Here is what you can do to force delete files that refuse to delete on Mac: secure empty Trash, through Terminal and use third-party file deletion software. If you are looking for a solution to how to delete files on Mac that will not delete, this guide can help you.
Quick Navigation:
Workable Solutions | Step-by-step Troubleshooting |
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1. Force Quit and Delete | Press these three keys together...Full steps |
2. Change Permissions | Launch a new Finder window...Full steps |
3. Unlock the File and Delete | Ctrl-click the file you cannot delete...Full steps |
4. Delete Stubborn Files | Choose either of the ways to open...Full steps |
It is usually straightforward to delete files and folders from the Mac by dragging the items into the Trash. However, sometimes things don't quite work out as planned. When you get stuck in the awkward situation that files won't delete on Mac, let's first find out what goes wrong with the file. Following are some commonplace factors that stop your Mac from deleting a file or uninstalling an application.
Is there any error message telling you why you cannot delete the file? It can be error messages like these:
If you've been hit with the above error message examples, you need to force quit the app that is currently using the file before you can successfully delete that file. Chances are that you can hardly identify which application is taking up the file, you may want to quit all apps instead. Here's how you can force quit the app(s) and delete the file.
Step 1. Press these three keys together: Option + Command + Esc (Escape). Or choose Force Quit from the Apple menu in the upper-left corner of your screen. (This is similar to pressing Control-Alt-Delete on a PC.)
Step 2. Then select the app in the Force Quit window and click Force Quit.
Repeat the two steps to close all apps that are currently running in the background. You can even force the Finder to quit, if it stops responding: Select Finder in the Force Quit window, then click Relaunch.
Read-only: The user can open the item but not be able to make changes to it. When a file is in the read-only status, it'll refuse to delete unless you change the read-only to read-write.
Step 1. Launch a new Finder window. Press Command-I to display the Get Info window.
Step 2. At the bottom of the window, click the arrow next to Sharing & Permissions to display permissions.
Step 3. Click on the Privilege menu next to your username and choose Read & Write. Save the change and close the Get Info window.
The other chance of not being able to delete a file happens to an NTFS external hard drive. NTFS is a Windows-compatible file system, macOS only allows you to read an NTFS hard drive, but can't write or delete anything from it. This is an exclusive guide to fixing external hard drives read-only on Mac.
This is another permission limit similar to the read-only issue. When a file is locked, you need to unlock it first in order to move it to Trash.
Step 1. Ctrl-click the file you cannot delete and select Get Info.
Step 2. Expand the General tab and find the Locked checkbox. Deselect it if it's turned on.
Step 3. Go back to select the file and delete it again.
Terminal provides advanced Mac users with a way to use the command line to delete a file that you cannot delete through the regular ways.
Step 1. Choose either of the ways to open the Mac Terminal utility.
Step 2. In the Terminal window, type rm and a space. Next, drag the file you want to delete into the Terminal window.
Step 3. Press Enter to execute the file deletion.
Don't give up if the four methods didn't work for your case. We have more thoughts here. Try them one by one until you successfully throw away those particular files or folders.
It's quite annoying to stick around the files you want to get rid of. The approaches introduced in this guide are all served to delete an unwanted item, some of the methods are said to delete permanently. You must be careful while executing some of the operations, including emptying Trash and applying rm Terminal command lines. Those manners are meant to clear all files there instead of a single file.
But just in case, you wrongly deleted some other important pictures, videos, or documents, you can download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac to perform a full recovery. It's a program that particularly recovers lost data from 100+ data loss scenarios, such as deletion, disk formatting, hard drive inaccessibility, and photo/video corruption...
You can do research, read unbiased reviews and product comparisons on authoritative IT websites, and trust such a reputable, powerful, and efficient Mac data recovery application that guarantees a recovery rate of 99.7%.
Note: You can create a backup of your Mac by clicking the "Disk Backup" on the left first. The software will recover the deleted files from the backup image. It can prevent further damage to your disk and data, making it safer and more reliable.
Step 1. Select the location and scan
Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac and choose the disk where you lost data. Then, click "Search for lost files" to start scanning.
Step 2. Filter and preview lost files
After the scan, use the file format filter on the left or upper right corner to find the deleted files you need.
Step 3. Recover lost data or files
You can double-click a file to preview its content, or choose multiple files to recover them at once. Click "Recover" to restore the lost data to a local or cloud drive.
It can be extremely frustrating when files won't delete on Mac, especially because there is seemingly no reason why it's happening. Luckily, there are a few different solutions you can try to force the deletion of stubborn files. If all else fails, you can take care of the problem through the Terminal. However, be very careful before taking this step, as you could delete some useful files and folders if you're not careful. With these tips in mind, you should be able to successfully delete any file on your Mac - no matter how stubborn it may be!
Don't worry even if you have problems. The questions and answers below can do you a great favor.
1. How do you force delete a file that won't delete?
Here are the solutions to force delete a file in Windows 10:
2. Why won't my computer let me delete files?
In most cases, the reason you cannot delete a file is quite simple - The file is open or being used by another program.
3. How to permanently delete files on Mac?
You can erase all content and setting on Mac to permanently delete files on Mac.
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