When I delete files on a USB, it doesn't free up memory on the stik. I find I have to empty the entire stik, use Disk Utility to 'erase' it, then transfer back the files I removed to free up all the space on the stik. Is this the best practice?

Sorry for my bad English, but perhaps I consider this is really annoying, to have to empty the trash each time you delete a file from USB drive, I think Apple have to do something about it, because the purpose of the trash is to recover something that you erase by mistake as a second chance, even if you have programed the trash to erase automatically each 30 days or something like that, and don´t have to erase the whole trash every time you delete just one file from USB drive.

My solution for that is not to erase the files from USB drive, instead of that I move the file (Cmd + C / Cmd + Alt + V) to my desktop and then to the trash, so I free space on my USB drive and keep my files on the trash so I can erase them later or wherever I want.

So that is my solution, I hope you appreciate it, good luck.

There are so many problems with Apple's approach to this compared to Microsoft's XP. With XP, deleting a fle from the system hard drive results in it being placed into their equivalent of Trash. Then you can remove individual files. However, with a USB memory stick, it's automatically deleted. Apple's approach is much more severe; all or nothing, unless I'm missing something. This approach is also illogical, so it's not obvious to newcommers to Apple (myself and just today a member of family). I had to contact Apple Care for this. In view of Apple's approach, my suggestion to Apple would be to store the files under a Trash folder of the device's name and upon selecting Eject, display a warning to delete Trash's USB folder before removing it, thus preserving Macintosh HD's data in trash. Being able to delete individual files/folder from Trash would be useful.

Hello Horst,

Thank you for the question. Have you been emptying your trash after deleting the items? For the item to be removed from your USB device, you will need to empty the trash on your MacBook Pro after you delete the items, as described in the featured discussion below. Your USB device will still need to be connected when you do this:

Choose Empty Trash from the Finder menu. Unlike Windows, the trash needs to be emptied manually for any drive other than one mounted through the network.

Can't delete off my USB drive

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1946841

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

Best,

Sheila M.

I agree, this is illogical, I shouldn't have to empty my entire trash to free up space on an external drive, that defeats the point of a) deleting the files from the drive in the first place and b) having a trash file to be able to restore files from.

My suggestion would be for Apple to amend the process so that when you delete from an external drive it completely moves (not copies) the data from the drive to the trash and so freeing the external drive while retaining the data only in the trash (where it can be potentially restored).

What I have started doing is temporarily moving the data from my external drive (be it a USB stick, SD card etc) to the internal drive of the computer (usually to my downloads folder which I keep pretty clear), deleting the data off the external drive and emptying the trash to free the drive, then moving the internal drive copies to the computer's trash so I can still restore the files in the future if I need to. Although this method does still mean you lose whatever else was previously in the trash so it's not perfect. You could conceivably restore everything that's already in your trash before "emptying" to free the external drive and then putting it all back in the trash, along with the newly deleted external drive files, afterwards. However since the restore option ("Put Back") restores to the locations they were deleted from you would always have to move everything to a permanent holding file before deleting it to the trash so that, when you restore, it all restores back to that holding file. But that seems long-winded, even for me.

Simple. One example of current system. Insert a USB drive in and copy files to the HD. Now want to delete them from the USB. Move them to Trash. Now have to empty the WHOLE of Trash meaning the files moved to Trash from the HD are also deleted, thus destroying the whole purpose of Trash in enabling a file restore if accidently deleted. My suggestion would delete the files on the USB only and SAVE those from the HD or any other connected drive.

The other alternative is to read a newpaper whilst Time Machine does a back-up before I delete the USB files. Not very good.

I can only assume that you're young. Very early on (80s) Mac was for video (games, graphics), PC for business.In those days when a PC file was deleted, it was gone, never to return unless you used a file recovery program (seperatly purchased disc). Thus the intermediate stage like Trash was invented.

If you had read the whole of my posting, would would've seen that I use Time Machine, so why would I want to use Trash as an "extra filing space".

On your basis I can only assume you empty the trash as soon as you've deleted the file, not a good idea.

My point was, why should I be forced to delete all of Trash's files just because I deleted one file from the USB? Totally illogical, but one I can accept from people who've never programmed mainframes to do daily, weekly, etc back-ups like I have. FYI, many businesses went broke because of their lack of back-up. Trash is but the very first step.

You can store files that you don't want to trash in the trashcan for as long as you like.

I will continue to put them in the trash when they are not needed anymore and therefore can be deleted.

Good luck

I can only assume that you're young

Not real good at the assumption game are you.

After trying to help you.

Your posting 16/5/14 "I assume you use your trash can as an extra filing space.

Very bad idea and not one that I would do, or recommend that anyone else should."

17/5/14, "You can store files that you don't want to trash in the trashcan for as long as you like.

I will continue to put them in the trash when they are not needed anymore and therefore can be deleted.

Good luck"

and others like "Not real good at the assumption game are you."

tells me that you have absolutely no idea about what I'm talking about.

Goodbye and good luck. BYE.

<Edited By Host>

I can see that you think this is a great idea, but it doesn't seem worthwhile to me, and I would never advise anyone to put files from whatever source in the trash unless they intended to delete them. I only send files to the Trash if I plan to delete them. If there is any doubt about a file, it does not go into the trash. Simple.

I do not delete things with any particular intention to restore them, I delete them to delete them. However, the very nature of the "trash" file concept is that, should you find you've made a horrible mistake, for example, they can be retrieved, rather than irrevocably and permanently lost. Otherwise why have the trash at all?

With regards to my care over retaining restorable copies: I am a professional photographer and although I take the greatest care in general to make sure I have backed up my files no level of safe is too safe to prevent losing someone's wedding photos.

Hi Horst,

I'm glad I could help and that it's working now!

All the best,

Sheila M.

When you delete a file it goes to the trash, why complicate it with multiple trash locations?

I assume you use your trash can as an extra filing space.

Very bad idea and not one that I would do, or recommend that anyone else should.

Are you leaving now.

That's nice.