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Deleting From Time Machine Backup - Empty Time Machine Trash [MERGED]

Hello!
I have the same problem, read all the thread and installed Maintenance but it's not working.
When I turn on my mac the thrash looks empty (I guess that's my Mac's trash) then if I go into time machine/data/macbook air ebundle file Time machine backups appears under device (it's ejectable) and the trash icon fills so I guess this is my time machine backup trash with all the backups I moved to be deleted.
If I eject Time machine backups the trash icon becomes empty again.
When I try running maintenance to empty the time machine trash I keep getting messages like "The operation can't be completed because the item Library is in use", and many others (Item system in use, item folder, item libexec, share).
Any idea?
Thanks!!!
 
Closehauled said:
Hello!
I have the same problem, read all the thread and installed Maintenance but it's not working.
When I turn on my mac the thrash looks empty (I guess that's my Mac's trash) then if I go into time machine/data/macbook air ebundle file Time machine backups appears under device (it's ejectable) and the trash icon fills so I guess this is my time machine backup trash with all the backups I moved to be deleted.
If I eject Time machine backups the trash icon becomes empty again.
When I try running maintenance to empty the time machine trash I keep getting messages like "The operation can't be completed because the item Library is in use", and many others (Item system in use, item folder, item libexec, share).
Any idea?
Thanks!!!
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1511885066][/doublepost]Hi Closehauled, I give up. Don't want to install maintenance. Will buy another 2 TB hard drive and backup the files on the one with the locked time machine file and reformat it. That should get rid of it, I hope. I never liked time machine and for years have backed up all the data files manually.
 
I have an iMac with Os 10.13.4 installed. I use Time Machine to create backups on a Seagate external drive. I tried to Manually trash some of my older backups and now can not get rid of them I have tried the sudo prices using Terminal app but It is not working for me.

My iMac drive name is “Macintosh HD” without the quotes. The name of the backup drive is “Seagate External without the quotes.

Can someone please give me the actual commands I need to use in Terminal to delete the trashed backups?
 
In my experience Time Machine works best when left to do what it does. Accept the cost of having a disk (or multiple ones) dedicated to backup storage only and don't mess with its contents if your backups are important to you. Time Machine will fill the disk and delete the oldest backups at its leisure.

If you necessarily wish to meddle: http://osxdaily.com/2015/07/27/delete-old-backups-time-machine-mac/
Note that what you explicitly state you want to do is to lose data. Take precautions to ensure you only lose data you don't want.
 
Thank you Mikael.

I also found another way (from the Imore site at https://www.imore.com/how-force-empty-trash-your-mac-using-terminal) that worked even more easely:
"Find and launch Terminal on your Mac.
Enter the following command into terminal without hitting Enter afterward.
sudo rm -R
Please note that there is a space after R. Make sure you add a space after R or this command will not work.
Control-click on your Trash icon to open it.
Select all of the files in your trash folder.
Drag the files into the Terminal window."
 
This works like a charm:

In the Terminal type or copy and paste

sudo rm -R

add a space after the R. Drag one of the locked folders that are in the Trash into the Terminal, hit return. Enter your password, hit return.
Click to expand...

I had to do this for probably 50 "backup" folders I moved to the trash. As long as terminal stays open you only have to enter you password one time. Then just keep typing sudo rm -r and drag the file from the trash to terminal and hit enter

Taken from : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7568463
 
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