simple Trash question

[Mal]

I think I figured out a way to arrange your trash by date deleted. It involves Stacks, so it'll only work in Leopard.

Go to the Finder, press cmd+shift+G to bring up the "Go" menu, type in ~/.Trash , and drag the folder icon from the title bar down to the dock to make it a stack. Now, ctrl/2tap/right click on your new stack and click "date added" under "sort by", and click "grid" under "view content as".

Curious that you have to do it with a stack instead of having a column for it in the Finder, but hey, it works for now.

Very clever, nice find!

I have to say though, to all of you talking about keeping stuff in the Trash and not deleting it: Why are you putting it in the Trash if you're not sure if you want to delete it? I understand making a mistake, but you then go back and get the file, the Empty the Trash right away! Otherwise, you're probably going to end up doing exactly what you're talking about. Apple doesn't need to implement single file deletion, because it would simply encourage this type of behavior which is not optimal or intended.

jW

 

[GroovyLinuxGuy]

open Terminal and type:

cd .Trash

ls -ltr

That will give you listing of the files in Trash. Newest at the bottom.

To remove them from the trash either note the names of the files and drag/drop them from finder or type

mv FILENAME /Users/yourname

easy peasy!

 

[zephead]

I shall have a look at that when I get back home .. I may need some clarification on "2tap" etc (ok, ok, but I'm just starting). Meantime many thanks for taking the trouble. If anyone else has a fix for identifying just-deleted trash, please pitch in.

It's just because there's more than one way to bring up a secondary menu (i.e. right-click menu) on a Mac: You can hold Ctrl and click, two-finger tap-click on the trackpad (can be enabled in KB & Mouse Preferences), or for people with external mice, you can simply right-click, although with the Mighty Mouse you have to enable right-click.

 

[sOwL]

There is tremendous pressure on Apple not to repair Trash and make it functional because then it would be too much like the hated Windows with its fully functional Recycle Bin.

This rly sounds like "fanboy talking". Why cant people admit that, in some features like the "recycle bin's", windows IS superior. I mean c'mon, windows are ripping off macs for years, why cant macs get some nice features that are already used in windows?

 

[snberk103]

Very clever, nice find!

I have to say though, to all of you talking about keeping stuff in the Trash and not deleting it: Why are you putting it in the Trash if you're not sure if you want to delete it? I understand making a mistake, but you then go back and get the file, the Empty the Trash right away! Otherwise, you're probably going to end up doing exactly what you're talking about. Apple doesn't need to implement single file deletion, because it would simply encourage this type of behavior which is not optimal or intended.

jW

I agree. Trash is where I put stuff that I know I can delete, and I empty the trash often. For other stuff I have a folder on my desktop called "Hide". Basically, that's where I put all the cr... umm, 'stuff' - that I'm not sure about. Every few months I look at it, realize that I haven't actually looked inside of it for 3 months, and trash the whole thing. However - I always *feel* safer when I put stuff in it because I know its not going anywhere.

In my world, trash = trash, and the Hide folder is the floor beside my desk. Tentacles and all.

 

[randallking]

Very clever, nice find!

I have to say though, to all of you talking about keeping stuff in the Trash and not deleting it: Why are you putting it in the Trash if you're not sure if you want to delete it? I understand making a mistake, but you then go back and get the file, the Empty the Trash right away! Otherwise, you're probably going to end up doing exactly what you're talking about. Apple doesn't need to implement single file deletion, because it would simply encourage this type of behavior which is not optimal or intended.

jW

I use my Trash as a place I put stuff that I *think* I want to eventually delete. I don't want to empty it right away, because I could end up needing one of those files either days, weeks, or even months later.

In my view, Microsoft gets this right, because the Recycle Bin is set to not exceed a certain percentage of the drive or a specified size. Then I can move things to the Recycle Bin at my heart's content and *never* worry about emptying it. It just removes the older items automatically as I move newer ones to the Recycle Bin.

Now picture a Recycle Bin or Trash that may contain hundreds or thousands of items. Imagine that you just moved a few dozen or a hundred files to the Trash a few moments ago, but now you decide you want to replace all those items. It's a little cumbersome to try and determine which files were just moved to the Trash unless you have a "Date Deleted" or similar feature.

Maybe some of you don't work with this many files, but some of us do.

Anyway, just my two cents.

 

[randallking]

I think I figured out a way to arrange your trash by date deleted. It involves Stacks, so it'll only work in Leopard.

Go to the Finder, press cmd+shift+G to bring up the "Go" menu, type in ~/.Trash , and drag the folder icon from the title bar down to the dock to make it a stack. Now, ctrl/2tap/right click on your new stack and click "date added" under "sort by", and click "grid" under "view content as".

Curious that you have to do it with a stack instead of having a column for it in the Finder, but hey, it works for now.

This was an *excellent* idea and allowed me to do just what I needed! Thank you so much!

 

[iGnome]

Still not sorted

No harm re booting an old thread. In fact it just serves to highlight how completely stupid the trash on OSX is. Like the guy who started this post I just 'heard' a zapping noise that let me know that I had trashed something by accident but what? To be able to goto date trashed and see instantly would be brilliant and not too taxing as a concept or implementation exercise. Totally usesless that I now have to go through the whole trash bin to try and work out what it was.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

It's a little cumbersome to try and determine which files were just moved to the Trash unless you have a "Date Deleted" or similar feature.

This is exactly why Apple added the "Date Added" sorting option to the Finder.

I'll just add my input as a firm believer in that the trash folder is a place for files that you want deleted. It's just not safe to put files you might need later in there. In fact it's kinda silly to do something like that. There are an infinite number of other folders you could put your junk in and for some reason people believe that the trash folder would be a good place to put files.

If I ever accidentally delete something that I didn't want to I have a few back up drives that I store all my files from the passed few months.