

- #Mac force empty trash terminal how to
- #Mac force empty trash terminal for mac
- #Mac force empty trash terminal full
- #Mac force empty trash terminal free
Tip: Cleaning up your Trash completely will actually take some time than normal.
#Mac force empty trash terminal how to
Here is how to empty Trash on Mac with Finder: This feature will overwrite and completely remove your data which only means that it will be permanently deleted. If you need to completely remove some of your sensitive information which is inaccessible, then you will be needing to do this with the “Empty Trash” feature on your Mac. How to Empty Trash on Mac that Won't Delete Part 4. How to Force Empty Trash on Mac via Terminal Part 3.
#Mac force empty trash terminal free
So how to empty trash on Mac that won’t delete? There are ways to free up space by completely deleting all the files that are actually stored on your Mac Trash.Ĭontents: Part 1.
#Mac force empty trash terminal full
You will know if your Trash is full if you see a crumpled paper icon on it. So, the tendency for this is that you may want to know how to empty Trash on Maccompletely.ĭo I need to empty Trash on Mac? Keep in mind that once you have put an item on your Trash, this just means that the item is only marked for deletion. However, even if you delete them they will still remain in your Trash bin. You can actually remove all unneeded and unwanted files and documents on your Mac just by dragging them on your Trash bin. Sudo rm -rf ~/.Do you have any unneeded and unwanted files on your Mac? Would you want to know how to empty trash on Mac? If your answer is Yes, then this is for you. If you get an error message, you will need to use the sudo command, which will prompt you for your administrator password: If you aren’t afraid of controlling your Mac using Terminal commands, it is possible to empty the trash using the following command:Įmptying the trash with Terminal seems faster than using macOS’s graphical user interface. Then you can empty the trash and restart your computer normally. You can temporarily prevent such processes from opening it automatically by rebooting your Mac in safe mode by holding down the Shift key during startup. If that doesn't solve the issue, you might have a startup or login item using the file. In this case it is recommended to restart your Mac and then empty the trash. If that doesn’t work, there might be one or more background processes using the file. To address that, start by quitting all the apps that are using the file you want to erase, and only then hit “Empty Trash”. This happens because a file could still be in use or locked. We have all encountered the situation where emptying the trash simply doesn’t work or gets stuck.
#Mac force empty trash terminal for mac
Remember, this will only appear for Mac users running macOS 10.10 or earlier, since Apple removed this feature starting with macOS 10.11 El Capitan. To check if this option is active, go to Finder > Preferences > Advanced and untick “Empty Trash Securely”.


It’s worth noting that this is something most users won’t need unless it is highly sensitive information. While it is secure and specially designed for hard disk technology, it is a much slower process compared to a regular file removal. This is a built-in macOS feature that overwrites the data that was stored so the files cannot be recovered once deleted. The first thing you might want to check if the trash is slow to empty is whether the “Secure Empty Trash” feature is active. While this process should be seamless, there are situations where clearing the trash becomes very slow or even becomes stuck, and in some cases macOS will display an error message to explain the reason. Just like with a regular trash can, you need to ‘empty’ it for the contents to get removed, so right-click on the Trash icon and select “Empty Trash”. Dragging files onto the Trash icon in the Dock doesn’t remove deleted files from the system.
