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iperson21

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 17, 2010
129
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So i recently got a mac after having a PC for a while, MBA 11" 4gb/128, and i love it like crazy, but one thing has really been pissing me off lately. Because of the relatively small ssd, I'm trying to be conservative and delete some of my ipod apps that I don't use. pressing the delete key would bring up the popup, move to trash. it still works in itunes, but it doesnt work in finder, which is annoying me when I wanna delete some word docs or something. It was working fine when i first got my air, why doesn't it work now. cmd+del works in finder, but i feel like thats clumsy so i was just wondering if there is some way to reenable it, either through system prefs or a 3rd party app. thanks again.
 
Delete never deleted files in the finder. Command+delete is the only way (or the menu option).
 
CMD+Delete is the Finder-wide shortcut to send a file to the trash. In my experience, I have never been able to move an item to the trash by pressing the delete key alone...

Also, CMD+Shift+Delete empties the trash. I miss this one dearly every time I boot over to Windows 7.
 
CMD+Delete is the Finder-wide shortcut to send a file to the trash. In my experience, I have never been able to move an item to the trash by pressing the delete key alone...

Also, CMD+Shift+Delete empties the trash. I miss this one dearly every time I boot over to Windows 7.

That reminds me: It does work like that in windows. The delete key thing.
 
Oh yes .. additional question. Can we partially Empty Trash? In case I only want to permanently delete some of many files on trash? Can I do that?

EDIT:
I only find "Empth Trash" option, select and pressing Cmd+Delete on some files located on Trash put them back to original location .. :(
 
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You can delete single files by typing "rm -f /path/to/file" into the terminal. You can get the full path by typing "rm -f " and dragging the file to the terminal window. Use rm -rf in the same way for folders. Personally, I don't put files in the trash that I don't want to trash...

EDIT: Just for you guys, I made a quick AppleScript that will get the job done. Just drag any number of files or folders that you want deleted onto it. It'll delete them all (permanently).

I've yet to see anyone actually use the scripts I've made though. I enjoy it so it doesn't matter to me. :D
 

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@desnos .. awesome, thank you .. You mean you can directly delete a file by drag it to your app?

Well you know .. sometimes I drag files to trash, but not want to delete it yet. Usually for precaution since I'm not sure I want to delete it yet. So .. a partial deletion is quite helpful for me

Thank you sir
 
@desnos .. awesome, thank you .. You mean you can directly delete a file by drag it to your app?

Well you know .. sometimes I drag files to trash, but not want to delete it yet. Usually for precaution since I'm not sure I want to delete it yet. So .. a partial deletion is quite helpful for me

Thank you sir

Yep, that's all it does. It also asks for confirmation just to be safe (it defaults to "don't delete"). It doesn't seem to work on files that are in the trash, you have to move them out first. It counts as "opening" the file since you're using an app to get the job done, which you can't do from the trash.
 
Yep, that's all it does. It also asks for confirmation just to be safe (it defaults to "don't delete"). It doesn't seem to work on files that are in the trash, you have to move them out first. It counts as "opening" the file since you're using an app to get the job done, which you can't do from the trash.

Great ... maybe you should call it "Incinerator" instead .. burning down files without trashing them :D
 
Great ... maybe you should call it "Incinerator" instead .. burning down files without trashing them :D

Haha. I might just do that! ;)

EDIT: BTW, your avatar gets me nervous. :D Mac instinct. Love it though.
 
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any idea what how to delete a pic when i'm using Preview? in Snow Leopard, when i'm opening a pic i used to click cmd+delete and it would send the file to trash...but now in Lion it doesn't work.any idea how to delete a pic instead of clicking on the thumbnail?
 
thanks

thanks for the response, and im gonna try out that apple script app. it seems pretty awesome. i guess the delete key to delete something only works in itunes.

edit: wow. it works great. thanks again.
 
thanks for the response, and im gonna try out that apple script app. it seems pretty awesome. i guess the delete key to delete something only works in itunes.

edit: wow. it works great. thanks again.

No problem! It won't work on files you don't have permission to delete by the way, such as system files. I'll add support for that if anyone really needs it, but I assume you guys don't deal with system files.
 
So i recently got a mac after having a PC for a while, MBA 11" 4gb/128, and i love it like crazy, but one thing has really been pissing me off lately. Because of the relatively small ssd, I'm trying to be conservative and delete some of my ipod apps that I don't use. pressing the delete key would bring up the popup, move to trash. it still works in itunes, but it doesnt work in finder, which is annoying me when I wanna delete some word docs or something. It was working fine when i first got my air, why doesn't it work now. cmd+del works in finder, but i feel like thats clumsy so i was just wondering if there is some way to reenable it, either through system prefs or a 3rd party app. thanks again.

Well the key you are referring to is the backspace key.

fn + backspace is "delete" in the text editing sense.

Unfortunately Apple uses CMD+backspace as the Finder file delete, which is slightly confusing, but easier to do with one hand - there being a CMD key on both sides of the space bar.

No idea about partial delete from Trash in Finder.
 
No problem! It won't work on files you don't have permission to delete by the way, such as system files. I'll add support for that if anyone really needs it, but I assume you guys don't deal with system files.

lol. i think everybody can handle going into the permissions and change them to read and write for everybody.
 
lol. i think everybody can handle going into the permissions and change them to read and write for everybody.

True, but automation is always nice. :)

EDIT: Anyway, here's the final version. It asks for your password securely via Mac OS's built-in functions, and only asks for it (once) if it needs it.
 

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True, but automation is always nice. :)

EDIT: Anyway, here's the final version. It asks for your password securely via Mac OS's built-in functions, and only asks for it (once) if it needs it.

To make it more obvious, maybe dialog text box should be changed into something like "This file(s) will be deleted permanently. Are you sure?"

And a flame shape or trash on fire icon should look cool too :D (only if you can find it) .. simple but awesome script anyway .. thank you
 
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