Ever tried to empty the trash on your Mac, only to be told that “Operation can’t be completed because the item [file name] is in use.” Sometimes it is in use, and you must halt the process that’s using the file or let it finish before taking out the garbage.
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However, I’ve found that there are times when an item WASN’T in use, but macOS thought it was. In this case:
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Double-click on your Mac’s Trash bin in the app dock.
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Choose the item you want to delete.
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Right-click on the item.
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Select Delete Immediately from the dropdown menu.
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Click Delete to confirm that you want to delete the item. Note: you can’t undo this action.
Voila! Now you can empty the trash.
(This how-to is based on my experiences and info on Apple’s support pages — where the images sometimes come from.)