Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Deleting selected items from Trash

iTrash works

Jacktabby, iTrash seems to work for me.
Thanks.
For those who couldn't get it work, there is another alternative solution in page 3 of this forum, i think, using a script. Just involves an extra step but works as well.

----------

and i really wish people stopped arguing about the logic of wanting something out of our macs. That part of the thread was a waste of my morning.

please be constructive and concentrate on HOW to work out a solution to the question asked, rather then WHY and whether it's smart. No one asked that.
 
Original question:
acidity said:
The question might be stupid but is there any way to deleted some selected items from Trash??
Click to expand...

miles01110 said:
The solution is the obvious one: Don't Put Items In The Trash You Don't Want To Delete.
Click to expand...
Not a solution, or even an answer to the question that was asked. Actually, a valid answer is "No, not with any setting that is built in to the OS."
 
just found this with my google-fu

Open a terminal window and type in "rm " (without the quotes, but with a space at the end).

Open the trash and drag the file you want to delete onto the terminal window. The file path will appear.

Press return in the terminal window to delete the file.
Click to expand...

notice there's a space on rm, so you type rm + <space>, then you drag the file

For multiple files, you have to do it one by one though :)
 
Deleting selected items from Trash

I remember being able to do this in a previous version of OS X. You would Open the Trash, select the items you wanted to delete and then either through a context sensitive menu or from the menu bar delete only those items.

My problem is clearing out USB drives. I need to delete only the files on them not what is in my trash. However, without deleting all of the files in the trash I can't seem to clear those drives and get back the precious space needed. Maybe there is a shortcut for that other than using terminal.

I love OS X over Windows, but I hate when newer versions take away features that we learn to use and love.
 
hillmp said:
I remember being able to do this in a previous version of OS X. You would Open the Trash, select the items you wanted to delete and then either through a context sensitive menu or from the menu bar delete only those items.

My problem is clearing out USB drives. I need to delete only the files on them not what is in my trash. However, without deleting all of the files in the trash I can't seem to clear those drives and get back the precious space needed. Maybe there is a shortcut for that other than using terminal.

I love OS X over Windows, but I hate when newer versions take away features that we learn to use and love.
Click to expand...


Yep, and it's hard to explain to my mother why the USB stick has no free space, even though there are no files on it and I don't necessarily want her to empty the trash on the entire computer.

Annoying that trash control is not more granular.

Of course I'm wrong because SJ didn't sanction it to work like this.
 
My experience

kubark42 said:
I'm pretty sure that since this has been SOP on Macs for as far back as anyone can remember, that TM as a solution wasn't even a glimmer in anyone's eyes. Moreover, TM only works on the directories you allow it, so it's relatively trivial to find a situation where TM wouldn't work.

I agree that we have to adapt, I just don't agree that we should have to adapt to the machine when it would be ludicrously easy to adapt the machine to us.
Click to expand...

I really would appreciate the selective erasing possibility. I like to review the files prior to permanent deletion, and I do not empty trash daily like I should perhaps do. Often I need to empty trash from my pen drives (to use the storage space) and don't have the time to review all the files in the trash (from several disks).
I agree with those who say that it should not be difficult to Apple to provide us with this flexibility
 
hillmp said:
My problem is clearing out USB drives. I need to delete only the files on them not what is in my trash.
Click to expand...

For USB drives, I always end up deleting the files in Windows instead. Perhaps not the smartest thing to do, and wouldn't mind someone enlightening me otherwise.
 
After reading some of the replies to the OP question I can see where everyone keeps saying don’t delete it if you didn’t want it deleted. But my situation is a little different. I used one of those look for duplicate app and when I was finished it had deleted almost all of my 2000 images from my trip to Alaska (I forgot it would count the already transferred and convert files in Lightroom) Anyways I’m still on the remote island in Alaska with an almost full HD and it will not let me move the files back, So I deleted about 40gb of movies I had on my MBP Well those are still in my Trash along with all the images, Now I don’t want to empty my trash since I don’t want to lose the images but I would like to free up as much room as possible.

Any suggestions?
 
ilockert said:
...with an almost full HD and it will not let me move the files back, So I deleted about 40gb of movies I had on my MBP Well those are still in my Trash along with all the images, Now I don’t want to empty my trash since I don’t want to lose the images . ?
Click to expand...

What OS version do you have? Do you have the Put Back option?

what happens when you try to drag one of the image files out of the Trash?
 
A workaround that allows you to delete selective files from the trash

http://apple.stackexchange.com/ques...le-directly-and-bypass-moving-it-to-the-trash

This is a simple app that you place in Library/Services folder (you might have to create the Services folder). Once it's installed, you can create a keyboard shortcut to it, like I used function/control/option/command "D" and after one confirmation window, the file or multiple file selections are immediately and permanently vaporized - whether they were in the finder or in the trash bin.
 
apfhex said:
:confused:

If you don't want to delete the files, don't put them in the Trash in the first place. You wouldn't toss a hot dog in the trash if you were going to eat it would you? ;)
Click to expand...

What a smarmy response. And not helpful. I know this thread is real old, but here's a way to delete select items from the Mac trash.

1. Copy everything in the trash to a folder elsewhere.
2. Make sure the trash is emptied.
3. Take the files you want to permanently delete and drag them to the trash.
4. Empty the trash again.
5. Drag the temp folder you made and/or it's contents into the trash.
6. Seek help for possible hoarding issues...just kidding.

The high-minded thinking of Mac engineers prevents them from doing anything THEY think is stupid. To heck with them. Hope this helps somebody.
 
Holy cow, some of these replies are just plain condescending. "You have a Mac, learn how to use it"?? Jesus. I am an all Mac person, but you don't learn all this crap overnight. SMH.
And the "simple solution" isn't always so simple. My HD is full. Suddenly, inexplicably, I have 1.9 MILLION files in the trash. I can't move them back to a folder to go through. Give me a damn delete button and be done with it, Mac.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back