How to truly delete a file in Mac OS X

Most people aren’t aware that when you empty the trash in Mac OS X, you aren’t actually deleting a file. It’s true. Selecting Empty Trash from the Finder menu, or using the Command + Shift + Delete keyboard shortcut simply marks the chosen files or folders in a way that allows the system to overwrite them whenever it needs to. The actual files remain on your hard drive until the system actually writes another file on top of them.

In order to truly delete a file or folder, you must use Mac OS X’s Secure Empty Trash command under the Finder menu. When you use this method to empty your trash, the system actually overwrites the file with gibberish data, mostly ensuring your file is unrecoverable.

Securely Empty Trash If you’re concerned about security, you can set Mac OS X to always securely delete your files when you empty the trash the normal way by going to your menubar and choosing Finder>Preferences, and turning on the Empty Trash Securely item.

Venus Vanwagner says:

08/31/2011 at 1:07 pm

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Tucker says:

06/19/2010 at 11:56 pm

Same reason they don’t do data recovery in the store, it’s a legal nightmare. Providing those tools would make them somewhat responsible in the eyes of some. Only safe option is good backups and don’t empty your trash until you know it’s safe.

James says:

06/03/2010 at 3:47 am

Easy way? No, unfortunately not. But now that you mention it, I wonder why Apple doesn’t build in a drive/file recovery app. They have TimeMachine – which essentially accomplishes the main goal.

There are a few consumer apps out there that will attempt to recover files, but I’ve found that more often than not, they don’t work very well.

Pinball says:

05/28/2010 at 1:22 pm

Cool tip. Given that with a normal empty trash the file isn’t actually deleted, is there an easy way to recover a file that was accidentally deleted? Assuming that it isn’t backed up on external hard drive.

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