Apple is continuously striving to help Mac users better utilize the storage space on their Mac. Introducing features like Optimized Storage and iCloud Drive, the users of macOS Sierra can now better use the storage space available to them. However, another great introduction is that of auto-empty trash feature in Sierra.
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- How Empty Trash Feature Works
- How You Can Auto-Empty Trash on Your Mac OS Sierra
- What If You Don’t Want To Use Auto-Empty Trash Feature
How Empty Trash Feature Works
In all the macOS versions when a file/folder is deleted by the user, it goes to Trash. As a result, the file/folder doesn’t appear in its actual location but it still takes up storage space on that particular drive where it was stored. If one comes to a realization that the file was deleted by mistake, it can be restored easily by going to Trash folder and following the restore process. The files are deleted permanently only when you opt to Empty Trash. After that your data is removed permanently from your drive.
As for Mac, the Trash feature works fine but what happens is that people often fail to remember that they have to empty Trash as well to open up space on their mac. So, it leads to accumulating lots and lots of files in Trash which stay there until removed manually and do nothing but to waste many GBs of space.
Even though you can turn off Trash feature on your Mac but that may not be the best option you have because Trash is what helps you recover from accidental file deletions. Despite many ineffective third-party solutions available, Apple has now taken care of the matter itself by introducing a new Auto-Empty feature for Trash in macOS Sierra.
How You Can Auto-Empty Trash on Your Mac OS Sierra
Probably the best solution for managing Trash-related issues in Mac, an in-built feature introduced by Apple to remove items automatically from Trash after every 30 days is certainly a great relief for Mac users.
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However, you will have to enable the feature manually on your mac OS Sierra. Here is the process to do it.
- First ensure that your device is upgraded tomacOS Sierra completely
- Now launch Finder app and browse to Preferences in Menu bar on top of your screen
- Finder Preferences will show up and there will be some new options
- Find the check box with the label ‘Remove items from Trash after 30 days’ and check it.
With these new settings, everything that has been sent to Trash will be erased completely after it remains there for 30 days. However, if something was deleted by mistake, you can easily restore it from Trash before 30 days period.
The new tweak from Apple allows enough flexibility that the users may not find with any third-party applications that usually have a specific day on which they empty your trash folder. But here, every file is treated separately and is given its own 30 days to survive in Trash before it is permanently deleted from the drive. So, you do not have to worry anymore about the space on your Mac and the accidental deletion issue is also taken care of. You just need to focus on your work and Mac handles things for you in background.
What If You Don’t Want To Use Auto-Empty Trash Feature
If you are still not receptive to this latest addition from Mac, you can simply leave the box unchecked in Finder Preferences. This will leave you on your own and you can manually remove items from Trash whenever you want.