Secure Empty Trash missing on El Capitan

This conversation is two years old and the last post was about 20 months ago.

There's been a new OS since (and another coming shortly).

Resurrecting such threads is rarely relevant as the answers addressed the problem at the time.

"Secure Empty Trash" is no longer available for sound reasons.

Sensitive files ought to be considered sensitive from creation through deletion and everything in between. A document or file does not suddenly become sensitive the moment you decide to delete it.

If you are working with sensitive files whose content must be secure from unauthorized access, use FileVault.

You link has too many https

kohls wrote:

This Apple Support page gives directions for securely emptying trash on El Capitan. However, the feature is missing:

http://https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21751?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Thanks

It's gone kohls.

The following may shed some light on the reason: About the security content of OS X El Capitan v10.11 - Apple Support

"Description: An issue existed in guaranteeing secure deletion of Trash files on some systems, such as those with flash storage. This issue was addressed by removing the "Secure Empty Trash" option."

(hat tip: dland82995)

Given that Apple has been incorporating flash storage on all new Macs, it's probably not coming back any time soon.

Hey Kohls,

I was beating my head over this too but since public beta 3 apple has vanishing this option from finder and disk utility. There is however an alternate way using the terminal application.

Type the following command in the in terminal

diskutil list (with this command located the partition that has your disk, for example disk1, disk1s2, etc....) after you locate the disk type this in terminal diskutil secureErase freespace 1 /dev/disk1 (or whatever identifier for the disk you want to erase). The problem with this is that it takes extremely long time to complete but it secureErase.

kohls wrote:

I fixed it. https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21751?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

How does that fix it? So far as I can make out, the instructions on that page are wrong.

Really? What a lame statement. Why do you need bumpers on your car? just drive a tank for safety.

I need an easy way of deleting sensitive material from my computer as it was implemented before. I read here that there might be some issues with SSD drives, let's hope some better solution that removing the option for all users will be found in the near future.

Your concerns are addressed in my second reply to kohls. Sometimes replies are not visible until you post a reply. It's a longstanding bug with this site.

Why do you need bumpers on your car? just drive a tank for safety. I need an easy way of deleting sensitive material from my computer as it was implemented before.

Not really. Sensitive material is sensitive upon creating it, and doesn't suddenly become sensitive the moment you decide to delete it. FileVault satisfies the need to ensure data security from creation through deletion. The "easy way" you advocate is analogous to installing bumpers on your car right before an accident.

For what it's worth I just noticed that the utilily Cocktail El Capitan Edition allows to set the trash to use SRM secure delete (under System -> Trash). Of course, when selected, that applies to all files being deleted..