iMac randomly moves files to Trash overnight

Question

Level 2

239 points

iMac randomly moves files to Trash overnight

Random files sent to trash overnight - what gives?

I woke up my sleeping two-year-old M4 iMac (running macOS 27.0.1) today and found about 20 random files had been moved to Trash. The files varied from photos to pages, years old to quite new. I'm a 30-year Mac user, and such a thing has never happened to me before.

Of course I really didn't lose the files, and just returned them to their previous folders, but that took some annoying time.

However, if I had happened to empty Trash before I noticed these deleted files which I wanted to keep, I wouldn't have known what was gone until perhaps a long time later when I needed them. It's a problem.

What could have caused this, and how do I prevent it from recurring?

iMac (M4, 2024)

Posted on Oct 25, 2026 11:54 AM

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Answer 1

den.thed

Level 10

98,644 points

Oct 25, 2026 12:31 PM in response to jimpal

Did you recently make any changes to your iCloud settings...?

Are you running any third-party Cleaning or Optimizing App's on that Mac...?

EtreCheckPro is an excellent tool for identifying all types software related issues.

Download and run the free version of EtreCheckPro, from > https://etrecheck.com/en/index.html

Then post back here with your Report, as per > How to use the Add Text Feature When Post… - Apple Community

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Answer 2

jimpal Author

Level 2

239 points

Oct 25, 2026 1:20 PM in response to den.thed

On my iMac, no recent changes to iCloud settings. Not running any third-party cleaning or optimizing apps. I have been accessing iCloud from my iPad, just for routine access for one of the files which was affected by this.

I appreciate your recommendation for EtreCheckPro, but was hoping someone would have a simpler explanation for this before I do that. Anyone?

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Answer 3

jimpal Author

Level 2

239 points

Oct 26, 2026 10:59 AM in response to jimpal

After just a day, no sign of this recurring. What I did notice was that most of the files that were sent to Trash on my iMac were ones I had recently visited on the Files app on my iPad. That would indicate some trigger from the iPad wirelessly transferred to my iMac which caused this to happen. I can't see how or why that would happen. Only reporting it.

Perhaps this was just a one-off occurrence because of a strange confluence of events. Never has happened before. I will report if it happens again.

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Answer 4

Oct 25, 2026 2:27 PM in response to jimpal

I don't recall this coming up before. How did you find that it happened?

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Answer 5

jimpal Author

Level 2

239 points

Oct 25, 2026 3:20 PM in response to Keith Barkley

I noticed the Trash icon indicated there were items in it, but I couldn't recall putting any in. When I checked I found this random group of Pages, scans, etc. which I hadn't put there.

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