cannot access files in trash previously on external harddrive I have no problem making a list of all files in the trash provided those files were previously on the main harddrive, but when those files were previously on an external harddrive I can't access them with Terminal or Python. At first, I ran into permission errors but I've since changed the permissions.  For example,
ls /users/me/.Trash

will print out what is actually in the trash.  But when I do the following:
ls /volumes/edrive/.Trashes

I just get 503 even though there is a file in there not named 503. For some reason the trash folder is called .Trashes when it's on an external hard-drive.  I'm also trying it with Python which is what I want to use anyway:
import os
os.listdir('/volumes/edrive/.Trashes')

Outputs
['503']
The drive-wide Trash contains the deleted files of all users, with one directory per numerical User ID. Run
ls -l /Volumes/edrive/.Trashes

to see that 503 is a directory, and
ls -l /Volumes/edrive/.Trashes/503

to see its content.
PS: You can see your own user id by running id -u . If it is not 503 you'll need to run sudo ls -l /Volumes/edrive/.Trashes/503 instead.