How to get my trash bin back (mojave)

[MacWanker]

Hello,
I did something in terminal on mojave years ago to turn off my full trash function, and I can't remember where I saw it, or what it was, or more importantly, how to reverse it. Yes, stupid I know, but it seemed like a good idea at the time (in fairness, I had an immediate need to do that at the time..)

Currently, if I delete something from the finder (using command+delete), it's deleted immediately without going to the trash can first...like this:

https://imgur.com/a/SZgLIoG

I'd like to reverse this function back to normal - so deleted items go to the trash can first - before I update the OS to newer than mojave. Trash can icon is still there, and it still has the open & empty trash options...just nothing goes to it!

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Bigwaff]

Reinstall Mojave.

 

[Nermal]

Might you have added REMOVE_FROM_DOCK to your DockMenus.plist? If so, then you should be able to remove that dictionary then reboot.

Edit: Actually, that one says that rebooting will restore the icon, so you must have done something different. Does the icon show up in a new user account?

 

[bogdanw]

I did something in terminal on mojave years ago to turn off my full trash function,

You probably locked the Trash folder for the user (~/.Trash).
You could delete it and log out. It should be recreated with the proper permissions.
From Terminal:

sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash

 

[MacWanker]

Might you have added REMOVE_FROM_DOCK to your DockMenus.plist? If so, then you should be able to remove that dictionary then reboot.

Edit: Actually, that one says that rebooting will restore the icon, so you must have done something different. Does the icon show up in a new user account?

Thanks. I don't think it was that...

However, I have been delving into old notes & emails and I found one from 2018, with just one word - 'trash' - and with a link to this, so I think it might be this that I used in some variation, or I saved this as a way to undo it: https://www.macworld.com/article/22...-from-deleting-trashed-files-immediately.html

 

[MacWanker]

You probably locked the Trash folder for the user (~/.Trash).
You could delete it and log out. It should be recreated with the proper permissions.
From Terminal:

sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash

Thanks... the link I found saved in my notes HERE gives a similar combo and also that exact one, so you are right on the money. Thanks!

 

[Fishrrman]

This is essentially a repeat of what bogdan posted above, with an additional terminal command.
(from my archives):
============
Try the following in Terminal

sudo rm -r ~/.Trash

Enter your password when prompted. If you get an error with this
one then the following one won't work.
To recreate the directory...

mkdir ~/.Trash

Logout then login again.
============