Cannot Delete Folders from Finder Trash Only Individual Files in the Folders

[Sossity]

I can only seem to delete individual files from a folder, but not the whole folder once I have deleted all the files in it. As a result, I have removed many individual files, but I am stuck with all the empty folders.

Right now, I am not quite ready to empty the whole trash yet, only files and folders.

 

[Longkeg]

You don’t tell us anything about your setup or OS so take this with a grain of salt:

When files or folders refuse to die there’s usually a good read for it… Where did the folders come from? Did you create them? Were they from an app or the System? Did you get them from a third party?

Do a “Get Info” on the offending folders and check the permissions. Do you, the user, have Read/Write permissions? If not, change permissions. Also a simple computer restart may be all it takes.

If none of that works reply with as much detailed info as you can.

 

[Sossity]

You don’t tell us anything about your setup or OS so take this with a grain of salt:

When files or folders refuse to die there’s usually a good read for it… Where did the folders come from? Did you create them? Were they from an app or the System? Did you get them from a third party?

Do a “Get Info” on the offending folders and check the permissions. Do you, the user, have Read/Write permissions? If not, change permissions. Also a simple computer restart may be all it takes.

If none of that works reply with as much detailed info as you can.

Ok, I am on a cMP, running macOS high sierra 10.13.6. Some of the folders I created, and some are old system plist folders.

I did do a get info on one of the folders, and the permissions are all there, read and write.

 

[MBAir2010]

they could be from a external hard drive.
that happened to me in my High Sierra days!

 

[cqexbesd]

I did do a get info on one of the folders, and the permissions are all there, read and write.

Take this with a giant dose of salt as I don't have a mac here to check, and I'm not sure I fully get what you have done, but removing a file (or folder) is a write action on the parent directory rather than on the file (or directory) itself. Maybe worth checking the permissions of the parent directory.

Of course you could always remove them from the command line with `sudo` to assist if necessary.

 

[Longkeg]

Here’s what I used to do when this happened and nothing else worked. I was working in a school computer lab and had lots of Macs sitting around so it may not be an option for you but… Put the machine with the offending folders in Target Disk mode and connect to another Mac so it shows up as an external drive. Now what happens if you try to delete the folders. If that doesn’t work I’m sorry. I got nothing else.