How to fix
Empty the Recycle Bin after Creators Update if it shows an error “the Recycle Bin has crashed?”
on Windows

I’ve recently upgraded to Windows 10 Creators Update and found my Recycle Bin not working properly. When I right-click on it and select “Empty Recycle Bin,” the screen flickers and the File Explorer gets corrupt. The same happens if I open the Recycle Bin and try to delete a separate file. What could have caused that?

Windows 10 Creators Update triggered many problems. Microsoft Edge, software and Windows service’s unresponsiveness, high CPU usage, and various stop codes are just a few examples. Recently, several people reported the Recycle Bin corruption after the installation of Creators Update and subsequent updates. The problem emerges when trying to empty the Recycle Bin completely or delete some of the files separately. In some of the cases, the emptying process hangs and fails to execute. Other Windows 10 users reported the Recycle Bing for crashing Windows Explorer and prompting an error “the Recycle Bin has crashed.”  

Corrupted Windows Update files can trigger many issues and the corrupted Recycle Bin is not an exception. In this particular case, the update might have affected OneDrive, MacType, Fence, Windows Store, and other apps. Consequently, software incompatibility may have crashed the Recycle Bin. To check that we would recommend you to try the Clean Boot. If Clean Boot did not solve fix the Recycle Bin, we would recommend resetting the Recycle Bin and fix corrupted system files (if there are such). If, after all, deleting the content from the Recycle Bin delivers “the Recycle Bin has crashed” error and the problem is too annoying for you to undergo it, you can always remove Windows Update.

Fix: Cannot Empty the Recycle Bin

Method 1. Try Clean Boot

• Press Windows key + R, type msconfig, and press OK.
• Click Services tab and mark Hide all Microsoft services box.
• Select Disable all.
• Open Startup tab and select Open Task Manager.
• Click on each startup item separately and select Disable.
• Finally, close Task Manager and click OK.
• Restart the system.

When the system reboots, try to empty the Recycle Bin. If the issue was resolved, enable services one by one and check which one is the trigger and then remove/re-install it.

Method 2: Resetting the Recycle Bin

• Right-click on Windows key and select Command Prompt (Admin).
• Type command:rd /s /q [Driver]:\\$Recycle.bin command and press Enter.
• Replace the [Driver] with the system’s driver where the corrupted Recycle Bin is stored.
• Reboot the system.

Method 3: Reinstall the Recycle Bin

• Right-click on Windows key and select Control Panel.
• Open File Explorer Options and click on View tab.
• Uncheck the system protected operating files.
• Open each drive and locate the Recycle.bin folder and permissions with an additional recycle.bin.
• Delete the permissions and recycle.bin folders on each drive.
• Reboot your PC.
• Now right-click on an empty space on the Desktop.
• Select Personalize and open Themes.
• Click Desktop Icon settings under Related Settings.
• Mark Recycle Bin and click Apply to save the changes.

If these steps did not help, we would also recommend running a thorough system scan with [d1], which should fix damaged registry keys, system files or other Windows constituent parts, which may prevent you from deleting files from the Recycle Bin.