How to delete files on a Mac

Move a file to the Trash

1. Select the file or folder in Finder.
2. Press Command-Delete, or drag it to the Trash in the Dock.
3. If the item is locked, macOS asks first; click Continue to move it anyway.

To unlock an item instead, select it, choose File → Get Info (Command-I) and untick Locked. Nothing is gone yet: the file sits in the Trash, still taking the same space, until the Trash is emptied.

Empty the Trash

1. Open the Trash from the Dock.
2. Click Empty at the top right of the window, or choose Finder → Empty Trash (Shift-Command-Delete).
3. Click Empty Trash in the warning.

This one cannot be undone. Apple's warning is that items emptied from the Trash are permanently deleted and are no longer available. Holding Option as you click Empty skips the warning once; the setting to drop it for good is in Finder → Settings → Advanced, and it is worth keeping.

Delete one item for good

To remove a single file and leave the rest of the Trash as it is, open the Trash, Control-click the item, choose Delete Immediately, and click Delete in the warning. Like emptying, it is permanent.

Let the Trash empty itself

Choose Finder → Settings, click Advanced, and select Remove items from the Trash after 30 days. Each item then gets a month before it goes. Items moved to the Trash from iCloud Drive are removed after 30 days whatever this setting says.

Get a file back

• Still in the Trash: drag it out, or select it and choose File → Put Back.
• Trash already emptied: only a backup has it. With Time Machine, open Time Machine (Spotlight finds it; it is in the Other folder), use the arrows beside the Finder windows to go back to a backup that has the file, select it and click Restore.

Apple's advice is to make a backup copy before deleting if Time Machine is off or has not run recently.

When a file will not delete

• It is locked. Untick Locked in File → Get Info, as above, or click Continue when asked.
• You do not have permission. File → Get Info shows the privileges under Sharing & Permissions. Click the lock to change them; on a shared Mac, ask its administrator.
• An app has it open. If Finder says the item is in use, quit the app that is using it and try again.
• It is inside the Photos library. Delete a photo in Photos, never in Finder; see the Photos library is taking up space.

Where the app comes in

RefreshYourMac lists what is taking the space before anything goes, and what it removes from your own files, such as Large Files, Duplicate Files and the Downloads Folder, is moved to the Trash, so Put Back still works. Caches it deletes outright, because apps rebuild them. Its Trash category, in the download edition, shows how much the Trash holds and empties it permanently when you clean it, the same as Empty Trash. For finding the files worth deleting, see how to find large files on a Mac, and for whether a secure delete still exists, where Secure Empty Trash went.