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I'm not authoritative about Terminal, but I don't see how this command can do anything you don't like.

The "chown" command simply changes the ownership of the targeted file, so it will either restore your lost ownership or just be a redundant affirmation of your existing ownership.

It shouldn't enable you to do anything more than what you were originally able to do.

Please do it again, and post a command-C copy of what's on your screen.

OK, not quite understanding. I did post a Command-C copy. I just put in the word user name instead of my name. Here you go again only the whole thing.

Last login: Sat Feb 26 20:32:34 on ttys000
username@MacBook-Pro ~ % sudo chown username ~/.Trash
Password:
chown: /Users/username/.Trash: Operation not permitted
username@MacBook-Pro ~ %

CHOWN(8) BSD System Manager’s Manual CHOWN(8)

NAME

chown — change file owner and group

SYNOPSIS

chown [−fhnvx] [
−R [−H | −L | −P] ] owner[:group] file ...
chown [−fhnvx] [ −R [−H | −L | −P] ] :group file …

DESCRIPTION

The chown utility changes the user ID and/or the group ID of the specified files. Symbolic links named by arguments are silently left unchanged unless −h is used.
The options are as follows:

−H

If the −R option is specified, symbolic links on the command line are followed and hence unaffected by the command. (Symbolic links encountered during traversal are not followed.)

−L

If the −R option is specified, all symbolic links are followed.

−P

If the −R option is specified, no symbolic links are followed. Instead, the user and/or group ID of the link itself are modified. This is the default. Use −h to change the user ID and/or the group of symbolic links.

−R

Change the user ID and/or the group ID of the file hierarchies rooted in the files, instead of just the files themselves. Beware of unintentionally matching the ‘‘..’’ hard link to the parent directory when using wildcards like ‘‘.*’’.

−f

Do not report any failure to change file owner or group, nor modify the exit status to reflect such failures.

−h

If the file is a symbolic link, change the user ID and/or the group ID of the link itself.

−n

Interpret user ID and group ID as numeric, avoiding name lookups.

−v

Cause chown to be verbose, showing files as the owner is modified. If the −v flag is specified more than once, chown will print the filename, followed by the old and new numeric user/group ID.

−x

File system mount points are not traversed

The −H, −L and −P options are ignored unless the −R option is specified. In addition, these options override each other and the command’s actions are determined by the last one specified.

The owner and group operands are both optional, however, one must be specified. If the group operand is specified, it must be preceded by a colon (‘‘:’’) character.

The owner may be either a numeric user ID or a user name. If a user name is also a numeric user ID, the operand is used as a user name. The group may be either a numeric group ID or a group name. If a group name is also a numeric group ID, the operand is used as a group name.
\
The ownership of a file may only be altered by a super-user for obvious security reasons. Similarly, only a member of a group can change a file’s group ID to that group.

If chown receives a SIGINFO signal (see the status argument for stty(1)), then the current filename as well as the old and new file owner and group are displayed.

EXIT STATUS

The chown utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

COMPATIBILITY

Previous versions of the chown utility used the dot (‘‘.’’) character to distinguish the group name. This has been changed to be a colon (‘‘:’’) character so that user and group names may contain the dot character.
On previous versions of this system, symbolic links did not have owners.

The −v and −x options are non-standard and their use in scripts is not recommended.

LEGACY DESCRIPTION

In legacy mode, the −R and −RP options do not change the user ID or the group ID of symbolic links.

SEE ALSO

chgrp(1), find(1), chown(2), fts(3), compat(5), symlink(7)

STANDARDS

The chown utility is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (‘‘POSIX.2’’) compliant.

HISTORY

A chown utility appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.
BSD January 7, 2017 BSD

As I have mentioned previously, I avoid command line tools and among the reasons I do that is the d@^* things change (and a wrong character can completely change the effect of a command) and the only clue is the date at the bottom of the man listing. That said I just looked at man chown and found there have been changes. The big difference being the addition of the —x command option and the use of a colon instead of period particularly related to the handling of symbolic links. Taken together with Rita's error message and the fact symbolic links are a huge item in Big Sur and Monterey that jumped out as a possible problem with your command version. The full text of the latest version of man chown follows with the major change highlighted.

<snip>

As I said this is not my area of expertise and I don't know if this is your problem or not but I thought I would pass it along, just in case .

but since the man page you quoted is dated March 31, 1994, and Rita is running Catalina, it looks like your concerns probably aren't relevant to her situation. (Ha! This is the first time in, literally, ages that we've actually needed Hal's, V1's, or ganbustein's UNIX knowledge.)

That said, I think it's worth taking Terminal at face value and running the command it apparently suggested on the (yeah, I know) assumption that it would have compensated for Rita's situation if necessary. The command is a pretty straightforward one that will either run with no serious consequences or fail.

Now I just hope that if it runs it does what I'm expecting it to do.

A wonderful example of why I ask posters to post screenshots rather than try to describe what they're seeing on their screens!

If you didn't post "the whole thing," you didn't post a copy!

In my experience, Terminal never returns an error without including a reason, and if I weren't aware of that and hadn't asked to see it, it's altogether possible that this thread would have died because of your failure to post it.

As I read it, is the correct format for your command, as opposed to the you used. (I've got no idea if it's because the command you used was formatted incorrectly by its poster or because the correct format has changed since it was posted in 2013, but giving it a second look, I see that "username ~" is redundant, because ~ means Users/username.)

The correct command for you to run, then, is, again, as I read Terminal's output, Fingers crossed!

The 2nd command up is the original command you ran.

The bottom one is brand, spanking new.

The 2nd command up is the original command you ran.

The bottom one is brand, spanking new.

Thats the correct command (assuming that your name is l.c.). Huh? Anyway, I entered the code into Terminal and got this:

Last login: Mon Feb 28 19:56:46 on ttys000
username@MacBook-Pro ~ % sudo chown /Users/username/.Trash
Password:
usage: chown [-fhnv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] owner[:group] file ...
chown [-fhnv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] :group file ...
username@MacBook-Pro ~ %

Is this what we wanted?





No, nothing joemike has said has dissuaded me. It's basically irrelevant technical stuff mixed with his reluctance to use Terminal.

Honestly, I wouldn't be as stuck on this as I am if it weren't for my very clearly remembering your problem having come up more than once, many years ago, with the solution being a chown (change ownership) command.

And the fact that Terminal itself supplied the syntax is reassuring.

l.c.. Huh? Anyway, I entered the code into Terminal and got this:

Last login: Mon Feb 28 19:56:46 on ttys000
username@MacBook-Pro ~ % sudo chown /Users/username/.Trash
Password:
usage: chown [-fhnv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] owner[:group] file ...
chown [-fhnv] [-R [-H | -L | -P]] :group file ...
username@MacBook-Pro ~ %

Is this what we wanted?

Well, maybe not.

If your trash isn't working yet, you can try two more commands (with which I came up as a result of poking around in my own installation):

sudo chown /Users/username/.Trashes (es added at the end of .Trash) I don't have much faith in this one.

sudo chown /Users/username/Trash (dot preceding Trash deleted) This one may be the answer.

Yeah, I am casting about here, but not dangerously, because I'm not messing with the essence of the command, just its object.