You will hear the trash emptying sound, but the trash does not get emptied.Īlso, when browsing Finder in root mode doesn't show the hidden files and folders, even if you have enabled this option in your own user account.įollowing Chealion's rm command with the asterisk at the end didn't seem to work for me. NOTE: This is irreversible.If you need to empty the Trash of a mounted volume when using Finder in root mode (see ), it seems you can't just press Empty Trash in the Trash folder after pressing the icon (even ensuring the normal Finder isn't open). Hit the RETURN key to permanently delete the file or folder path. This will put the files or folder path into the command line.ģ.

Drag and drop the file (or folder if using srm -rv) into the Terminal window. Type in srm -v (for one file) or srm -rv (for an entire directory).Ģ. To perform a ' Secure Empty Trash' command for OS X El Captian (10.11.+)ġ. You may be prompted by the operating system asking if you are sure you would like to remove these files. This line tells your computer to securely remove the items in the folder specified.Ĥ. Type in: srm -rv ~/.trash and press 'enter'. This is recommended so that you may be sure these are the files you wish to remove as you can not get them back.ģ. This command stands for 'list' and it will list all files within the trash directory. Type in: lsand press 'enter' This step is not entirely necessary but recommended. The line basically means 'take me to the hidden trash directory'Ģ. Type in: cd ~/.trash into the command line prompt and press 'enter'. To perform a 'Secure Empty Trash' commandġ. Navigate to your Applications Folder -> Utilities-> Terminal Using Spotlight search (command+Space bar) and type in 'Terminal'Ģ.

Access the Terminal (OSX version of command prompt) by:ġ.

Secure empty trash mac terminal