General Question

serenityNOW's avatar

Mac question about deleting files?

Asked by serenityNOW (3643points) February 20th, 2013

Okay, so I hope this is simple. Somehow on my Macbook, I switched some setting somewhere: I used to be able to add files to the trash bin, in order to store files before I actually delete them. Now when I hit command-d, it asks for my password and deletes the said files immediately. Same if I drag it into the trash “bin.” This isn’t ideal, as if I have a number of files I want to delete, I like to “look” at them before I make the final judgement call! Help! Oh, and it’s Mac OS 10.8.2 with all the updates…

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4 Answers

gailcalled's avatar

(I found this on the Finder Help menu and copied it for you. Don’t take this as truth or gospel, however. But it may be worth exploring.)

************
If there’s no Empty Trash command in the Finder menu:

IF the Finder menu has a Secure Empty Trash command, but doesn’t have an Empty Trash command, you may need to change your finder preferences.

1.Click the Finder icon in the Dock to make sure you are in the Finder.

2. Choose Finder > Preferences

3. Click Advanced

4. Deselect “Empty Trash securely.”

The Finder menu now contains tow options for emptying the Trash; Empty Trash and Secure Empty Trash.

serenityNOW's avatar

@gailcalled – I already had that unchecked, so I tried checking and unchecking it, both times trashing a file, and it did the same thing: not placing them into the trash, just asked for my password and deleting them on the spot. Grrrr!

gailcalled's avatar

Sorry. I am really not the right person for advice.

I just did agree to pay $19.99 for a session with Apple Tech support for an odd problem that the support staff also found odd. They spent over an hour and twenty minutes with me on the phone and solved the issue (all my audio had disappeared) by trying more and more complicated things. Finally, I needed six fingers and two hands to restart the Mac. (also 10.8.2) in a very special way.

Although I was initially irritated (since my original Apple Care contract had expired), it turned out to have been money well spent – Five Starbuck Megaccinos.

thatturtle's avatar

Sounds like it might be a permissions issue. Try verifying permissions using the Disk Utility application in your utilities folder. If that doesn’t work, take a look at the following thread – https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3776862?start=0&tstart=0

Good luck.

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