Deleting individual items from Trash

Bruce Etnyre wrote:
Kiràly is right. You should not use the Trash as temporary storage. Suppose you are in the Finder and you think you are making some other shortcut and inadvertently press shift-command-delete. Your trash will be emptied and there is no easy way to get it back that I know of.

Oh sure, I am going to "accidentally" hit shift commanddelete !! Even if I did, no big deal. You completely miss my point. All I am saying is that it does no harm to leave stuff in Trash, and might just prove useful one day. I have often shown a complete novice user how to retrieve stuff he thought he had lost. I am NOT depending on it as a backup, but I just resent the fact that a poorly implemented feature of Apple's OS removes this option unnecessarily. And by the way, don't preach to me about data backup. I back up my main machine (a MacBook) to a Drobo redundant disk array every couple of hours, and simultaneously back up the Drobo off-site using a product called BackBlaze. However, it does no harm to approach backup from a number of different angles, including use of the Trash folder. It's great for those "oops" moments, perhaps when you've done work between backups and inadvertently deleted the wrong thing. If one never intends to make any use of Trash for retrieval, then what is the point of Apple implementing it in the first place.

If you would like to let Apple know you don’t like this method, tell them:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

I assume that is tongue in cheek, Apple are notorious for not listening to customers, and certainly not responding in any sensible timescale.

I can understand your thinking. An alternate method would be to create a folder on the desktop just above the Trash, perhaps named Temporary Trash. You have plenty of disk space, so stuff it as full as you want. If you want to remove some known obsolete items from it, move them to the Trash and empty the Trash immediately

Why should I jump through hoops to work round Apple's poorly implemented system

As an alternative to this, how do I delete a file from a memory stick and immediately retrieve the free space without emptying the trash on my main machine.

Use Disk Utilities to erase the memory stick.

I said a file, not the whole device. I am well aware that disk utility will erase a volume, but how does that help with my Garmin GPS that also contains lots of system files as well as the one map I wish to delete.

I don’t see how this is relevant, but you don’t have a right to delete other peoples’ information unless they direct you to.

You are twisting my words. The scenario is that I am at a friend's house, and I say please can I borrow your PC to download a file to my memory stick. I then decide that I need to make space on the memory stick and in the process am in danger of having to permanently erase his Trash folder just to manipulate data on my memory stick.

What a convoluted way of doing it. I am astounded that Apple have not seen fit to provide the simple solution. I treat the trash as a temporary backup in case I make a mistake deleting a file that I don't discover for some while, or something gets corrupted without me noticing it, so I have no wish to do as you suggest. I always have plenty of disk space so it is perfectly reasonable to hang on to trash for a period of time.

As an alternative to this, how do I delete a file from a memory stick and immediately retrieve the free space without emptying the trash on my main machine. and anyway, what for example if I am using someone else's machine - what right have I to go permanently deleting his/her information.

Klaus1 wrote:
but don't want to lose the trash on my whole Mac

Completely nonsensical.

A 'trash can' is, in English, a dustbin. Do you store your Ming vase and Rembrandt etching in your dustbin?

The vast majority of normal users use the Trash for its intended purpose: to get rid of unwanted stuff.

So then please answer the question I asked above. What is the point of implementing the trash can concept at all if there is no intention to ever make use of it ?

Pondini wrote:

tonydenson wrote:
I just resent the fact that a poorly implemented feature of Apple's OS

OSX has been this way for a long time. In the opinion of many, it's the best way to do it, especially since many backup systems do not back up trash. The chances of Apple changing it are rather slim.

So you have two choices: adjust to it, or buy a PC 🙂

I'm not sure what your definition of "many" is. A small proportion of a very large number is many, doesn't mean it's the majority view. How you can say it's the best way to do it leaves me baffled. There is no downside to having the Windows feature of right clicking an individual trash item to be able to selectively delete it, so how can not having the feature be "better".
By the way, I am not an Apple basher, I am one of their loudest evangelists, however irrational "features" just irritate me. Like for example the "feature" that you cannot copy and paste from within the notes section of an address book record. This probably bites me about 10 times a day.

By the way, I happen to agree that a backup system should exclude trash, I am not advocating the Trash folder as a backup system, I am simply saying it does no harm to leave it lying around (unless you desperately need the space).

tonydenson wrote:

Klaus1 wrote:
but don't want to lose the trash on my whole Mac

Completely nonsensical.

A 'trash can' is, in English, a dustbin. Do you store your Ming vase and Rembrandt etching in your dustbin?

I don't happen to own any Ming vases, however I do occasionally go sifting through my physical trash can when something has gone missing from the house, and for that reason I don't think I would want my physical trash can being emptied too frequently either.

Pondini wrote:

And these forums are for people looking for help with specific problems, not rants.

OK then here's a specific problem. I have deleted a file on my Garmin GPS. The only way (apparently) I can free up the free space on the Garmin is to empty the trash on my Mac. However, my Mac has just crashed and I have had to rebuild it from yesterday's SuperDuper backup which has no record of the deleted file. How do I free up space on the Garmin. This is a genuine question that I would like answering.

Lyssa wrote:

Here's a workaround for you: create a new user account, log into it and connect the flash drive. Items should appear in the trash. Empty it.

Problem solved?

~Lyssa

Afraid not, I've just tried it empirically. I deleted a file from a memory stick and it shows in my trash folder, I then eject the stick, switch users, insert the stick and the deleted file is not in the new user's trash folder. Switch back to the user that deleted the file and hey presto it appears and can be deleted.
Surely there is a way of achieving what I want, even if it is a 3rd party app. By the way Disk Utility "erase free space" does not do it.