User profile for user: Graham Lindsay
Graham Lindsay Author
User level: Level 1
6 points

Macos 11.1 Accidently put 1Tb of files into trash bin. How can I delete them quickly? They will take days or weeks to empty normally.

I have tried using Terminal commands:


sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash

rm: /Users/glindsay/.Trash: Operation not permitted


sudo rm .Trash/*

zsh: no matches found: .Trash/*


Many of the files are from my Time Machine and will be the major cause of trouble. I did not mean them to go into the Trash directly but now I cannot get them out again.


Any useful ideas short of restoring my main drive from a clone which I do have?

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Dec 31, 2020 3:47 PM

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User profile for user: Graham Lindsay
Graham Lindsay Author
User level: Level 1
6 points

Posted on Dec 31, 2020 5:05 PM

Yes. I have already disabled Time machine for the moment. I had planned, as a last resort, to erase Time Machine drive but I was hoping to keep the last few backups at least. Not a good way to commence the new year, but I guess a clean slate might be a useful way to go. I have all my data backed up daily on a separate disk (several, actually) so I won't lose that, just the convenience of recovering deleted files easily.


Thanks for the feedback. I will bite the bullet and fix the drive.

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User profile for user: Graham Lindsay
Graham Lindsay Author
User level: Level 1
6 points

Dec 31, 2020 5:05 PM in response to dialabrain

Yes. I have already disabled Time machine for the moment. I had planned, as a last resort, to erase Time Machine drive but I was hoping to keep the last few backups at least. Not a good way to commence the new year, but I guess a clean slate might be a useful way to go. I have all my data backed up daily on a separate disk (several, actually) so I won't lose that, just the convenience of recovering deleted files easily.


Thanks for the feedback. I will bite the bullet and fix the drive.

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Macos 11.1 Accidently put 1Tb of files into trash bin. How can I delete them quickly? They will take days or weeks to empty normally.

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