Windows 10 Recycle Bin will NOT Completely EMPTY

[PatriciaAT]

I have been empting the Window's 10 Recycle Bin now for 3 days to no avail. I know how to "right click" and chose empty. I know how to open the folder and select delete... so far nothing seems to work. When "recycle bin" asks me if I am sure I want to delete everything... I chose yes and again it will show deleting for 20 - 30 minutes or more but everything is STILL IN the Recycle BIn. I have tried almost everything I can think of including going to the CMD Admin Prompt and trying the Delete the Recycle Bin from there and it will not let me completely empty the "Trash". This is a BRAND NEW Laptop from Dell and when putting all my information back on the system I also deleted a TON of items.... this is what will not delete.

 

[Norton]

I know this is not a solution. Run CCleaner and make sure "Empty Recycle Bin" is checked off. It should get rid of your trash.

 

[davehc]

Also, with the recycle bin open, click the "manage" tab, then see if you can empty it from there -it's an item in the top menu

 

[ram1220]

Also keep in mind that sometimes when trying to empty the recycle bin there is a window that pops up underneath your main window that will say something like "This file is too big for the recycle bin. Do you want to permanently delete this file?" You need to select this small window and click yes. Otherwise you will never get the recycle bin to empty.

 

[davehc]

I don't think, in that case, that it would be in the Recycle bin?? Doesn't that pop up only when trying to delete a program/folder, which is too large.?

 

[davehc]

Patricia. Sorry, but it just occurred to me that this problem has come up before. Often, this works:
Settings - Personalisation select "Themes"
Over on the right, select "Desktop icon settings"
Untick the recycle bin and then go to the desktop. Do the process again and reselect the bin.
You may find it necessary to reboot in between the operations.

 

[clifford_cooley]

This may or may not be relevant. Sometimes I get glitches like this when there is problems reading and writing to the HDD. If this is the case there is a problem with the drive. Sadly being new means nothing about the integrity of the drive.

 

[clifford_cooley]

There may be a setting that only deletes files older than the specified time frame. I can't remember where I came across this though.

 

[Wolfie]

See also:

https://www.windows10forums.com/threads/how-to-use-disk-cleanup-on-windows.15876/

 

[ram1220]

I don't think, in that case, that it would be in the Recycle bin?? Doesn't that pop up only when trying to delete a program/folder, which is too large.?

Not only. I have also seen it when trying to delete the Recycle Bin. That's why I mentioned it.

 

[clifford_cooley]

I've always had to rename "Recycle Bin" before I could manually delete it. Once it is renamed it is treated as if it is a standard folder. Then it can be placed in the new Recycle Bin. From there the New Recycle Bin should be able to be emptied without issue.

 

[MKSlinky]

I have been empting the Window's 10 Recycle Bin now for 3 days to no avail. I know how to "right click" and chose empty. I know how to open the folder and select delete... so far nothing seems to work. When "recycle bin" asks me if I am sure I want to delete everything... I chose yes and again it will show deleting for 20 - 30 minutes or more but everything is STILL IN the Recycle BIn. I have tried almost everything I can think of including going to the CMD Admin Prompt and trying the Delete the Recycle Bin from there and it will not let me completely empty the "Trash". This is a BRAND NEW Laptop from Dell and when putting all my information back on the system I also deleted a TON of items.... this is what will not delete.

Have you had any warnings about a corrupt recycle bin? It can happen as I know only too well. I had the same happen in Windows XP and again just last week in Windows 10. Symptoms of a corrupt recycle bin are similar to your issue and are often caused by removing USB flash drives before the system has finished writing to them. I created this help document which although created for Windows XP is still the same for Windows 10. Study the attached image then try deleting the recycle bins for each drive. Once the bins have been created you will need to delete something (anything will do), this action of deleting something will cause Windows to generate a new recycle bin and hopefully solve your problem.

 

[Wolfie]

Also, what version of W10 do you have?:

https://www.windows10forums.com/thr...ws-10-to-the-latest-version.13015/#post-81992