Deleting specific files in Mac OS X 10.5.8's Trash?

Not through the Finder. If you want to keep something, it shouldn't be in the Trash.

(65643)

Actually there is a little known trick. Add the Delete icon to the Finder toolbar. View menu -> Customize toolbar when looking at a Finder window. Use that do not enter sign that is red, to delete a file immediately.

Recycle bin vs. Trash can.

You can create a new folder called Recycle bin in Finder, drag it to the right side of the Dock next to Trash, Use that for files you may want to trash or may want to recover, then you can easily selectively delete things from the Recycle bin, with yet another chance to sort through the Trash before the Garbage man comes.

Can't believe there are so many negative posts about "if you want something don't put it in the trash".

Really? Is that helpful to anybody?

Here is how to remove single/multiple files:

1. Open Terminal

2. Type "rm" space, then drag a single/multiple files from the Trash into the terminal window

3. Press "enter" key

Notice that the single file is now gone. This way all your other files remain in the Trash.

Hope this helps as all I could find were negative comments that were not helpful at all.

Jas

Thanks Jas. 🙂

The Delete icon in the Toolbar does not work for me. It works as an alternative to dragging to the Trash but I have not found a way to use it to delete immediately or delete individual items from the Trash.

A more powerful Terminal command is as follows:

1 - copy and paste the following into a Terminal window

rm -r

2 - type a space

3 - drag an unwanted item to the Terminal window

4 - hit the Return key

The item will be permanently deleted without any warning.

This command works for files and large folder hierarchies.

I have been a Technology Director in law firms for 25+ years. There are MANY reasons one would not want to delete ALL files in the trash. Those of you who've posted your condescending comments about "don't store things in the trash" simply show your OWN ignorance; you're not serving to put the person who posted the question down as it is a perfectly valid question.

Here are the two reasons I need to selectively delete items in the Trash:

1.) Attempting to EMPTY the trash bombs repeatedly. Mac OS does not inform me which file it is giving up on, but the rest of the files in the Trash bin won't delete because the Mac OS is evidently having difficulty with just one (perhaps corrupt) file. So I'd like to SKIP the file that's having problems and try to selectively delete several files / folders at once until I find which the culprit is.

2.) I am working on a computer that is not my own. I am a Tech Support person. I have deleted items that I wish to remove from the Trash bin, but I do not want to make the judgment call as to what files or folders the person who owns the computer may or may not want to delete. (He's a doctor who is with patients all day and then out of town for a week, so I do not have the capability of asking him at the moment.)

3.) Being a supporter of Windows (and DOS before that) since the inception of the microcomputer, yet not being familiar with Mac OS, I did not know how to permanently delete any files or folders WITHOUT moving them to the Trash bin first. (Now I know, thanks to a couple of the responses above). So, unfortunately for me, I deleted several hundred GBs worth of data from an external USB drive that I was given to "back up" the Macbook I'm working on (that's about to die permantly due to impending hardware failure and overheating). So there is over 100 GBs worth of data in the Trash bin that I DO NOT want to back up. And because I have already backed up most of the hard drive, the external drive is nearlyl full and I therefore cannot "Restore" the data to its original location and use the steps mentioned above to permanently delete the data from its original location because there is now insufficient space to do so.

4.) I do not want to back up the Trash bin which will take up too much room on the external drive. Because the Empty Trash utility won't remove the items in the Trash bin, I need to remove as many of the files as I possibly can before backing up, even if that means I wind up with one corrupt file remaining in the Trash bin.

So... those of you above who've so arrogantly stated there's no reason you'd ever need to selectively remove files from the Trash bin, perhaps before putting others down, you might want to think about how that makes YOU look -- not the other person you're trying to look "smarter" than -- before you post on a forum viewed by potentially upwards of a million people who now know just how small minded YOU are, not the person you attempted to belittle.

Maria:

Welcome to Apple Discussions.

First, stop using your computer immediately to avoid your files being overwritten.

Dr. Smoke's FAQ Data Recovery has complete directions to help you recover your files, if they are recoverable.

Please post back with further questions or comments.

Cheers.

cornelius

Mr Hillyer,

By any chance have you ever tried to delete a file from your Time Machine? I made a mistake and tried to clean out my old backup files to open up more room on my TM Drive. They went into the trash bin but I have not been able to empty the trash bin of those files. I know now that I should not do that but I am still trying to empty the bin of those back up files. I have been able to use your suggestion to remove the regular files from my trash bin which I could not do previously because of those TM files in the bin. But I can not remove the TM files using your suggestion.

I am on Maverick.

tuyhoa67 wrote:

Mr Hillyer,

By any chance have you ever tried to delete a file from your Time Machine? I made a mistake and tried to clean out my old backup files to open up more room on my TM Drive. They went into the trash bin but I have not been able to empty the trash bin of those files. I know now that I should not do that but I am still trying to empty the bin of those back up files. I have been able to use your suggestion to remove the regular files from my trash bin which I could not do previously because of those TM files in the bin. But I can not remove the TM files using your suggestion.

I am on Maverick.

Sorry but I don't use Time Machine. Pondini is the Time Machine expert. Try his FAQ at: http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

Thank you very much. This was the first helpful response. ✅

If you're a user of Windows on Parallels on your Mac, you can go into Windows and Recycle Bin will let you selectively delete files off the Mac.

I believe you're right Maria.

To me, this is a design flaw. Probable produced by the same ignorance you're talking about.

Thank you!

Solved a simple problem. Why do Apple make work of simple solutions

Hi Neville, I have a problem which I find hard to resolve with the Trash, in as much as there are some items that I have put into trash which I would like to remove permanently from the trash and therefore my computer. I have OSX Mountain Lion for Dummies and have tried looking it up there however no where can I find info on how to permanently delete/remove from the trash. Can you help me with this please?

Thanking you in anticipation.

Pauline x