Keyboard shortcut for delete doesn't work

Are you using the correct delete? There are two of them. Its the one called 'backspace' on windows keyboards. Its right under F11 and F12.

 

well the command to empty trashcan is shift-command-delete. not sure what is going on with the one though.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459

 

The order of shift and command shouldn't matter. Delete does have to be last though.

 

Glad I could help. I wonder what that "other delete" key is called anyway?

 

Forward Delete

 

Solution on OS X Mavericks

This is an old thread, but it still appears near the top of relevant searches for the problem, so I'm posting my result here.

tl;dr: If ⌘-delete doesn't work, try ⌘-⌥-delete (command-option-delete) instead.

I had this problem on a new iMac with a standard Apple keyboard running the latest version of OS X (Mavericks 10.9.3 as of this writing). This was driving me crazy because I use ⌘-delete frequently, and I often switch between the iMac and my MacBook Air (running the same version of OS X) on which ⌘-delete works fine. I just discovered by chance and desperation that, for some reason, ⌘-⌥-delete (command-option-delete) does work. It's not as good as having the same keystrokes work on both machines, but at least now there's some keyboard shortcut I can use on the iMac.