Why do deleted files still appear in Finder

Question

Level 1

7 points

Why do deleted files still appear in Finder

Even after i move the files to Trash and empty the trash, the files still appear in finder. If I click on them I get some message indicating they aren't there or can't be found, but how do i get deleted files not to appear in finder. If I deleted them to clean up my docs, i don't want them anymore. It gets harder to clean up files when i keep seeing the files i already cleaned out and put to trash.

macbook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jun 5, 2010 6:56 AM

Reply

Answer 1

a brody

Level 10

82,841 points

Jun 5, 2010 7:48 AM in response to skiborder25

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
You can only delete those files which you create yourself. If these are system files you are trying to trash, you'll need special permissions to delete them. Be careful though, if you trash the wrong files, you'll leave your system nonfunctional.

My software Force Empty Trash, or the competitor, Mac OS X Cocktail both can trash files created on the boot hard drive and override the permissions that may lock those files from deletion. Cocktail can trash more than my software can. But I would only use it for trashing stuff, and not cache cleanup, nor any other tool, without consulting a Mac expert. Cache cleanup of system cache can be very dangerous, and cause applications not to be able to launch anymore, including system applications. The link to my software*:

http://www.macmaps.com/software.html

I also have reference there to where you can get Cocktail.

- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Reply

Answer 2

skiborder25 Author

Level 1

7 points

Jun 5, 2010 2:58 PM in response to a brody

The files are NOT system files. They are my document files or .mov files etc that were taking up a lot of space. AND they are deleted. But they still show in finder when i look at documents etc.

Reply

Answer 3

skiborder25 Author

Level 1

7 points

Jun 5, 2010 3:13 PM in response to skiborder25

sorry, they are Not in my documents folder. They are in "all documents" folder. They used to be in my user folder... they are now deleted but they still appear in All Documents folder. Is there a way to make " All documents" folder current and not include documents that have been deleted?

thanks

Reply

Answer 4

Jun 5, 2010 3:27 PM in response to skiborder25

Could you be looking at an Alias -- a pointer to the actual file?

What size is it? If very small, it is likely to be an alias.

Reply

Answer 5

skiborder25 Author

Level 1

7 points

Jun 5, 2010 3:35 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Maybe... I never heard of these Alias or pointer files before. I will have to google and see what they are. But why wouldn't they be deleted when u delete the original file?

some files are saved in documents folder and some files are saved in user folder/downloads. So I generally search in the "all documents" section to find the files i want to delete to make more room on my hard drive.

When I go to these non existent "pointer files" and click on information, The information is almost void as opposed to a real file.

Reply

Answer 6

Anne02

Level 1

4 points

Jun 6, 2010 9:18 PM in response to skiborder25

Can't find my question so will ask it here. I don't have tools in my imac and want to delete files in my quarantine. I have safari. Can someone help me please?

Reply

Answer 7

a brody

Level 10

82,841 points

Jun 7, 2010 4:53 AM in response to Anne02

If the answer isn't in this thread, and you don't have an answer for the original poster, please start a new topic thread here:

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1225

You'll find a wider audience, and won't confuse the original poster with solutions that don't apply to them.

Reply

Answer 8

Jun 8, 2010 10:02 AM in response to skiborder25

Have you tried Disk Utility (in Applications: Utilities)?

You might be able to get rid of the file manually, as follows.
1 Create a new folder.
2 From the folder that contains the item you want to delete… drag all the items, except the file you want to delete, into the new folder.
3 Copy the name of the folder that contains the file you want to delete.
4 Trash the folder containing the file (with the file still inside it), and empty the Trash.
5 Rename the new folder by pasting the name (which you copied in step 3), and move it to where the original was.

Reply