac mini to the MBA, as if I were setting up a new MBA using the existing Mac mini.

I’m not in a super-rush to do this. But for now, I’m leaning towards this approach.

A warning: if you ever create a test account for diagnostic purposes, and then want to delete it, let macOS delete the User and the User directory. This is one of the options when you delete the User.

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22

I thought I’d post an after-action report.

I took the nuclear option. First, I tried a simple migration from my Mac mini Time Machine backup, hoping this would wipe out the Trash problem, and whatever driver(s) were causing my camera and microphone odd problems. No such luck, of course. Migration replaced files, but left the culprits in place.

So I did the erase option, creating in effect a new out-of-the box MacBook Air. And then did the same migration from the Mac mini. This worked like a charm. Of course, I still had the post-migration tweaks to make (set up TouchID again, Wallet and credit cards, and other assorted minor issues). But it worked.

And with Time Machine on a Samsung T7 SSD, the entire process – BOTH times! – took less than one hour.

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23

In the event someone else reads this post about not being able to delete a file from Trash. Another option would be to boot into recovery mode, authenticate and open Terminal. That should ensure you have far higher privileges to sudo remove the files.

cd ~/.Trash 
sudo rm -rf *.* .*

If that still doesn’t work you can disable SIP System Integrity Protection, reboot, enter Recovery and try again remember to re-enable SIP and reboot to normal.

Enable / Disable SIP while in Recovery Mode

Remember to reboot after enable / disable and enter Recovery Mode & Terminal to remove stubborn trash items.

csrutil disable
csrutil enable

This is a kinetic Rods From God strike versus the nuclear Erase All Settings and Content.

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