I think macmost is a very good channel, because things get explained in a very clear and simple way, reducing complexity to a minimum. Of course, the topics are often pretty simple. But to be honest, I did not know many of these things, despite me being a Mac user for more than ten years. Very well done!
I’ve used Mac since 1984, have been an Apple Certified Repair Technician, and consider myself a power-user… yet some of these shortcuts I never knew! Thanks Gary!
Thanks, Gary. I always learn something new from every video you have produced. For those of you that also use the command line (the Terminal app) there is the rm command, which will delete a file immediately and not put it in the Trash, For an extra layer of safety, when invoking the rm command, use the -i option. So, if you enter rm -i myFile, you will get a prompt that asks you whether you want to remove the file named myFile. If you enter the rm command using a wildcard, e.g., rm -i myFile* , you will get a prompt for each file that matches the wildcard, asking you if you want to remove that file. Having said all this, it is safer to do your file deletions using one of the methods that puts the deleted files into the Trash, in case you change your mind.
Another fantastic video and this time about trash 😃 I had no idea you can set the trash to be deleted after 30 day automatically. That is one feature I turned on immediately. Keep up the great work and I have no idea why you do not have millions of subscribers by this point
Your last comments reminded me of something I’ve wondered about. Suppose I have Time Machine configured to backup changes. What would happen if within that hour I create a file but delete it and then empty the trash? Does Time Machine back up that file, even preventing it from being permanently deleted until after the next backup runs? Or does Time Machine not backup files in the trash?
I don't think so. But if you didn't have your Time Machine drive connected, like with a MacBook on-the-go, then it may get backed up to the local snapshot on the hour, and then on to the Time Machine backup when connected again.
Hi Gary, I tried to set the trash to delete at 30 days however that option is not available to me in the General - Storage area. The only options I have in there are Store in iCloud and Optimize Storage. What am I missing?
Thanks for all the info. I’m having a strange problem. When I try to empty my trash, I get an error message saying that the folders are being used. I don’t have any programs open. Any idea what’s happening? Thanks.
Gary there seems to be an issue with Put Back if you have Desktop and Documents synced in iCloud. with me Put Back gives an error message that the deleted file doesn't exist BUT I can manually drag it out of the trash? If using files in non synced iCloud folders "Put Back" works as expected ?
Hi Gary, I cant Empty the trash, it says " the operation cant be completed because some items are opened" were as there is no item open in any app. even i tried force shutting down and i cant remove the file from trash.
Your comment about not putting things in the Trash that you may need/want is important. I used to work at a University, and one of the secretaries was having issues with her Mac and asked for my help. (I want to say that this was during Mac OS 9 days.) I spent a couple of hours on that thing. One of her issues was her hard drive needed space, so I emptied her trash. By the end, her computer was working just fine. Then, later, she came to my office screaming at me for emptying her trash. Sure enough, she was using it for "storage." BTW, she never even thanked me at all for the work I did (and that was not my job at the university).
You would normally connect your iPhone to a Mac and then back it up, but that would be saved on the internal drive. However, today, just backing up to iCloud should be all you need.
This tutorial was pure Trash. I mean that literally of course as it was awesome 👍🏼👍🏼 There’s also a separate Trash folder for when you delete something from an external HD.
I was hoping to find a tip on how to force empty the trash. My Mac refuses to completely empty the trash saying those files are still in use. Needless to say they are not; they were old Lightroom backups that I’m clearing to make space for newer ones. Do you have a work around for this? Thanks in advance🙂
Did you try doing it after a restart? Do you still maybe have remnants of Lightroom running in the background? Try booting into Safe Mode and emptying the trash then too. If all else fails, you can always go into Terminal and use rm to remove the files from there.
If you use a regular mouse, could you just right click and delete the file, then go to the trash and right click, empty trash like on a windows computer?
Hey, I have a question, Gary. I have two Macs on my desk that share the same iCloud account. The second machine does *NOT* have the sync documents and desktop on, but the main one does. However, both of them seem to share the trash can. I have stuff in the trash on Machine 2 from Machine 1 and vice versa. Do you know how to stop this behavior? As best I can tell, there's no way to do this with both of them being logged into the same iCloud account. I'd really rather the trash cans be separate, but can't find a way to do that. Do you know of one?
If a file is in iCloud and you move it to the Trash, it would appear in the Trash on the other Mac too. Why wouldn't it? Seems like the correct behavior.
@@JoeSiegler The file was on both your Macs before, through iCloud Drive, and it is still on both your Macs when you move it to the Trash. It would be odd if moving it to the Trash suddenly excluded it from the other Mac. See what I mean? You can always use the Delete Immediately function if your goal is to save space or something.
Hello Gary. I found this tutorial on the trash to be especially useful. I will use either the context menu by right-clicking, or the keystroke combination shortcut, depending on where my fingers are and which is more convenient to use. (Most of the time, it’s the context menu because I’ve already used the mouse to click on the file). Excellent video and thank you!
I hope that you know this. As a Windows user, I learnt that even after deleting a file and removing it from the recycle bin does not delete the file permanently, it can be recovered by file recovery software. The same goes with Mac operating systems, deleting a file and removing it from the trash does not delete the file permanently. If you want to make sure that deleted files can never be recovered, you have to shred it using a file shredder, the disk space that occupied by the deleted file must be overwritten to make it unrecoverable.
I didn’t put any cache into the trash. When I put a bunch of pictures in the trash and tried to delete them. This error came up about the cache being used . Going to re- set to factory settings.
Don't do that. That's overkill. Quit all apps. Then try booting into Safe Mode. See if you can empty the trash then. If not, you will have to do more work to identify what "cache" is in your trash and how it got there. Call Apple Support if you need more direct help.
Thanks for the video. I am new to Mac and was trying to delete files from an external drive and also noticed it had it's own trash folder as well. I was trying to delete large amounts of files to free up space on the external hard drive and it would delete some but give me "file in use" for some even though I had no apps running which I thought was odd. If I deleted files in the folders individually it would delete with no issue but it didn't seem to like the mass delete. Eventually cleaned it up but took a long time to go in each folder to select all files and delete. I have another folder on that external drive that is doing the same thing now. I am going to try the Safe Mode way. Hopefully it works. Thanks for the tip.
I need help and I cannot find it anywhere. If there is anyone who knows how to fix this, please let me know. When I empty trash, only like 1/7th of the files delete. So I have to right click, 'empty trash' like 7-10 times to have it delete all my files. It is not a case of some of the files are still in use. No, its just that it feels like my mac can only delete X amount of files from trash at once. Its very annoying - does anyone else have this issue or know how to solve it? I have a 2021 M1 macbook pro
video still doesn't tell me how to delete cache from the trash bin, Delete immediately does not work. short of going back to factory settings I don't want to be entering code as some video's suggest
A question and a comment. The question. You say that there are actually two trash locations - iCloud and Local. Your description of local only spoke of files on the local (internal) drive. What of files on an external drive. Are they put into that internal trash or a third, fourth, etc. containers for each external drive? The comment. You speak of putting "Files" into the trash when in fact, or at least it is my understanding that you are only putting the "location" of those files into the trash. The actual data that make up the file is deleted which means that the file is still accessible until overwritten.
Each drive has its own trash, technically, but you see it all in the same Trash folder.The "data is still there until overwritten" isn't worth thinking about since for years Macs have encrypted data on the drive. So any bits not overwritten are just garbage once the file is deleted.
My settings must be messed up. Command + delete always try to delete the file immediately. "Are you sure you want to delete" Command + option + delete does nothing. Dragging s file the bin folder will also try to delete immediately. "Are you sure you want to delete "
I wish you covered why Apple took away the ability to securely delete an item because deleting an item in the trash really doesn't delete it from your hard drive.
I know that on Windows, there are people that do actually store files in the “recycling bin”, as its called on windows (And i always scream every time i hear about someone doing that, and there have even been times where another person was asked to take a look at the computer, and they emptied it not realising the person was storing documents in it)
I think macmost is a very good channel, because things get explained in a very clear and simple way, reducing complexity to a minimum. Of course, the topics are often pretty simple. But to be honest, I did not know many of these things, despite me being a Mac user for more than ten years. Very well done!
On my MacBook Ventura 13.1 Empty Trash Automatically is not in System Settings. It is in Finder Settings, Advanced.
Thanks
It took me quite a while to find that as General >Storage doesn't offer any settings , just data.
I’ve used Mac since 1984, have been an Apple Certified Repair Technician, and consider myself a power-user… yet some of these shortcuts I never knew! Thanks Gary!
Gary always has amazing things to offer that I'd never even think of.
7:46. I have always wondered what was going on here. Thanks!
Thanks, Gary. I always learn something new from every video you have produced.
For those of you that also use the command line (the Terminal app) there is the rm command, which will delete a file immediately and not put it in the Trash, For an extra layer of safety, when invoking the rm command, use the -i option. So, if you enter rm -i myFile, you will get a prompt that asks you whether you want to remove the file named myFile. If you enter the rm command using a wildcard, e.g., rm -i myFile* , you will get a prompt for each file that matches the wildcard, asking you if you want to remove that file.
Having said all this, it is safer to do your file deletions using one of the methods that puts the deleted files into the Trash, in case you change your mind.
Another fantastic video and this time about trash 😃 I had no idea you can set the trash to be deleted after 30 day automatically. That is one feature I turned on immediately. Keep up the great work and I have no idea why you do not have millions of subscribers by this point
It's amazing how many functions exist that I never knew about....thank you
Thanks very much, Gary, for this extremely interesting and useful video. There’s certainly more to Trash than meets the eye!
Thank you, Gary. Each time when I think I reached the bottom of MacOS [knowledge] Gary knocks from beneath. "My trash might be my treasure".
Your last comments reminded me of something I’ve wondered about. Suppose I have Time Machine configured to backup changes. What would happen if within that hour I create a file but delete it and then empty the trash? Does Time Machine back up that file, even preventing it from being permanently deleted until after the next backup runs? Or does Time Machine not backup files in the trash?
I don't think so. But if you didn't have your Time Machine drive connected, like with a MacBook on-the-go, then it may get backed up to the local snapshot on the hour, and then on to the Time Machine backup when connected again.
Hi Gary, I tried to set the trash to delete at 30 days however that option is not available to me in the General - Storage area. The only options I have in there are Store in iCloud and Optimize Storage. What am I missing?
Disregard this question as I see the answer further down in the comments. Thank you to CPF9898 as what worked on his MacBook works on my Mac!
Thanks for all the info. I’m having a strange problem. When I try to empty my trash, I get an error message saying that the folders are being used. I don’t have any programs open. Any idea what’s happening? Thanks.
Always learn at least one really useful nugget. Thanks MacMost!
Wow Gary, that video had a lot of helpful information, thanks.
Gary there seems to be an issue with Put Back if you have Desktop and Documents synced in iCloud. with me Put Back gives an error message that the deleted file doesn't exist BUT I can manually drag it out of the trash? If using files in non synced iCloud folders "Put Back" works as expected ?
Hi Gary, I cant Empty the trash, it says " the operation cant be completed because some items are opened" were as there is no item open in any app. even i tried force shutting down and i cant remove the file from trash.
Your comment about not putting things in the Trash that you may need/want is important. I used to work at a University, and one of the secretaries was having issues with her Mac and asked for my help. (I want to say that this was during Mac OS 9 days.) I spent a couple of hours on that thing. One of her issues was her hard drive needed space, so I emptied her trash. By the end, her computer was working just fine. Then, later, she came to my office screaming at me for emptying her trash. Sure enough, she was using it for "storage." BTW, she never even thanked me at all for the work I did (and that was not my job at the university).
What a shame.. She didn't say thank you!
Hello Sir, can you make a video on how to backup an iPhone to an external drive? Thanks for all of your videos.
You would normally connect your iPhone to a Mac and then back it up, but that would be saved on the internal drive. However, today, just backing up to iCloud should be all you need.
@@macmost got it. Thanks for the reply.
This tutorial was pure Trash. I mean that literally of course as it was awesome 👍🏼👍🏼 There’s also a separate Trash folder for when you delete something from an external HD.
Want to get an iphone from samsung .... just came across this channel
Any advice for a newbie?
I was hoping to find a tip on how to force empty the trash. My Mac refuses to completely empty the trash saying those files are still in use. Needless to say they are not; they were old Lightroom backups that I’m clearing to make space for newer ones.
Do you have a work around for this? Thanks in advance🙂
Did you try doing it after a restart? Do you still maybe have remnants of Lightroom running in the background? Try booting into Safe Mode and emptying the trash then too. If all else fails, you can always go into Terminal and use rm to remove the files from there.
You could try: Apple symbol/Force Quit/Finder/Relaunch. Works for me 95% of the time.
If you use a regular mouse, could you just right click and delete the file, then go to the trash and right click, empty trash like on a windows computer?
Yes. Try it and see.
Good video, Gary!
Hey, I have a question, Gary.
I have two Macs on my desk that share the same iCloud account. The second machine does *NOT* have the sync documents and desktop on, but the main one does.
However, both of them seem to share the trash can. I have stuff in the trash on Machine 2 from Machine 1 and vice versa.
Do you know how to stop this behavior? As best I can tell, there's no way to do this with both of them being logged into the same iCloud account. I'd really rather the trash cans be separate, but can't find a way to do that.
Do you know of one?
If a file is in iCloud and you move it to the Trash, it would appear in the Trash on the other Mac too. Why wouldn't it? Seems like the correct behavior.
@@macmost That may be, but I don't WANT a shared trashcan. There's no way to turn it off?
@@JoeSiegler The file was on both your Macs before, through iCloud Drive, and it is still on both your Macs when you move it to the Trash. It would be odd if moving it to the Trash suddenly excluded it from the other Mac. See what I mean? You can always use the Delete Immediately function if your goal is to save space or something.
In Ventura trash does not show in system settings.
Hello Gary. I found this tutorial on the trash to be especially useful. I will use either the context menu by right-clicking, or the keystroke combination shortcut, depending on where my fingers are and which is more convenient to use. (Most of the time, it’s the context menu because I’ve already used the mouse to click on the file). Excellent video and thank you!
I cannot empty trash.. says caches is being used, can I try and delete the caches in the trash,, is that safe ?
Caches in the trash? What exactly are they? From what app? How did they get there?
Thanks bunches
Did they remove the option to do a secure delete? You did not mention it.
With SSDs and APFS there's no need for that anymore.
Awesome tips (as always) G Money!
I hope that you know this.
As a Windows user, I learnt that even after deleting a file and removing it from the recycle bin does not delete the file permanently, it can be recovered by file recovery software.
The same goes with Mac operating systems, deleting a file and removing it from the trash does not delete the file permanently.
If you want to make sure that deleted files can never be recovered, you have to shred it using a file shredder, the disk space that occupied by the deleted file must be overwritten to make it unrecoverable.
Hello, how could I have the bin on the desktop? thanks
It is a special feature of the Dock, you can't also have it on the Desktop.
I didn’t put any cache into the trash. When I put a bunch of pictures in the trash and tried to delete them. This error came up about the cache being used . Going to re- set to factory settings.
Don't do that. That's overkill. Quit all apps. Then try booting into Safe Mode. See if you can empty the trash then. If not, you will have to do more work to identify what "cache" is in your trash and how it got there. Call Apple Support if you need more direct help.
I use multiple bins, collecting the trash selectively: documents, images, videos and everything else
Who knew there are two Trash folders? Not me but I do now.
This class certainly has cleared up the trash situation! A very useful and informative video tutorial today! Thank you, Gary! 👏🏻❤️
Thanks for the video. I am new to Mac and was trying to delete files from an external drive and also noticed it had it's own trash folder as well. I was trying to delete large amounts of files to free up space on the external hard drive and it would delete some but give me "file in use" for some even though I had no apps running which I thought was odd. If I deleted files in the folders individually it would delete with no issue but it didn't seem to like the mass delete. Eventually cleaned it up but took a long time to go in each folder to select all files and delete. I have another folder on that external drive that is doing the same thing now. I am going to try the Safe Mode way. Hopefully it works. Thanks for the tip.
I need help and I cannot find it anywhere. If there is anyone who knows how to fix this, please let me know.
When I empty trash, only like 1/7th of the files delete. So I have to right click, 'empty trash' like 7-10 times to have it delete all my files. It is not a case of some of the files are still in use. No, its just that it feels like my mac can only delete X amount of files from trash at once. Its very annoying - does anyone else have this issue or know how to solve it? I have a 2021 M1 macbook pro
video still doesn't tell me how to delete cache from the trash bin, Delete immediately does not work. short of going back to factory settings I don't want to be entering code as some video's suggest
Once you have moved something to the Trash, use Finder, Empty Trash to empty it.
The operation can’t be completed because the item “Caches” is in use. no matter what I do that cache in the trash bin will not delete
@@glenwhite1038 What "cache" did you put in there though? Safari's cache? Something else? Did you try quitting that app?
One small point. You might have included a word about which files and why cannot be emptied from Trash once they are there.
A question and a comment.
The question. You say that there are actually two trash locations - iCloud and Local. Your description of local only spoke of files on the local (internal) drive. What of files on an external drive. Are they put into that internal trash or a third, fourth, etc. containers for each external drive?
The comment. You speak of putting "Files" into the trash when in fact, or at least it is my understanding that you are only putting the "location" of those files into the trash. The actual data that make up the file is deleted which means that the file is still accessible until overwritten.
Each drive has its own trash, technically, but you see it all in the same Trash folder.The "data is still there until overwritten" isn't worth thinking about since for years Macs have encrypted data on the drive. So any bits not overwritten are just garbage once the file is deleted.
My settings must be messed up. Command + delete always try to delete the file immediately. "Are you sure you want to delete"
Command + option + delete does nothing.
Dragging s file the bin folder will also try to delete immediately. "Are you sure you want to delete "
Maybe you are trying to delete a file on an external drive that is not formatted for Mac? Otherwise, I would call Apple Support as that is not normal.
@@macmost oh ya you are right. It is when I am deleting from my google drive
I wish you covered why Apple took away the ability to securely delete an item because deleting an item in the trash really doesn't delete it from your hard drive.
Not needed anymore since the drive is encrypted. Once the file is gone any remnants are just random data.
No drag & drop? no icon view? you’re turning into a Windows user, Gary. 😂
I know that on Windows, there are people that do actually store files in the “recycling bin”, as its called on windows
(And i always scream every time i hear about someone doing that, and there have even been times where another person was asked to take a look at the computer, and they emptied it not realising the person was storing documents in it)
This video is Trash. Thanks for the great work as always!