Ubuntu

locked items in trash can't delete

Asked by giggy777

I was transfering a music cd to my drive. the transfer went well ,but when I went to delete the files (about 2.5 GiGs) It would not let me delete the files It said I did not have permission Please help.r

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Jim Hutchinson
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Matt Walker (matthaeus123) said : 		#1

go into the console and type

sudo nautilus

then navigate through your account's trash and you should be able to delete it.

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Jim Hutchinson (jphutch) said : 		#2

A slightly better option would be

gksudo nautilus

It is recommended to use gksudo for graphical apps and sudo for strictly terminal tasks.

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giggy777 (giggy777-gmail) said : 		#3

thank you the info however when I try gksudo and or sudo it will bring up the the window but when I try to open the trash my systen hangs I can't go any further .what to do? thank you

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Best Jim Hutchinson (jphutch) said : 		#4

If you system hangs when using nautilus then that might indicate bigger issues. That is not normal. However, you may have some odd junk in the trash that is causing problems so try emptying the trash from a terminal. The location of your trash depends on which version. It was moved in Hardy as far as I can tell.

Open a terminal (apps - accessories) and use the following command. Be careful not to mistype.

If you have Hardy (8.04) use

sudo rm -rf .local/share/Trash/*

If you have a previous version I think it's

sudo rm -rf .Trash/*

But I don't a non-hardy system anymore to check.

Be VERY careful using the sudo rm -rf option. If you point that at your home folder you will delete everything there. If you point at a system folder or your root file system you will delete EVERYTHING. I think if you drop the "f" option it will ask you what to do for each item so it might be a bit safer but I've never tried that.

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giggy777 (giggy777-gmail) said : 		#5

thank you jim you solved my problem

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Jim Hutchinson (jphutch) said : 		#6

Glad I could help.

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Craig Seabrooks (cseabrooks) said : 		#7

AWESOME! I was trying for weeks! What caused me to get my trash locked up I believe was a switch in Menus. I deleted the Trash Bin icon and then re-added it on another panel. That is the only explanation I can come up with.

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rebeccacree (rebeccacree) said : 		#8

Oh my goodness, you solved my problem too. Thanks so much.

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Ricci (riccisayer) said : 		#9

For files/folders which display a padlock you need only go into properties ,i.e. right click,and select properties, then left click drop down menu on 'folder access' and change to create and delete files.