Written by
Connie Yang
Summary: Is your Mac emptying Trash slow? We'll help you find reasons why your Mac empty Trash takes so long or forever, and more importantly, tell you how to empty the Trash faster on your Mac. To avoid encountering Mac Trash emptying issues, use iBoysoft MagicMenu to right-click to directly delete files from your Mac.
Usually, Mac emptying Trash is hassle-free and completes quickly. However, Mac emptying Trash is slow suddenly. Even for small files, it seems like taking forever to empty the Trash bin.
Here are the detailed situations most of us may face.
- Mac is stuck on the deleting progress bar.
- Mac Trash doesn't show any progress and doesn't go away after a couple of minutes for a file.
- The trash bin is emptied after "stopping" the emptying process.
- Emptying the Trash is stuck with a "Deleting" message and active progress bar, taking forever and not closing.
- The Empty Trash button is greyed out on Mac.
Regardless of the case you are in, we can help you fix it. Please keep reading to get the details of the solutions.
Why does emptying Trash take so long on a Mac?
It's a warning for you when Mac takes so long to empty the Trash. There are multiple reasons why your Mac empties the Trash slowly, including:
- The size of the files is large
- Temporary errors happen to the Trash
- You lack permissions to the files you're going to empty
- The files are locked
- macOS bugs
- Interference from other programs
- The Mac startup disk is full
After learning the causes, let's navigate to the fixes below.
Go to tell others why they run into such a problem.
Mac empty Trash is slow or takes forever, how to make it faster?
Whether Mac emptying Trash is slow or gets stuck, we have ways. Follow our tricks to empty the Trash faster on your Mac.
Wait it out
If you try to empty the Trash containing numerous large files, the process takes a relatively long time. That is normal rather than your Mac being stuck emptying Trash. Just wait a little longer.
If the process bar doesn't move on, try the next way.
Cancel the deleting process and try again
Unfortunately, the Mac stuck on emptying Trash. The "Deleting" message and an active progress bar take forever and don't close.
In that case, force quit the emptying Trash process on the Mac and try again.
- Click the close button (x) to cancel the emptying process.
- Click the Apple menu > Force Quit, select Finder, and then click Relaunch.
- Re-open the Trash, and then click the Empty button or right-click to select Empty Trash.
After that, check if the progress bar shows "Stop emptying the Trash." If it is, it indicates the emptying Trash process really begins.
Check the permissions and lock state of the files
The slow or stuck Trash removal may result from the locked or read-only files. Although a warning always pops up when you move them to the Trash, glitches may happen when emptying these types of files from the Trash.
Thus, if one or more files are locked within your Trash, try to unlock them first. And the read-only files in the Trash should be granted read-write permission before emptying them.
Change a way to empty the Trash
When Mac emptying Trash takes forever or the Empty Trash button is greyed out, it shows that the Empty Trash feature may have some glitches. You can switch to another way to empty the Trash.
- Open the Trash on the Dock.
- Select all files in the Trash and right-click on them.
- Choose Delete Immediately.
For later deletion, you're suggested bypassing the Trash to delete the files directly. iBoysoft MagicMenu is a well-designed right-click enhancer with multiple functions, delete directly is one of them. This tool allows you to right-click to permanently delete files on your Mac without putting them in the Trash.
Simply download, install, and open this software on your Mac, click Extension > the download button next to Delete Directly to add it to your right-click menu, and right-click the file you want to delete to permanently remove it from your Mac.
Share this handy tool to help others avoid encountering the macOS empty trash slow issue.
Quit background processes
Perhaps, some background processes are using the files you are going to empty, making Mac won't empty the Trash or the empty Trash process takes forever.
You can go to Activity Monitor (Launchpad > Other) and quit all the running programs. Then, empty the Trash again to see if the task can be quickly finished this time.
Empty Trash on Mac with Terminal
macOS can force empty Trash with Terminal. If Mac emptying Trash is slow, use Terminal to speed up it.
- Open Terminal from Launchpad > Other.
- Enter the command below and press Space.
- This command line is used to force delete files on Mac. Remember do not press Return at this time, or else, files in other locations may be permanently deleted. sudo rm -R
- Open Trash and drag the items you want to empty into the Terminal window.
- Press Return and enter your admin password if asked.
- Press Return to start force emptying the Trash on your Mac.
Enable automatic Trash emptying settings
Did you enable automatic Trash emptying on your Mac before? If not, go to turn it on. This function helps you automatically delete items from the Trash after being put there over 30 days.
With it, the Trash won't be accumulated with so many items, and on the other hand, it facilitates the emptying Trash process.
- Open Finder, click Finder on the menu bar, and select Settings.
- Click Advanced on the Finder Settings window.
- Check the box next to "Remove items from the Trash after 30 days."
Optimize your Mac
Sometimes, the Mac Trash won't empty because the disk is almost full. The insufficient disk space degrades device performance, making the Mac take so long to empty Trash.
So, how to speed up emptying Trash on Mac? Here are a few tips:
1. Bypass the Trash to directly delete useless files from your Mac. You can use iBoysoft MagicMenu to right-click to directly delete unwanted files from your Mac. You can also use the Uninstall feature of this app to directly uninstall applications you no longer need with all associated file removal.
2. Restart your Mac. Restarting your Mac can temporarily boost the performance, and then you can utilize the short moment to empty the Trash quickly and also get more available space.
3. Move files to an external drive. Connect an external hard drive to your Mac and move large files like videos and audio to it. Then, your Mac will have much more free space, and consequently, the performance is upgraded and Mac emptying Trash will become faster.
Update Mac
If Mac empty Trash is slow even with the small files, it probably results from the macOS bugs. Go to check if there's a minor update available. If there is, update your Mac.
If you think the ways in this post are workable, share them to help more people fix the issue - Mac emptying Trash takes forever.
