Mac OSX (Snow Leopard) Trash Permissions Issue

“This item will be deleted immediately”

by: Tony Krol 4 months, 3 weeks, 4 days, 17 hours, 28 minutes ago in: mac osx, troubleshooting

Thanks to Nate Cinal (Core Training and Consulting), we were recently able to help one of our clients with a trash deleting issue in Mac OSX Snow Leopard.

The Issue

When deleting an item from the desktop, or any user folder, (either by dragging the item to the trash in the dock, or via the key command ⌘ + delete) the Finder would proclaim “Are you sure you want to delete (the file name here)”  “This item will be deleted immediately, you can’t undo this action.”

So the Finder was basically treating all files as “network files,” and a simple permissions issue was the culprit. We aren’t sure how the permissions became corrupt, so I can’t give any advice on how to avoid the issue, but there is a simple fix. 

1. Log into Terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal)
2. Type (make sure you don’t mistype while using “sudo”):

   sudo chown $UID ~/.Trash

3. You will then have to type in your password (the cursor will not move while you enter a password in Terminal). Make sure you type it correctly and hit return.
4. Type:

   chmod u+rwx ~/.Trash

5. Quit Terminal
6. Make a new folder on the desktop, (⌘ + shift + N) send it to the trash (⌘ + delete). See if everything is normal.

That’s it. Should be all fixed up.

A password caveat.

If you don’t have a login password on your user account, you must go into System Preferences and create one before you can use the sudo command in Terminal. If you would like, after you are done with Terminal, you can change your login password back to “nothing” (although I’d recommend leaving a login password on your user account).

*the use of the word “caveat” is accredited to Jared Fager, you must pay him a dollar if you use it.