secure empty trash in El Capitan?
The 'Secure empty trash' option seems to have disappeared since upgrading. Has anybody else had this problem?
intel iMac
Secure empty trash option is not available in El Capitan.
15 replies
It would appear that this is now built in and automatic so everything is 'securely trashed'
has Apple verified this or have any of the Apple publications verified it?
If you're getting this message with some of your files
go to the Trash bin, open, Control (right) - click on the file and select Delete Immediately from the contextual menu.
Or use the Option+Command+Delete key combination.
Russell Chear - I went onto Chat in Apple Support and they gave me the answer that is is done automatically.
Russell, Thank you for your reply, I went to Apple Support and Chat - they confirmed that 'secure trash' was built into OS X El Capitan.
The reasoning that Apple, Inc. gives for removing the “Secure Empty Trash” button in its El Capitan OS update is:
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.
CVE-ID
CVE-2015-5901 : Apple
Reference:: About the security content of OS X El Capitan - Apple Support
That’s like Ford saying, “We could not guarantee that seatbelts would work properly in the Fusion, so we removed seatbelts from all of our vehicles.”
In my opinion, a better solution would have been for Apple to write a code that adds the “Secure Empty Trash” feature, but also includes a friendly pop-up reminder that appears whenever flash storage devices are erased (emptied from the trash). Such a notice might say:
Due to their design, Flash Storage Devices do not qualify for “Secure Deletion.”
Personally, I would prefer to have some secure file deletion, especially on my Mac hard drive, as opposed to none.
Yes, we saw your opinion in every other identical post you have opted to every thread on the topic. You have been given answers in some of them. I will leave it to you to find which ones contain the answers. Regardless, it has gone for good reason.
Pete
"Secure Empty Trash" is gone as per their posting:
Anyway, as long as UNIX is still around, here are 3 commands you could use - you could also create an alias for anyone of these...
- rm -rP /<path>
- srm -rfv -s /path (try the m and z switches for more options)
- diskutil secureErase freespace LEVEL /Volumes/<drive>
I suspect the reason they have done this is that the controllers built into SSDs dynamically distribute files across the memory to even out degradation. Overwriting which is what secure empty trash did becomes a bit of a problem in this case. Since SSD control firmware is proprietary don't hold your breath.
There is an app Permanent Eraser that does the job, it's free and has a contextual menu too
You don't even need to put the file in the trash,
just option-click the file and choose ERASE
Granny_v wrote:
Russell Chear - I went onto Chat in Apple Support and they gave me the answer that is is done automatically.
Then you either misunderstood or were talking to someone who doesn't know what they are talking about.
Try putting a multi-gigabyte file in the Trash and empty it. It will happen instantaneously which could not possibly happen if it was writing over the storage location multiple times.
Good answers by !cultofApple and Eric Root! This is one more of the many examples during the past year + of Apple's deterioration in software quality. The results are showing in decreasing customer satisfaction, sales and revenue. They desperately need to improve their Beta testing and QA policies and procedures for iOS and OSX releases.
They desperately need to improve their Beta testing and QA policies and procedures for iOS and OSX releases.
The removal of secure empty trash is neither a testing failure or some mythical "improvement" item. It fully functioned in the betas. They removed it in the final release because it is not actually secure.
The function did not and never has been reliable. Apple cannot guarantee that your information cannot be recovered if you use any of the available "secure" erase schemes known to mankind. Many of them will make it tremendously difficult, but they will not absolutely make your data inaccessible.
If you are worried about your data then encrypt your disk. That is much more secure than secure erase because the OS has no idea where the drive controller decides to move inaccessible files. If the whole disk is encrypted, it doesn't matter if a block is bad and cannot be overwritten once or a million times.
secure empty trash in El Capitan?