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by tspoone on May 4th, 2008

tspoone

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Mac OSX how do I delete a single file from the trash in OS X

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  • by the Otter on May 6th, 2008

    the Otter

    Well, the easiest way would be to drag everything else out of the trash and then empty it.

    * * *

    A quicker method would be to open the Terminal and type:

    rm [space]

    …for “remove,” then drag the file into the Terminal window and press [return].

    * * *

    If the file is being particularly obstinate, there’s probably a problem with its permissions. In this case, just type:

    sudo rm [space]

    … for “superuser do remove,” then drag the file into the Terminal window and press return. It will prompt you for the root password (probably your administrator-level password) and, if correctly authorized, will then delete the file.

    * * *

    One caveat: if the file you’re trying to remove from the Trash is a text clipping, dragging it into the Terminal will bring in the *contents* of the clipping instead of the name, so neither the second nor the third method will work.

    And finally, fwiw, I gave you +2 for your question. I’m not sure why it was DRed, but it seems like a good question to me!

    Comments

    • Thank you so much for posting that!! It was driving me crazy, and I thought I would have to download a separate program to solve the issue. Thank you thank you!

      Jessica

      by Jessica on June 18th, 2008

    • No problem!

      the Otter

      by the Otter on June 18th, 2008

    • "A quicker method would be to open the Terminal and type:
      rm [space]
      …for “remove,” then drag the file into the Terminal window and press [return]."

      You rock! :-)

      flalberto

      by flalberto on March 13th, 2011

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