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Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here's How to Do It

Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer AnistonOriginal
2025-03-06 10:05:09900browse

MacOS Ventura Guide to Safe Empty Trash

Want to let your Mac automatically clear the wastebasket? Automatically delete it only takes 30 days? Follow the steps below:

  1. Click "Findor" in the menu bar.
  2. Click "Preferences" and then click "Advanced".
  3. Enable "Remove items from the trash after 30 days".

Worry about the deleted files on your Mac being restored? You can safely clear the trash on your Mac Ventura to prevent data from being restored by special tools. Although Apple has removed the Safe Empty Trash feature, there are other tips and third-party solutions available. Keep reading to learn about them.

What is the safe evacuation of the wastebasket on your Mac?

Safely clearing the wastebasket is a built-in feature in macOS. It completely deletes unnecessary data from the system and prevents it from being restored by special tools. This is especially useful when you need to clear sensitive files and documents – usually before you sell your computer.

However, safely clearing the wastebasket is not available in macOS Ventura, as Apple has removed it from all macOS versions since El Capitan. You can still delete the trash as usual, but to remove it safer, you need other solutions like Safe Cleanup for MacKeeper .

Reasons to use safely clear the trash on macOS Ventura

Using safe emptied trash has many advantages over the conventional method of deleting unwanted data from a Mac, including:

  • The conventional method does not erase data on the drive - it only deletes the index entries.
  • Professional recovery tools can restore data that has not been securely erased.
  • Safely clearing the trash does not allow sensitive files and documents to be found.

How to safely clear the wastebasket on macOS Ventura

To erase the entire drive or disk partition on your Mac, use Disk Utility:

  1. Open Disk Utility.
  2. Select the drive to erase.
  3. Click "Erase" and select the format of the drive.
  4. If available, click "Safety Options".
  5. Use the slider to specify the number of times the drive should be overwritten, and then click OK.
  6. Click "Erase".

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It

There are many other ways to delete unwanted files from your Mac without erasing the entire drive – some of which are safer than others. These methods include:

  1. Delete files from the wastebasket
  2. Automatically clear the wastebasket
  3. Delete the wastebasket through the terminal
  4. Safely clear the wastebasket in safe mode
  5. Safely erase available space
  6. Security removal using Disk Utility

1. Delete files from the Trash

The easiest way to delete a trash on your Mac is to click the "Empty" button inside the trash folder, or you can delete a single file like this:

  1. Click on the Trash icon in the Mac docking station.
  2. Right-click The file you want to delete immediately.
  3. Select "Delete Now".
  4. Click "Delete" in the pop-up window to confirm.

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It

2. Automatically clear the wastebasket

If you don't want to manually constantly clear your Mac's trash, you can set macOS to automatically delete its content every 30 days. The method is as follows:

  1. From your Mac desktop, click "Findor" in the menu bar.
  2. Click on "Preferences" and then click on the "Advanced" tab.
  3. Enable "Remove items from the trash after 30 days".

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It

You can also use the MacKeeper's secure cleaning tool to delete the contents of the Mac Trash immediately:

    Open
  1. MacKeeper.
  2. Select the "Safe Cleanup" utility from the sidebar.
  3. Click "Start Scan" to find all unnecessary files on the system.
  4. Make sure the Trash option is selected and click Clean up the garbage file.

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It

3. Delete the wastebasket through the terminal

Here is how to clear the trash on your Mac using simple commands in the terminal:

    Open "Terminal" on your Mac.
  1. Enter the
  2. sudo rm -rf command and press space bar .
  3. Open the Trash and drag the file you want to delete into the terminal.
  4. Press
  5. Enter.
  6. Enter your Mac's password when prompted, and press
  7. Enter again.

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It4. Safely clear the wastebasket in safe mode

When your Mac does not function properly, erase the contents of the Mac trash. For Intel Macs, do the following:

  1. Switch off the Mac.
  2. Open the machine, and immediately hold down the Shift key.
  3. After entering safe mode, open the Trash and click "Empty".
  4. Click "Empty Trash" to confirm.

If you are using a newer Mac with Apple M chips, the process is slightly different. To clear the trash using safe mode on a Mac with Apple silicon chip, follow these steps:

  1. Switch off the Mac.
  2. Press and hold the power button until you see "Loading boot options".
  3. Select the main drive of your Mac.
  4. Press and hold the Shift key and select "Continue in Safe Mode".
  5. In safe mode, open the Trash and click "Empty".
  6. Click "Empty Trash" to confirm.

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It

5. Securely erase available space

You can erase the free space on your Mac disk drive to prevent recovery of old files.

  1. Open Disk Utility on Mac.
  2. Select the hard drive you want to use in the sidebar.
  3. Click the "Erase" button and select "Erase Available Space".
  4. Use the slider to specify the security level.
  5. Click "Erase Available Space" to confirm.

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It

This option is only available for Macs with a rotating hard drive (HDD). You cannot use it on newer machines that use flash storage.

6. Use Disk Utility to remove

If you are giving away an old Mac or external storage drive, use Disk Utility to erase its contents so that the data cannot be recovered:

  1. Open Disk Utility on Mac.
  2. Select the drive you want to erase in the sidebar and click "Erase".
  3. Select the format you want to use for the drive and name it.
  4. If available, select "Safety Options", or skip this step.
  5. Select the number of times the drive should be overwritten and click OK.
  6. Click "Erase" and then click "Done".

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It

Secure Empty Trash on macOS Ventura: Here’s How to Do It

Please note that the secure erase option on macOS is only available for certain types of storage devices. If you don't see the Security Options button, the drive you are using is not supported.

Safely delete data in Mac

You have many choices when you look at how to delete files on your Mac. However, remember that some methods are safer than others. Emptying a Mac's Trash with traditional methods allows professional tools to recover files, but you can safely erase the entire drive using features like Disk Utility.

If you want to free up storage space on your Mac quickly and safely, we recommend that you use the MacKeeper's Secure Cleanup Utility to delete all files in the Trash, as well as other redundant junk files hidden in your system. With just a few clicks, you can clear temporary logs and caches, unused language packs, and more.

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