Trash still appears full after emptying

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I guess my title says it all.

I just right clicked on the recycle bin and selected "Empty recycle bin" and it emptied. But it still appears as though it's full. I right cilcked again and the "Empty recycle bin" is now grayed out.
 

Regedit32

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I cannot say I've seen that issue appear at all in years.

It is something that has occurred in Windows XP and Windows Vista that I am aware of, but to be still occurring now surprises me.


You can reset the Recycle Bin by doing the following:
  • Press your Windows key + S
  • In the Search field type command
  • In the search results right-click on Command Prompt and select run as administrator
  • Click Yes to the UAC prompt
  • Now in the console type or copy & paste the following:
Code:
rd /s /q C:\$Recycle.bin

Press Enter key to execute​
  • Close the console and any other open applications.
  • Restart computer

That ought to get your Trash icon appearing empty as you expect it to be. As to whether the issues arises again at a later stage, only time will tell; but if it does, then repeat above steps.
 
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Left click the recycle bin and select empty works as designed.
I know that in Win 7 if you right click on the recycle bin and select empty for some unknown reason the page that opens when you right click can leave files that seem untouched or refused to be deleted. Just close the page and left click on the recycle bin and it will be empty. Right clicking on an empty bin will show the "empty Recycle Bin Greyed out until it receives more trash.
 
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Have you at any time tried to change the icon?
open settings - Personalisation - Themes-
Scroll down and open "Desktop Icon Settings"

Clear the recycle bin and apply then reinsert and apply.

See if that helps.
The problem can also appear with certain third party anti virus products - Norton is one such.
 
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I had this with one theme, I was told to open regedit & go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/CLSID/{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}/Default Icon (The numbers may not match your setup).
3. In the right hand pane, double click on the (Default) string, and change the entry from this - %USERPROFILE%\Icons\yourtheme.ico to this %USERPROFILE%\Icons\yourtheme.ico,0
NOTE: Instead of yourtheme.ico, you will have your custom icon file name instead.

4. Click OK.

5. Repeat Step 3 for the empty and full string entries as well.
 
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Left click the recycle bin and select empty works as designed.
I know that in Win 7 if you right click on the recycle bin and select empty for some unknown reason the page that opens when you right click can leave files that seem untouched or refused to be deleted. Just close the page and left click on the recycle bin and it will be empty. Right clicking on an empty bin will show the "empty Recycle Bin Greyed out until it receives more trash.

Sorry, but this didn't work.
 
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Have you at any time tried to change the icon?
open settings - Personalisation - Themes-
Scroll down and open "Desktop Icon Settings"

Clear the recycle bin and apply then reinsert and apply.

See if that helps.
The problem can also appear with certain third party anti virus products - Norton is one such.

No, I have not tried to change icon. This worked. Thank you!
 
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I cannot say I've seen that issue appear at all in years.

It is something that has occurred in Windows XP and Windows Vista that I am aware of, but to be still occurring now surprises me.


You can reset the Recycle Bin by doing the following:
  • Press your Windows key + S
  • In the Search field type command
  • In the search results right-click on Command Prompt and select run as administrator
  • Click Yes to the UAC prompt
  • Now in the console type or copy & paste the following:
Code:
rd /s /q C:\$Recycle.bin

Press Enter key to execute​
  • Close the console and any other open applications.
  • Restart computer
That ought to get your Trash icon appearing empty as you expect it to be. As to whether the issues arises again at a later stage, only time will tell; but if it does, then repeat above steps.

This happened again today so I came back here. I tried your solution the first time it happened and it worked (thank you). But I didn't really feel like rebooting so I read the other answers I received and the more simple answer by davehc worked ... this time. I thank everyone who took time to provide me with an option!
 
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I have seen this in Win 10 just the other day. If I have a lot of items in Recycle Bin and I left click it and select empty recycle bin. Sometimes it won't show empty. I just close recycle bin out and open it again and all the items are gone. It empties it on the first try but doesn't always show it empty if there are a lot of items in it. Even still in Windows 10 1703.
 
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I have seen this in Win 10 just the other day. If I have a lot of items in Recycle Bin and I left click it and select empty recycle bin. Sometimes it won't show empty. I just close recycle bin out and open it again and all the items are gone. It empties it on the first try but doesn't always show it empty if there are a lot of items in it. Even still in Windows 10 1703.
Same for me, don't know the cause. It was prevalent on some of the Insider versions before the Creator's Update.
 

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