Why the Safe Empty Trash Can (and What to Do Instead) Disappeared in El Capitan
If you’ve been using OS X El Capitan for a while, you might have noticed that the old “Safely Empty Trash” option has disappeared from the trash can context menu. There’s a pretty good reason for this, but it’s still possible, and you don’t mind digging into the command line.
As the name suggests, Secure Empty Trash has always been a way to safely delete files, ensuring that they cannot be dug up again by data recovery software. According to Apple , it turns out that Safe Empty Trash does not work reliably with flash storage such as solid state drive, which is why Apple removed this option in El Capitan. SSDs do not store data in the same way as hard drives . As Macworld explains , hard drives wear out with every write and erase because they write to the same area every time, whereas an SSD spreads that wear out across the entire drive. Thus, it is more difficult with SSDs to ensure that certain areas of memory are erased, because the data is not always in the same place after every write. So the old Safe Empty Trash way does not work with SSDs.
Of course, not everyone who works with El Capitan has an SSD, but if you want to safely delete a file, you need to dig into the command line. Note: this will delete the file permanently, so make sure you know what you are doing and select the correct file. Open Terminal (Applications> Utilities) and enter (as shown in the video above from OS X Daily, you can drag and drop a file from the Finder instead of manually entering the path):
srm -v / path / to / file
For example, if I wanted to safely remove a screenshot from the desktop (for some reason), the command would look like this:
srm -v / Users / thorinklosowski / Desktop / Screen \ Shot \ 2015-11-24 \ at \ 9.19.58 \ AM.jpg
This will securely delete the file on your hard drive, overwriting the data seven times. If you have an SSD, you’d be better off enabling Apple’s built-in FileVault encryption software . Don’t worry, with an SSD you won’t notice too much difference in speed and performance.
How to Replace a Missing El Capitan Secure Empty Cart | Macworld How to Use the OS X El Capitan Equivalent to the Safe Empty Trash | OS X Daily