How to Empty YourTrash on El Capitan without “Secure Empty Trash” AND How to Empty All THREE of Your Caches
1. 1. Open Icon for “Trash” under "Finder" as you have in the past and click and hold down the “Shift” key (I use the left sided “Shift”, but I’m not sure it matters), then choose the “Empty Trash” option, release both keys at the same time and your trash SHOULD be emptied.
2. 2. When unable to empty trash due to an "-8072" error code, open the “TERMINAL” application using the spotlight and type in: sudo rm -rf. Then drag whatever file(s) that need to be deleted into the terminal and hit “Return”. If “Password” is requested, type in the password you use to make any changes on your computer. Important: You will NOT be able to see any letters or icons as you type in your password, but the information WILL be entered. Then hit “Return” and the original command (to empty the file(s) when you encountered the -8072 error code) should be completed.
3. 3. When using “Finder” to empty your caches, instead of “Move to trash” on the “File” pulldown, hit the “OPTION” key and under “File” select “DELETE IMMEDIATELY. This allows you to skip the step of emptying your trash with potentially difficult files to delete. Just be SURE that you are not deleting anything important. This step is irrevocable. This step does not always work, so be prepared to move everything in your cache(s) to the trash and deal with emptying your trash using some of the steps described above.
4. 4. Remember: there are THREE caches that should be emptied on a regular basis to keep your computer working smoothly (if you use “Safari” as your web browser). The first: open “Finder” and then open the “Go” pulldown. Under “Go”, select “Computer” and open it. I prefer my view to be in “Columns” (you may select your view preference to be: ‘icons’, ‘list’, ‘columns’, or ‘Cover Flow’— at the top of the page under “View”". ‘Columns’ is the second option from the left.) Once you’ve opened "Computer", choose "Macintosh HD", then select ‘Library’ in the column next to your disc options. Select “Caches” in the as your selection when “Library” is opened. You will see a list of items in this cache. Instead of moving each individual item EITHER to the trash OR “delete immediately” (noted above), go to “Edit” in your “Finder” options and choose “Select All”. At this point, all of the items in your cache should be highlighted. Go to “File” in “Finder” and choose one of the two options described above in number 3; you can either “Delete Immediately” (sometimes you will not be able to delete certain items and the best thing to do is to simply “Move to trash” and deal with the items later) OR “Move to trash”. Be aware that when emptying this cache, if you do not choose to “Delete Immediately”, you will be asked to type in your password to complete moving everything to the trash. The next cache to be emptied can be opened by again choosing “Go” in “Finder”, holding down the “Option” key and choosing “Library” in the pulldown. If you do not hold down the "Option" key, you will not see "Library" under "Go". Again, I prefer the ‘columns’ view (but any view will work). “Library” will appear slightly grayed out, but will present you with multiple options. Open “Caches” and again using “Edit” in “Finder”, choose “Select all” to highlight everything in this cache. Go to “File” in “Finder” and choose one of the two options described above in number 3; you can either “Delete Immediately” (again, this option may not work and you should just choose “Move to trash” and deal with these items later using some of the alternatives listed above.) The third cache is in your Safari browser (if you use Safari). Open “Safari” and choose the option at the top of the page, “Develop”. Use the pulldown and find “Empty caches”. When the time comes to empty ALL of your trash, if you are using the newest OS, El Capitan, “Secure Empty Trash” is no longer available. To empty your trash, open “Finder” again and under the WORD “Finder”, use the pulldown and choose “Empty Trash”. Even if you have closed every application on your desktop, you may find it difficult to open your trash. This is where options outlined in numbers 1, 2, and 3 above may come in handy. Good luck and happy cleaning/emptying!
