There, push the Secure Empty Trash button. As an alternative, you may open any Finder window and click on the menu. The Empty Trash option will transform into Secure Empty Trash. Click on the trash icon while holding down the Command key. How to Empty Trash on Mac Normally? There are easy ways to get your trash emptied in your Mac. Permanently wipes unwanted sensitive data from any Mac. Part 2: How to Solve When Mac Trash Won’t Empty It is at those times when you can’t empty trash on Mac that panic slowly starts to trip in. Using sudo requires the administrator password but combined with rm it will absolutely forcibly remove any file regardless of whats going on with it.This is an empty trash Mac shortcut that will ensure that all feature deleted files get permanently and securely erased. This is intentionally not spelled out easily to try and prevent any novice users from accidentally deleting something significant. If that still doesn’t work you can try the ultimate delete approach using sudo and -rf *.

Have backups ready or don’t bother with this method, proceed at your own risk.Ĭonfirm you are in the proper directory and the only files you see are the ones you want to forcibly remove by using ls: If you don’t know what you’re doing you could easily delete crucial system or personal files. Make sure the syntax is correct with this, the “sudo rm -rf” command will erase anything without warning. This is a last resort and intended only for advanced users. Advanced: Forcibly Emptying the Trash via Command Line Now you can try emptying the Trash as usual through the Dock, a keyboard shortcut to dump the file, or go the rm route mentioned below. Launch Terminal found in /Applications/Utilities/ and then proceed: The first approach uses the chflags command to change the flags of all files in the Trash Change Permissions To Forcibly Empty Trash Some users have also reported Command+Shift+Option+Delete to work as a method of forcing the Trash to empty regardless of a file being locked or owned by another user. If that doesn’t work, proceed with the methods outlined below. First: Try quitting all apps to release the file lock or permissions, then attempt to Secure Empty Trash by holding down the Command key and right-clicking the Trash icon.

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