Can't delete "com." from the Trash Bin

Hey there!

I noticed a Screen Time agent, do you have Screen Time enabled in System Settings? If so, I may try disabling it, click the Apple menu > Restart > Uncheck the box to reopen windows and try again.

Otherwise, I’d use Terminal to delete them:

First, grant Terminal with full disk access:

Apple > System Settings > Privacy and Security (I believe it is now) > Full Disk Access.

Click the “+” and navigate to Macintosh HD > Users > Your Name > Applications > Utilities and double click Terminal to add it. (You should also Still be able to to drag Terminal into those System Settings to add it I believe).

Next open Terminal in Finder > Applications > Utilities.

Enter this in:

sudo rm -rf

After the “rf” put a space, then open the .Trash select all and drag the contents into the Terminal window.

Next click on the Terminal icon on the dock, or just click inside the Terminal window to put it in the fore front, then press Return/Enter on the keyboard.

If asked for your password, it’s your Mac password, but is invisible so you won’t see the key strokes, but that’s okay, just enter your Mac password and press Return/Enter, and the files should be removed.

If not, I know a few other tricks to do the job, just let me know!

I've got the same problem, but even sudo rm -rf doesn't get the job done. With a normal "empty trash" I get the message that the file is in use, with rm -rf I get no message at all, but the files are still there.

Interested in reading your other tricks!

Try booting into Safe Mode to see if they can be removed from the Trash.

Do you know how and when these items were moved to the Trash? Depending on where these files originated on the system, they may be on the locked read-only system volume. It may be possible to remove them from the Trash while booted into Recovery Mode or macOS USB installer, but that is a much more complex procedure to locate them using the command line than I have time to assist and if a mistake is made, then you may end up with a damaged system and lost data.

Are you running any third party anti-virus apps, cleaning/optimizer apps, or third party security software which may be interfering with the normal operation of macOS?

Before doing anything else, make sure you have a good backup in case something goes wrong so you minimize the risk of data loss.

Hey Tom8788!

Unsure if he original author had their issue fixed, but it sounds like the same problem.

If my original reply didn’t work, I would definitely follow HWTech instructions.

If for whatever reason you still can’t delete the files, my guess is they are protected by the system’s built in security, in which you can’t modify those files. How they got there, who knows.

Anyhow, it you really want to rid of those files without erasing your hard drive of course, (Or using Terminal to attempt to delete them via the file path in recovery mode, if you’re able to, which may still be an option):

I would Boot up to recovery mode, temporarily disable the system security, only long enough to empty the trash, then, boot straight back to recovery mode and turn it back on. You can find more info on that here:

Apple Developer Documentation

Please read that documentation carefully, and always keep a backup of course, as said. Anyhow, I’m my experience, you should be able to delete the stubborn files that way, hope that helps!