Can only delete files immediately, not store in trash

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Level 1

6 points

Can only delete files immediately, not store in trash

Mac Studio 2022 using Monterey 12.3.1 and at some point something happened and now when I drag items to the trash, it asks me if I want to delete immediately. Been on a Mac for 30 years and I like keeping things in the trash for a few days to a week before deleting. Wonder if I hit a setting somewhere, but have researched a lot to no avail.

I saw a thread that said to delete my '.trash' folder in my Home folder, but I only have a regular 'Trash' folder in there, and I'm not sure how to delete it.

Mac Studio, macOS 12.3

Posted on Jan 4, 2023 9:51 AM

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Answer 1

Kz71 Author

Level 1

6 points

Jan 5, 2023 5:50 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

It's everything I drag to trash, and most are local files (screenshots on my desktop, files from my downloads folder). It was never like this on my Macs over the last 20ish years, but suddenly in the last few months now.

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Answer 2

Kz71 Author

Level 1

6 points

Jan 5, 2023 5:52 AM in response to MartinR

It is actually consistent. I've had this computer for a year, and trash acted normally for 10 months (would drag files to it, they would stay there until I emptied trash). About 2 months ago, it suddenly wouldn't let me put files in the trash, it would ask me if I wanted to delete them immediately.

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

121,454 points

Jan 6, 2023 10:35 AM in response to Kz71

You may have to create the .Trash folder in Terminal.

mkdir ~/.Trash

There’s seems to be something broken somewhere, but I’ll have to play around deleting mine to see what happens to figure out if it’s a Ventura problem, or in some thing with your user.

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Answer 4

MartinR

Level 7

23,704 points

Jan 4, 2023 3:36 PM in response to Kz71

Sometimes I create a desktop folder that I call "Pre-Trash" and move files there so I can keep them around for awhile before I actually delete them by moving them to Trash. It would at least be a workaround for you until you figure out why deleting on your Mac isn't working the way it should.

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Answer 5

Barney-15E

Level 10

121,454 points

Jan 7, 2023 8:01 AM in response to Barney-15E

I got a chance to test this out and believe something is wrong with your system. I don't know what, but it is not working correctly.

I deleted the .Trash folder from a test user account and then sent an Item to the Trash. It recreated .Trash.

I don't know why you are getting a hidden Trash folder instead of .Trash.

Instead of the command I posted before, you could try renaming Trash in Terminal,

sudo mv ~/Trash ~/.Trash

That must be done from an admin capable account.

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Answer 6

Kz71 Author

Level 1

6 points

Jan 4, 2023 2:12 PM in response to Barney-15E

Thank you for your reply.

I didn't mention, but I did show my hidden folders. I have a few '.files' at the top, but no '.Trash' I do have a 'Trash' folder, but it is grayed out. I've attached a screenshot.

Overall, I don't ever want to delete immediately. I throw away many files every day, particularly screenshots I'm taking that land on my desktop, and I like having these files in my trash for a while, and then going to Trash>Empty Trash maybe every week or so to empty them. I've been on a Mac since 1993, and I've had this habit as long as I can remember. It somehow just suddenly changed. I now can't Empty Trash because it's always empty, nothing will go in there, it makes me delete it right then.

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Answer 7

Barney-15E

Level 10

121,454 points

Jan 4, 2023 11:58 AM in response to Kz71

You shouldn’t see a Trash folder in your home folder. It is normally hidden by prefixing the name with a .

If you show hidden files with cmd-shift-. you should see .Trash.

That is what to delete. I don’t know if you can delete it in Finder.

I think you can delete immediately (instead of Move to Trash) if you hold down the option key.

It will be auto created when you move something to the Trash.

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Answer 8

MartinR

Level 7

23,704 points

Jan 4, 2023 3:37 PM in response to IdrisSeabright

My experience there is that deleting from a networked drive is immediate; and deleting from a removable drive is inconsistent - sometimes the files/folders go to Trash, other times they are deleted immediately. Have not been able to figure out any reason why it's inconsistent.

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Answer 9

Jan 4, 2023 4:46 PM in response to MartinR

MartinR wrote:

My experience there is that deleting from a networked drive is immediate; and deleting from a removable drive is inconsistent - sometimes the files/folders go to Trash, other times they are deleted immediately. Have not been able to figure out any reason why it's inconsistent.

I never use networked drives so, I couldn’t tell you how they work. And, as only occasionally use removable drives, I could be wrong about that.

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Answer 10

Barney-15E

Level 10

121,454 points

Jan 5, 2023 10:44 AM in response to Kz71

I guess I haven’t said it directly, only hinted at it, but that’s not your Trash folder. How or why it is as it is I can’t explain. Since it is not correct, it doesn’t work correctly. I don’t know why it doesn’t create a new, correct, .Trash. I only asked if anything was in it to figure out where it came from.

There must be something about it that is making the OS think it is correct.

Delete it and if it doesn’t auto creat one, add one. That may have to be done in Terminal.

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Answer 11

Kz71 Author

Level 1

6 points

Jan 6, 2023 8:28 AM in response to Barney-15E

Thank you for your help, Barney.

So, I did some troubleshooting and this is what I've found. In my home folder, showing hidden files, there is no .Trash folder, only a Trash folder. I threw the Trash folder away, it appears gone, then, when I try to move a file from my desktop to my trash icon in the dock, it still asks me if I want to immediately delete. What's interesting, though, is that the Trash folder then reappears in my Home folder again after doing this. Also, I can drag files from my desktop into the Trash folder within the home folder, and they will then show up in my trash waiting to be deleted, I don't have to delete immediately. It's almost as if there is some hold up with the actual trash icon from my dock linking to a folder, maybe it can't find since there is no .Trash folder, so that's why it has to ask if I want to delete immediately. I also tried renaming the Trash folder to .Trash, and it says that it can't because this name is reserved by the system.

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Answer 12

Jan 4, 2023 2:26 PM in response to Kz71

Are you moving things from a removable drive? If I recall correctly, if you drag something to the trash from a removable drive, you will only have the option of deleting immediately.

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