This is a little off topic from my usual posts, but I want to make sure the information is out there because this problem was a MAJOR pain in the ass to solve. In fact, even an senior Apple tech support engineer couldn’t wrap his head around it after an hour of trying things. In the end, the solution turned out to be pretty simple.
THIS WORKS! Just read the stacks of comments below the post!
The Cause
Whilst Time Machine will automatically prune old backups to keep the total backup size within the limit of the drive you’re using, you could find yourself wanting to move the backup to a new larger drive to keep a deeper backup, or perhaps to a new and faster drive. To move a backup you simply disable Time Machine temporarily, and then drag the Backup.backupdb folder to the new drive. Then open Time Machine and set the destination to your new drive. It’ll find all the old backups and just pick up where it left off.
But what are you supposed to do with the OLD Backup.backupdb folder from the old Time Machine drive? Apple’s own support documents don’t mention this, and the plethora of other internet “guides” simply mimic Apples advice verbatim. Useless.
If you drag the old backup to the trash and try and empty it, you’ll likely see (after some time) a warning that says “Some items in the Trash cannot be deleted because of System Integrity Protection“
I have run into this problem a couple of times, and that’s why I’m sharing a solution that finally worked flawlessly. On one occasion I trashed the old backup folder and then formatted the old drive before trying to empty the Trash. The old Time Machine backups would repeatedly appear in my Trash every time I connected the old drive, even though there was nothing on there anymore.
Things That Don’t Work
If you simply google phrases like “stuck time machine backup” or “delete Time Machine backup” then you’re going to find at least ten solutions. The majority of solutions involve you entering the Time Machine app and using the delete command on the backups. Of course, if you’re in the same situation that I was in, the backup you are trying to delete, isn’t your current Time Machine backup so that doesn’t work. Potentially you even temporarily put your TM backup into a sub folder, meaning you can’t even set it as the Time Machine destination.
Essentially, if you’re seeing the “system integrity protection” warning, follow my advice and ignore everything else because I have been there and wasted hours on it.
The Solution
In the end, the solution was remarkably simple, and I’m blown away that the Apple engineer didn’t know about it. Clearly my machine didn’t want to delete seemingly important system files and it has a mode called System Integrity Protection. This is designed as a security feature, to stop malicious programs deleting important operating system files. That’s great, but it should be able to tell the difference between the real ones, and the backups of those same files that are in a Time Machine backup! Sadly it can’t.
Well, it turns out that you can simply turn off SIP (System Integrity Protection) for a few minutes while you empty your trash. Yep, it’s that simple.
Step 1.
Reboot your Mac, and once you hear the sound and see the logo, hit and hold CMD+R on the keyboard to boot your Mac into recovery mode.
Step 2.
Once the recovery menu has appeared, ignore it and go to the “Utilities” option in the menu at the top of the screen, From here, select Terminal to open the Terminal window.
Step 3.
Type: csrutil disable; reboot
Then hit the return key and your Mac will immediately reboot. Contrary to some other guides out there, you will not see a warning message. It’ll simply reboot right away.
Step 4.
Your Mac will boot as normal now, but Integrity Protection is turned off. You can now drag your old Time Machine backups to the trash and hit the Empty button. This will probably take a long time, but it should work now without a problem. If you do have any issue at all, use the “Put Back” command on the files in the trash, by right-clicking on them. Then drill down into the Backup.backupdb folder and trash the date based folder individually, instead of the whole top-level folder. Then empty the trash and you should be good.
Step 5.
Reboot your Mac again and use CMD+R to enter recovery mode and get back to the Terminal.
This time type: csrutil enable; reboot
Hit return, and you’ll be good to go!
Can You Help?
If you found this tip to be helpful, please consider making a small donation to help me keep the blog going. My family and I really appreciate it!
Thank you so much, this worked perfectly! Nothing else worked…
I’m glad it was useful. I spent SO long trying to fix this.
It was great! Thanks ever so much!
No problem!
Million thanks
No problem.
Fantastic solution! I’ve had the same issue and it worked as described. All other recommendations on the web are useless. Thank you very much!
You’re welcome. Glad you got it sorted out.
So I had previously added backup folders and it deleted the contents but left the folders and, after following your instructions, I still get the message: The operation can’t be completed because the item “folders” is in use.
Any idea how to get rid of these? Thanks.
Sorry, I think I didn’t put a space after the semicolon so that occurred to me as I was about to re-enable the protection. It worked. Thanks a million!
You’re very welcome. I’m so glad people are finding this information via Google and actually being able to make use of it. I know it’s well off-topic for my usually writing on my blog but I just wanted to get this out there somehow!
Bloody genius! Thanks!
Haha. You’re welcome, John.
It worked perfectly. Thanks for your efforts in finding this easy fix. Nothing else I tried did.
Glad you got it sorted!
After lots of reading around and conflicting advice, I found your post. Don’t usually comment on things, but just want to say thanks so much for this. I followed your super clear instructions and it worked! Left it overnight, magically deleted by this morning. Remembered to turn the SIP back on. All sorted! Thanks Dan. Just had a little look at your photographs too. Excellent work.
Awesome! Glad it helped out someone else. Thanks for the kind words John.
Dan!!
Thank you for making my life simple. For taking the time & effort to post this in a clear & user-friendly way is giving many thousands of people much relief!!
Thank you for your outstanding work & dedication!
Much Admiration,
Ramona 🙂
ps…I NEVER post comments!! This 1 felt right! Brilliant!
🙂 That’s great! Thank you.
Worked! Your the man
Haha! Thanks.
Can’t believe how simple this was after searching and searching and trying a million solutions. You actually understood the problem instead of just guessing. Thank you!
You’re welcome. I didn’t just understand it, I lived right through it myself so I feel your pain. haha
I cannot THANK YOU ENOUGH! I have spent four years using Onyx on a 2009 MacBook Pro just to delete these back ups from Trash! I could not use ie with an SSD or Fushion drive on Mac Mini! I tried most suggestions I ever read. I am not tech savvy enough to even understand Terminal, however, your instructions were clear and I read all the comments and gave it a try on my old computer! PERFECT! So did it on my Mac Mini with Sierra and it worked perfectly! Wish I could give you a HUG!! Made my DAY after years of struggling with this challenge! Thanks SO MUCH for sharing! Morgine
Aw that’s great to hear! I can’t believe how many people are finding this blog post and sharing their success stories and thanks. I’m so pleased it is helping so many people.
Thanks Dan, I have been trying everything and your solution worked. I am a photographer as well and I was really nervous about my photography directories. I have them backed up but I was dreading going through a reinstall of everything but wondered if it would really get rid of my old backups in the trash….!
Glad it worked for you!
I tried everything and this is the only solution that actually worked! Thanks!
Glad to hear it!
Thank you so much for this article! You helped me solve the problem 🙂
Yay! 🙂
Dan, even tho I scarred up my cortical overlay pretty good before I found you excellent solution, and even tho everyone before me already said exactly what I want to say, I am still grateful the intertubes has people like you on it. Thank you, man!
Thank you so much!! It works!
You are welcome!
Hi! Have tried several solutions found online regarding this problem. This is the only solution that worked and I’m so thankful to you for sharing this. Thanks!
You are welcome Mari! Glad you got it sorted out.
You are a genuine genius!!! Thank you a million, you saved me hours and many GBs!!
Awesome! Thanks.
Thanks Dan for posting this.
This is the only useful solution that I’ve found.
Finally got rid of those files in my “trash”.
It worked!!!
Awesome! Glad you got it sorted!
Thank you for sharing this solution! Nothing else worked and the files were driving me crazy sitting in my external hard drive trash.
No problem! You’re very welcome.
This worked brilliantly!
Thank you so much.
Finally bro… I tried all these other things… “type sudo rf -rm” so many other ways and none of them worked… This was easy and effective… Thank you Thank you Thank you… It bugs me so much to always see Trash in the Bin..
Oh I know that feeling! Glad you got it sorted.
er….how on earth did you figure that out !! thanks…..(( I am a brit in UK but on occasion do go to Canadian Tire in Salamon Arm in BC :o))
thanks
thanks
thanks
my trash finally makes the crunching sounds again !!
Haha. Salmon Arm, BC is a very strange place to go if you don’t live in Canada.
This worked perfectly for removing my trash but I cannot get my computer to go back into recovery mode so I can complete step 5. I am not sure what to do. I have tried to reboot and fully restart about 10 times. Any ideas?
Are you holding down Command key + R key while you reboot?
Thank you!
Dan,
Thanks for publishing this. I was right at putting back the old backup from the trash and then reformatting the hard drive. Possibly that would not have worked either, but now I don’t have to try. Rebooting into recovery mode is painfully slow on my old Mac mini. I’d suggest that the reboot command can be typed after insuring that the csrutils command has executed. Also, with SIP turned off I was able to empty the trash with the old backup file in it. In any case, thanks again.
You’re welcome.
“I’d suggest that the reboot command can be typed after insuring that the csrutils command has executed.”
Just wanted to highlight this, as it’s what worked for me when this procedure didn’t on the first attempt. Many thanks to both Dan and Bob!
Thanks for adding your feedback, Thea!
I rarely comment on anything on the web but this issue, like so many of the other posters has dogged me and many of my friends for a long time. Your generosity and willingness to share are greatly appreciated. And your writing and instructions were impeccable. Thank you, Mr, Wizard!
You’re welcome!
Dude!!!! I can’t believe it! After month and months of Apple’s techs BS…I finally found a solution. You have saved my life! Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!
Haha. No problem. I don’t know why their techs can’t deal with this problem.
You are amazing. Thank you for not only finding a solution, but also giving clear and concise directions on how to do it. Thank you so much for sharing.
No prob!
Like everyone else in this comment thread, this is the only thing that worked and I NEVER leave comments but I had to thank you. I want the last 4 months of my life back. 10+ hours on the phone with apple trying to resolve this stupid issue. Bonus points that you’re a photographer (I am too, so I understand how much of a pain point this probably was for you too). Cheers!
You’re welcome. Apple should send me a Christmas card at this rate 🙂
Thanks Dan, that was the best info I have ever received to fix a problem. Your solution worked like a charm Wish I would have searched out your answer sooner, wasted many hours.
Have a very Merry Christmas. Apple should buy you a new iMac
Glad it worked for you!
great worked fantastic, so easy are the instructions, well done
Glad to hear it!
It’s simple and it works. Thanks!
Stunning Dan. Followed carefully, and it did take a long time to delete all the backups in trash – but it worked! Fantastic, good job. Many thanks.
You’re welcome!
Thank you so much! After a solid week of spending all my time trying to empty my trash, I was at my wits end! You saved me! Absolutely saved me! From going crazy not like saved me from the Abyss or anything. Although I am going to drink an Abyss beer to celebrate! And you’re a photographer too – going to follow all. I just picked up the camera and the paint brushes again and struggle on the daily! Finding you is a lifeline to keep going! Thank you again! Cheers!
Lol. Cheers to your beer!
Dude – this made my day! Much better than other options I’ve seen. Thanks!
I hope you’re not tired of hearing this, but thank you soooo much for this!
Haha. It’s a welcome change to see a post on the internet that has nice comments on it 🙂
This worked. Thank you so much! Been trying for ages to get rid of the stuck backup files!
Worked for me beautifully. Thank you so much!
Very welcome
Dan, you are a super hero and have bailed me out of soul destroying infinite loop. I can sort most things Mac, but this had me stumped for hours. Thank you so much
This worked great. What a relief! Thanks!
🙂 You’re welcome.
I was nervous to go into Terminal and skeptical of all the comments saying this would work – but it did work, totally smoothly, and was the only thing that worked to solve this for me. Thank you!!
Glad you took a chance and trusted it!
Dan Carr, This worked beautifully. I had tried two other solutions (complicated ones) before yours. Mighty beholden to you for this online help. -Terry
You’re welcome Terry.
Hi, how much time did it take for you to delete all the files on the trash? It has been several minutes that is says “36 elements deleting…” and it does not seem to keep finding stuff to erase? Maybe im too worried
It depends how many files you have in there! In some circumstances it has taken hours if it’s deleting a Time Machine backup that is hundreds of GBs.