Trash is Unable to Empty Old Pages Application

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After reinstalling Catalina on my friend’s iMac to solve a different problem, we noticed going through the Applications folder that there were two Pages apps, one new and one very old. We tossed the old one into the Trash but we couldn’t delete it (“could not be deleted…in use”). After confirming that Pages was not open I tried holding down Option while attempting to empty the Trash, restarting, to no avail. I moved Pages out of the Trash and put it back into Applications. At that point the old Pages renamed itself Pages 2 in the Applications folder. I put that into the Trash, but now both the Trash folder and the Applications folder had both Pages and Pages 2 copies. I tried using AppCleaner which did attempt to uninstall the old Pages but didn’t accomplish that task.
We also, via Get Info, changed the Sharing & Permissions to Read & Write, including all the related Package Contents.
One of the side effects of this is that now SuperDuper won’t make copies - here’s the error message:
Super Duper Error Message .png

So, what are we to make of this? How to get it out of the Trash is the desire. I realize Apple doesn’t like its own apps to be deleted sometimes.
 
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After reinstalling Catalina on my friend’s iMac to solve a different problem, we noticed going through the Applications folder that there were two Pages apps, one new and one very old. We tossed the old one into the Trash but we couldn’t delete it (“could not be deleted…in use”). After confirming that Pages was not open I tried holding down Option while attempting to empty the Trash, restarting, to no avail. I moved Pages out of the Trash and put it back into Applications. At that point the old Pages renamed itself Pages 2 in the Applications folder. I put that into the Trash, but now both the Trash folder and the Applications folder had both Pages and Pages 2 copies. I tried using AppCleaner which did attempt to uninstall the old Pages but didn’t accomplish that task.
We also, via Get Info, changed the Sharing & Permissions to Read & Write, including all the related Package Contents.
One of the side effects of this is that now SuperDuper won’t make copies - here’s the error message:
View attachment 4341
So, what are we to make of this? How to get it out of the Trash is the desire. I realize Apple doesn’t like its own apps to be deleted sometimes.
First try restarting in Safe Mode. Restart and hold down the Shift key until you get the login screen. This will take longer than a normal restart, and if you are running a Silicon Mac, the process is different. From a shutdown, press and hold the power button until you see the Options icon on the screen. I haven’t done this enough times but I think you click on options and when the startup drive appears, hold down the Shift key and select it.

Once you’re logged in, try emptying the trash. If this still fails, the next thing I would try, apart from messing around with Terminal, is to run Onyx. Select File -> Force Empty Trash. Make sure you have the version of Onyx specific to the version of macOS running. If you already ran AppCleaner, the files associated with the version of Pages you are trying to delete should have been sent to the trash as well. Hope this helps.
 
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Hello Tony,
Sorry it took so long to respond as I haven't been to my friend's place in a while. I tried Safe mode which didn't work. I also tried out three different Terminal commands to no avail. I then tested Onyx on a similar iMac (Mojave) of mine and tried to Force Empty Trash but that did not empty the trash (I made sure I had downloaded the correct version of Onyx). So I went to my MBP and tried Onyx there and Onyx did not empty that trash either.
 
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Hello Tony,
Sorry it took so long to respond as I haven't been to my friend's place in a while. I tried Safe mode which didn't work. I also tried out three different Terminal commands to no avail. I then tested Onyx on a similar iMac (Mojave) of mine and tried to Force Empty Trash but that did not empty the trash (I made sure I had downloaded the correct version of Onyx). So I went to my MBP and tried Onyx there and Onyx did not empty that trash either.
I would try AppCleaner again, but this time in Safe Mode. In fact, I would run it on both versions of the Pages.app. You can always reinstall it from the App Store. Doing it in Safe Mode makes sure that there are no extensions running. Once AppCleaner has collected all the requisite files, go ahead and send the files to the trash—for both versions of Pages. Afterwards try emptying the trash, either with Finder or if it still refuses to empty, try Onyx again.

Another thing to try, if all else fails, is to perform the steps as the Root user, but I would not recommend this lightly.
 
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OK, I will attempt to get over there and will report back. Thank you. BTW, do you know why Onyx won't work on my Mojave computers?
 
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OK, I will attempt to get over there and will report back. Thank you. BTW, do you know why Onyx won't work on my Mojave computers?
Onyx has different versions for each version of macOS. You have to download the one specific to the system you’re running. You need version 3.6.8 for Mojave, if I remember correctly.

You can find what you need here:

 
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We started up the iMac in Safe Mode and tried AppCleaner again, which did not work.
Originally the iMac was on Catalina. We got an SSD external drive and have been using that as the Startup Disk, with Catalina. I then reformatted the iMac with Mojave since the machine is old and runs better on Mojave even though it may only get used to back up some stuff. But even after reformatting and installing Mojave, that old 2009 Pages app is still in the Trash.
 
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We started up the iMac in Safe Mode and tried AppCleaner again, which did not work.
Originally the iMac was on Catalina. We got an SSD external drive and have been using that as the Startup Disk, with Catalina. I then reformatted the iMac with Mojave since the machine is old and runs better on Mojave even though it may only get used to back up some stuff. But even after reformatting and installing Mojave, that old 2009 Pages app is still in the Trash.
It could have something to do with your user settings. Try creating a new user with admin privileges. Reboot and log in from the new user and see if anything changes.
 
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Hi, I'm back again. I created a new user setting and rebooted from that and the Trash is now empty. I went back to the original user and the Trash still has the dead Pages in it. Then, I clicked on the dead Pages to Show Package Contents which revealed Contents_Resources_Templates_Flyers_Yard Sale Flyer PL.template. A search for Yard Sale Flyer PL didn't point to anything. I've tried to empty the Trash with the Package Contents open and got the same Pages is in use, except for one time when the message changed to "German.Iproj" was "in use." That only happened one time and it hasn't popped up on subsequent Empty Trash commands.
 

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