rehillar

Q: How to empty that trash that won't empty!

It was not possible to securely empty my trash. I have been trying for day and tired it all i am sure...  but no way! my trash won't empty... I even used the terminal / sudo commands but couldn't type my password! it was not type-able! So i did the last option I had left... I downloaded Trashit! from Cnet and it did work! my trash is now finally empty!


"Now" my QUESTION is: "was it a safe secure solution to empty my trash with the free software Trashit ? was it a wise action and is my trash securely emptied? I hope I get some answer because so far this community has almost no solutions that I found so far  

Mac mini (Late 2014), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Mar 6, 2016 11:23 PM

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Q: How to empty that trash that won't empty!

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  • by Lawrence Finch,Solvedanswer

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Mar 7, 2016 7:46 AM in response to rehillar
    Level 8 (38,076 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 7, 2016 7:46 AM in response to rehillar

    rehillar wrote:

     

    It was not possible to securely empty my trash. I have been trying for day and tired it all i am sure...  but no way! my trash won't empty... I even used the terminal / sudo commands but couldn't type my password! it was not type-able! So i did the last option I had left... I downloaded Trashit! from Cnet and it did work! my trash is now finally empty!


    "Now" my QUESTION is: "was it a safe secure solution to empty my trash with the free software Trashit ? was it a wise action and is my trash securely emptied? I hope I get some answer because so far this community has almost no solutions that I found so far 

     

    I can't answer that, but the reason Apple removed the ability to securely empty trash is that it doesn't work with modern disk drives and SSDs; there is no way to guarantee that you are overwriting anything as data locations are dynamically moved around. As there is no way to securely empty trash Apple decided not to lull you into a sense of false security.

  • by Allan Jones,

    Allan Jones Allan Jones Mar 7, 2016 8:59 AM in response to rehillar
    Level 8 (35,181 points)
    iPad
    Mar 7, 2016 8:59 AM in response to rehillar
    .. I downloaded Trashit! from Cnet...

     

    Anything on CNET is suspect and may contaqin adware or malware. Please see this article by one of our most helpful contributors here:

     

    http://www.thesafemac.com/boycott-cnets-download-com/

     

    You likely now have undesirable files on your computer after downloading that utility.

     

    ONLY get files rom the developers' sites, NEVER from a download hosting site.

  • by K Shaffer,

    K Shaffer K Shaffer Mar 7, 2016 2:15 PM in response to rehillar
    Level 6 (14,424 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 7, 2016 2:15 PM in response to rehillar

    You could check and look for any untoward files you may have imported along

    with some questionable copy (with re-worked contents added, like vitamins?)

    by using Etrecheck; or by more manual methods such as those suggested in

    Apple support articles, on how to use the Go-to-Folder & hunt inside the OS X.

     

    Back to the first question, since the Secure Empty Trash feature is removed from

    OS X 10.11 El Capitan (and if your computer is still using Yosemite, it'd be there)

     

    You could use a suggestion from this article to muck around in OS X Command-Line.

     

    • "How to Securely Empty Trash in OS X El Capitan" - mac security blog - intego.com:

    https://www.intego.com/mac-security-blog/how-to-securely-empty-trash-in-os-x-el- capitan/

     

    However I'd not use the command-line. Easier to just Empty Trash.

    Also, I don't use secure erase; not since it can waste  hours of time.

     

    Good luck & happy computing!

     

    PS: another angle on the trash issue:

    • You can't empty the Trash or move a file to the Trash - Apple Support

  • by rehillar,

    rehillar rehillar Mar 7, 2016 10:56 PM in response to rehillar
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 7, 2016 10:56 PM in response to rehillar

    Thnaks!

  • by rehillar,

    rehillar rehillar Mar 7, 2016 11:06 PM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 7, 2016 11:06 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

    Thanks for taking the time to reply   i can still securely empty my trash after i emptied it with trashit  

  • by rehillar,

    rehillar rehillar Mar 7, 2016 11:41 PM in response to Allan Jones
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 7, 2016 11:41 PM in response to Allan Jones

    Thank you so much!!! that is what I call a solution reply!!! ... unfortunately it is too late... something happened suddenly to my display (system preferences/display). I am using a very big TV as a display and my overscan was off and it was working just fine. I could see the menu bar and the letters were big enough for me. Now my screen got too big and I cannot see the apple menu bar anymore so I had to move the cursor on the overscan (display in system preferences) to the middle to see the apple menu bar BUT the text got too small.... My new question is: if I trash "Trashit" delete it can the malware or problem disappear? Please note that I am a very beginner in computers   

  • by rehillar,

    rehillar rehillar Mar 7, 2016 11:47 PM in response to K Shaffer
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 7, 2016 11:47 PM in response to K Shaffer

    Thank you! I changed my mind about this community I think it is a great place I got so many replies... I will check out all suggestions and thanks again!

  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Mar 8, 2016 2:53 AM in response to rehillar
    Level 8 (38,076 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 8, 2016 2:53 AM in response to rehillar

    rehillar wrote:

     

    Thanks for taking the time to reply   i can still securely empty my trash after i emptied it with trashit 

    Except that the space occupied by the deleted files is not really securely erased if your computer has solid state storage. Data can still be recovered from it.

  • by rehillar,

    rehillar rehillar Mar 8, 2016 6:39 AM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 8, 2016 6:39 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

    Thank you for your reply! I don't know much about computer & softwares but I feel "very strongly" about security & privacy and as I am an obsessive compulsive cleaner I have the same cleaning obsession with my Mac OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 so... I would be so grateful if you could kindly recommend a software that cleans-up all unwanted files and duplicates and any file that shouldn't be in there and which is that is approved by Apple?  

  • by Lawrence Finch,Helpful

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Mar 8, 2016 8:14 AM in response to rehillar
    Level 8 (38,076 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 8, 2016 8:14 AM in response to rehillar

    There is simply no way to do it, except to completely wipe and overwrite your drive with null data using the Disk First Aid utility, then reinstall the operating system, then restore a backup of only valid files. And repeat this every time you want to securely erase deleted files. The alternative is to encrypt your entire drive so it can only be accessed with a password that you create. However, if you ever forget the password your content is lost forever.

     

    If you want to encrypt your drive go to the  Menu, Security and Privacy, and click on File Vault to begin the setup process. Alternatively, there are 3rd party disk encryption products.

  • by rehillar,

    rehillar rehillar Mar 8, 2016 8:17 AM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 8, 2016 8:17 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

    Thank you   very clear and well explained