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Files are deleted immediately and can't be found on Trash folder - after Mojave update

When I delete a file, a warning window shows up "This item will be deleted immediately. You can’t undo this action." it comes with Cancel and Delete buttons. If I select Delete, the file will be gone, and cannot be found on Trash folder.


The system seem to delete the file immediately and permanently. The file cannot be moved to Trash folder and be put back when I regret the deletion. This happened since the upgrade to Mojave, and reinstalling completely from scratch Mojave with no restore of Time Machine did no fix this issue.


Upon documenting myself and digging into the system, it seems like:

1) MacOs Mojave keeps replacing the .Trash folder (permission 755) in my home directory with an empty file called .Trash which is not a directory.

2) Deleting this flat .Trash file and dragging a new item in the Trash, temporarily resolve the issue, I can see the correct directory gets created again, but then after 5 to 7 days the problem randomly resurfaces

3) Recreating the trash directory while rebooting without system integrity doesn't help either. The problem keep resurfacing.


Temporary Solution until this annoying MacOs Mojave bug is fixed: keep always an item into your trash. If you don't like to see it full, create a .hidden empty text file in the folder. Unfortunately even with immutable bit sets, the file gets deleted once you empty the trash again, so it's not a very good solution.


If you can suggest a better and permanent fix let me know.


I have researched for possible interactions (google drive sync, time machine) to no avail.

MacBook, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jun 21, 2019 5:34 PM

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Posted on Jun 23, 2019 5:29 AM

I understand this is not Apple official support, and i didn't expect highly technical answer, just maybe luck with somebody experiencing the same: so i appreciate anyhow that you had enough time to type a reply, albeit unuseful. Thanks a lot and have a great day ahead.


Just FYI, my first powerbook (yup, they were not called macbook) was a Duo 230 which had a scsi spinning drive, quite a feature at the time on a notebook so small, so I am using Mac Os from the version 7.1 (it came in floppy disk) and I hoped I would find a better insight on this forum.


I perfectly understand it's not Mojave standard behaviour to corrupt the trash file in my home directory, or Apple would have fixed it already, however sometimes bugs arise only in very particular situation and I might be experiencing one, whether i delete file with a right click or dragging them to the trash icon.


It's very unlikely that a faulty NVME SSD (that I cannot replace, cause it's soldered) would write twice in the same block, definitely not once a week, and not replacing precisely always the same directory with a flat file, and only if the trash is empty.


Even if it was this way, because I am using an encrypted logical volume then again the way HFS works, it would not make that happen.



Finally if I had an ssd issue, I would be experiencing severe corruptions in my daily workflow and not just MacOs deleting the trash once every 5 to 7 days.

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Question marked as Best reply

Jun 23, 2019 5:29 AM in response to Driftin

I understand this is not Apple official support, and i didn't expect highly technical answer, just maybe luck with somebody experiencing the same: so i appreciate anyhow that you had enough time to type a reply, albeit unuseful. Thanks a lot and have a great day ahead.


Just FYI, my first powerbook (yup, they were not called macbook) was a Duo 230 which had a scsi spinning drive, quite a feature at the time on a notebook so small, so I am using Mac Os from the version 7.1 (it came in floppy disk) and I hoped I would find a better insight on this forum.


I perfectly understand it's not Mojave standard behaviour to corrupt the trash file in my home directory, or Apple would have fixed it already, however sometimes bugs arise only in very particular situation and I might be experiencing one, whether i delete file with a right click or dragging them to the trash icon.


It's very unlikely that a faulty NVME SSD (that I cannot replace, cause it's soldered) would write twice in the same block, definitely not once a week, and not replacing precisely always the same directory with a flat file, and only if the trash is empty.


Even if it was this way, because I am using an encrypted logical volume then again the way HFS works, it would not make that happen.



Finally if I had an ssd issue, I would be experiencing severe corruptions in my daily workflow and not just MacOs deleting the trash once every 5 to 7 days.

Jun 23, 2019 5:32 AM in response to Gianluca-ZG

I just kidding a little...

Anyways, I thinks you might have faulty SMC, PRAM, or NVRAM files (or call as something else...), so there is an Apple official page for it:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063 - for vram and pram, which store kernel panics, specs

https://support.apple.com/en-vn/HT201295 - for smc, although it might unnesscery

I don't really know it will work, but it worth a try.


Jun 25, 2019 8:27 PM in response to Driftin

So it turns out that I seem (touch wood) to have resolved this persistent issue.


Let's remember that following your directions to have the system resolve the problem by itself, surely worked but only for one or few days.

That's probably because there was a system recovery point automatically putting back the wrong permission file (?!?)


Solution is:

  1. follow your solution with rm from terminal
  2. immediately after (before even the system attempts to recreate the trash folder) reboot in recovery mode (cmd+r at boot)
  3. open the terminal from utilities menu of the recovery environment
  4. type 'csrutils disable' (important: this will put down your system integrity protection! this is meant to be only temporary)
  5. type 'csrutils clear'
  6. type reboot
  7. use your computer normally for a few days
  8. once you are satisfied that the problem is resolved, go back to recovery and turn again the system integrity protection typing 'csrutils enable'
  9. Pray that there is nothing else messing with your filesystem


maybe helpful for somebody else ...

Jun 21, 2019 6:55 PM in response to Driftin

Thanks a lot for trying to help: unfortunately this solution which I had found on other similar thread last only for a few days, as pointed out in my original message and also in some reply to other threads.


So there is something that actively keep disrupting it, even on latest 10.14.5


However completely reinstalling macos on my 2017 macbook after full disk cancellation and without restoring from time machine didn't help pinpoint the culprit.

Files are deleted immediately and can't be found on Trash folder - after Mojave update

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