Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Trash problem, gone permanently when it has not been emptied

Sep 19, 2010 4:31PM PDT

Unlike many other issues involving the inability to trash, or to keep an item from re-appearing, my iMac had just developed a quirk that is concerning. As with my Macbook pro, I have always been able to drag an item(s) to the trash, and until I empty the trash - to see those items and even drag them out. Now i still can do that with the Macbook, but not the iMac. As soon as I drop an item in, i get a msg asking me if i want to delete this item, as it will be unrecoverable. Sure enough, drop drag and drop it into the trash and it disappears - permanently, no sign of it at all in the trash. No, the box is not ticked in the Finder preferences, to Empty Trash Securely.

Any clues that will help restore back to the former situation will be welcomed. I do back-up, but only at the end of the day, and dropped a music file into the trash accidentally, thinking it was an unwanted copy - and it was very much wanted. That's when i discovered this new quirk Sad

Why is this so?

iMac - 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 duo; 4GB SDRAM; running 10.6.4

I am running 10.6./4 on the Macbook pro as well.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Trash problem
Sep 19, 2010 9:59PM PDT

try deleting the Finder preferences.

You will find them in Yourhomefolder\library\preferences.

Drag com.apple.finder.plist to the desktop and reboot your machine.

Check the trash behavior with an unwanted item

P

- Collapse -
Trash problem - Fixed!
Sep 20, 2010 8:39AM PDT

Don't cha just love it when a straight forward solution is found. Thanks Mr Fixit - nice work Happy

- Collapse -
You're welcome
Sep 20, 2010 9:15AM PDT

glad it did the trick


P

- Collapse -
Similar Trash problem, Deleting finder prefs no help
Sep 4, 2011 5:33PM PDT

I am having the nearly identical problem as Ras-x, about a year later. I say nearly because in addition to any file or folder I drag to the trash disappearing (after the warning), the Empty Trash, Secure Empty Trash and Move to Trash buttons in the Finder Menus are all grayed out. Recent online searches provided lots of similar trash problems, but this one posted above by Ras-x on 9/19/10 is exactly what I'm experiencing, minus all the grayed out buttons. I was so excited when I found this, but my excitement was quickly replaced by frustration after deleting the finder prefs and rebooting failed to fix any of the issues

- Collapse -
As the preference thing did nothing for you,
Sep 4, 2011 11:23PM PDT

try this: