Trash It! for Mac

7.5

7.5

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Unfortunately, Trash It appears to have been abandoned. It is totally nonfunctional with macOS Big Sur running on the new Apple M1 silicone. It just does nothing.

Helped me to get rid of unused git repository that was being used by some unknown app that could not be quit

Worked as advertised! Saved me hours and hours of deleting old backup files that I moved to the trash.

YES literally been stressing over not being bale to delete time machine back ups and the really stuck did the job, blukuuuuuu

Finally got rid of the locked folder from the bin!!!!! Thanks heaps! :)

It worked great for me on Mojave. I successfully used it for free and did NOT donate before using it. The Instructions.rtfd file that came with the app were clear, and I followed them carefully. I had no problems, and TrashIt! did what I told it to do, which was remove from one of my drives several folders that I have been unable to delete in every other way that I have tried. Now that I know it works, I will donate to the developer to thank him for providing it.

It says it is free but if you don't donate it won't let you use it.

Version 7.5 doesn't work with new Mac Catalina.

It didn't work I think the only thing to do is to reformat my HD, so I am preparing for that and it may take all the time it needs. It may be some "deep" system files that it won't let of.

It really works fast. very useful.

I have tried to use it ever since updating my systems (iMac and MacBook Pro) to Catalina 10.15 and 10.15.1. I have removed, rebooted, tried to use via Safe Mode, everything I can find and it still doesn't work. It runs thru all the options, but never empties my Trash Can. I see another person has the same issue and yet no one can tell us why it won't work.

Hello! I use FCPX I have used Trash it! Which can empty unnecessary trash. However Up until now, I was running up to Mojave, but when I changed the OS to Catalina, it became completely unresponsive. I can't erase the trash by clicking "Fast" Is there something wrong? . Do you have an updater?

It has never failed me in the many years I've been using it.

Administration...why only use as a last resort?? and not as a replacement finder trash or periodical trash can?. main reason i want to utilize it is for net work removal files that prompt me in saying " can't delete because file is in use..."

Failed to remove files in Trash. Folder containing various system files. com.apple.LaunchServices.dv com.apple.nsurlsessiond com.apple.routined SafariFamily

non sempre funziona. a volte devo andare nel cestino e cancellare i files uno ad uno

I downloaded this for one thing: to delete specific files on an external drive without having to also empty my entire Trash. It worked perfectly for that function.

Works great and flawless... It does what it must do! No problems for deleting rest files from Time-Machine or other!

Diret! End!

Not working for me. I tried Fast and then Really Stuck, but the items are still in the trash - even though I get the message from Trash It that they've been removed. I tried re-installing the app, restarting the computer, and emailing Tom, but nothing. The files are still there (they're backup files from Time Machine that nothing works to delete.

Does a great job removing stubborn files. Haven't had any issues with it.

Help! I downloaded Trash It and it says trash is deleted but all trash is still there. I want to empty everything in my trash (old backups). Am I doing something wrong? I double clicked Trash It and hit Fast...said it did it, but trash still there. Did it again and hit Really Stuck...said it did it but trash still there. I restarted the computer and still all of the trash is there. I am running a Mac with Sierra (10.12.4). Thanks in advance!

I can't tell you how many times I've gotten a file or folder that tells me it can't be deleted because it's in use. Even though I have no programs open and no servers listed. I downloaded this programs and Ta Da!! No More Problems!! Works every time. Never had any problems or any issues with any other program. I'm running a Mac with OS El Capitan (10.11.6). Will use this program always for those tough files I can't get rid of.

I wasted hours on a number of occasions trying to delete stubborn files. I have used other programs in an attempt to delete files. Now I don't waste my time anymore. I just run TrashIt! Also please make a donation to the developer. If for no other reason for the time he will save you deleting files that are almost impossible to delete any other way.

Trash It did the trick. Files piled up that I did not expect and nothing would remove them. Trash It did excellent work to remove the trash. This is a really good app. Top rated. Thank you.

Trash It! worked perfectly on my iMac with OS x 10.6.8!!!!! I had been struggling for days trying to delete my trash and getting the -8003 error message. Tried several scripts I found online but nothing worked until Trash It! Thanks so much!!

Does what it says and does it every time without a hitch.

This is the absolute best software to get rid of trash, especially long files. Unfortunately, it may be too good, or I was too quick to delete???? HELP. Is there any way to retrieve deleted files? Using most recent Trash it on a Mac running Yosemite IOS 10.10.5.

Incredible performance! I have tried emptying my trash for months... with NO Success. None. I have had between 25,000 and 32,000 items to delete... and could not trash any of it. I tried several things... and several sites. I even let it run all night trying to empty; but nothing! Pure frustration. Finally I stumbled onto TRASH IT. I was leery of it, but was so frustrated that I decided to try it. I tried it a couple of times not knowing what I was doing, honestly, and failed. But suddenly, I dragged my trash there and it was empty! PRESTO! Really? Yep! It didn't take all night... nor even a minute. It was LITERALLY all gone just like that. Thanks. I do not know what others think, but this worked for me... and freed up 120 Gb of memory! MANY THANKS!

hi can someone please help - I've used this for ages now & loved it but now it wont work at all.. I've downloaded the newer version too thinking it might be that - but it wont empty the trash either - I've restarted the machine too - why wont it empty?

Hi, Can anyone give me some much needed advice please? I'm running OS X 10.6.8 and tried installing Trash It! 6.1, it wouldn't open (quit unexpectedly error) so after reading some of these post I downloaded the earlier version. This opens up but when I have clicked on the trashcan icon and chose the Fast delete option, my computer is now stuck on the Trash It! Status window("unlocking Volume Trash..." it hasn't moved in 30 minutes although the blue bar (all 5 mm of it) is looking active. The mac trash is full of old Time Machine Backups, (I made the rookie mistake of dragging them into the trash) and the only solution I have left is to remove them with Trash It! but it doesn't appear to be working. What should I do? Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm ready to stick my head through the mac

An essential OS X script. It's never let me down!

Absolutely indispensable, reliable, and even easier to use than before. No file can resist being erased by TrashIt! I'm a fan. Contribute to its further development, please.

PS I'm running El Capitan OS 10.11.4, no problems whatsoever. But then, I didn't have problems back in the Snow Leopard days, either. This is one tough cookie of an application!

Old Trashit was great, reliable. The new 6.0.1 installs but will not accept trash items. (Do I have to slip it five bucks to let me in? ;-)

Simple and it just plain works. I just had 3 files on my desktop that I couldn't even put INTO the trash, so I dragged and dropped all three on the Trash It! icon and POOF, they're gone. And it's still working fine for me on 10.11.4!

I can't get it to work. When I double click the Trash it! icon I put on my desktop I get: "APX300-YPS9KR-EZFMWX" doesn’t understand the “«event AGUIReg »” message." When I try to drag/drop an item from the trash on the icon I get: The document “boxfile” can’t be opened because it’s in the Trash. I'm just trying to delete empty folders that are on an external drive. When I do a search for the folder, the one in the trash doesn't even show up. I'm using 10.11.1 Any ideas? (I gave it 4 stars because people seem to like it. Wish it worked for me though)

Not a review. A problem. I've loved Trash It up until now - now that I've upgraded to Yosemite. I keep getting a message after Trash It completes that says: sudo: unable to stat/etc/sudoers: Permission denied sudo: no valid sudoers sources found, quitting The trash does not get emptied. So I checked and found that I was running Trash It 5.0. I downloaded and installed 6.0.1 but the problem persists. I could not figure a way to check and change the permissions on the Trash. Any ideas? Thanks. hundriver@earthlink.net

Fantastic program -- had lots to delete and realised that it was going to probably take weeks. Trash It did it in seconds.

Fantastic to see something as simple and useful as this! Has saved me many hours of frustration! Thanks!

Re: Notification of Donation Received
Hi Tom,
Gratitude, more than generosity, was my primary motivation ;-)
Yesterday, after (intentionally) deleting a Photos "work.photoslibrary" which had contained about 7 GB of edited photos, which were also previously deleted from within the Photos app, I immediately went to empty the OS X Trash. I was soon faced with this:

Screen Shot 2015-08-12 at 3.44.38 PM.png

I have no idea why there would have been over 840,000 items!!?? Since I periodically empty the trash the only action I can imagine having caused such havoc was the aforementioned deletion of my "work" photoslibrary (not the system's default photoslibrary).

Anyway, I tried several times to delete them from the trash but I was faced with an excruciatingly long delete process. I tried Onyx’s trash removal but it kept getting hung up and displaying a long, inscrutable “Error 1” message.

So, in desperation I decided to try patience. After 10 hours of processing it managed to remove a mere 2,000 items (.24% of the total). It might have taken months to empty the trash at that rate. I even tried to perform an Info on the Trash, but after an hour of trying to calculate the size of the folder I gave up on trying to find out.

I went in search of a brute force method. I'm an old DOS hack, and I've got a passing familiarity with OS X Terminal commands but the fear of starting yet another runaway process that had no end in sight made me shy away from using Terminal commands such as:

sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash
sudo rm -rf /Volumes/*/.Trashes

Then an article led me to your product, Trash It! The reviews were highly favorable and inspired confidence, so I gave it a try. For the first time I was able to see immediately that my trash contained over 52 GB of junk inside a "package".

Screen Shot 2015-08-13 at 8.41.48 AM.png

Within about 1 hour, Trash It! had managed to practically clear the entire trash. There were a 2 or 3 times when the program requested that I "allow your trashcan a moment to reset". The dialog box did not instruct me to restart the program, but I did anyway. At the end the computer had to be restarted and that finished the job.

Screen Shot 2015-08-13 at 12.16.25 PM.png

In the end I had an EMPTY TRASH!
And that's, why I'm so grateful. :-)
Adrian

One REALLY SLICK tool. I had several Photo Libraries I tried to trash by the conventional trash can and it was going to take HOURS. Trash it! did the job in a few minutes. I'm running 10.10.4 and it is SMOOTH in operation. Don't forget to contribute to the developer!

App worked great for me while trying to delete a large clone folder from the trash. I was unsuccessful with regular trash and did not want to use Terminal to do so at the root level. Good reviews here and elsewhere led me to try Trash It!. Happy I did. What took more than 24 hours and did not complete in the regular trash took an hour or two with Trash It! My only complaint is that there is no progress bar to show you either the amount completed or that it is even running...you just have to trust it is running (or I guess you could look in Activity Monitor). Just add some type of spinning ball or progress bar and you got yourself a 5 star app. I am running 10.9.5 and it runs clean and fast with no issues.

I downloaded Trash It to my Mac 10.6 and it won't open. Is there some trick? I am reading all these great reviews

Version 6 constantly crashes in my system (10.7.5). :/

A solid, muscular app! Wrestled Time Machine files out of my trash and made them vanish after I had tried so many other things. Brilliant!

Like others, Trash It! has been saving me for several years. It is fast and very easy to use, and the ONLY program I have found that can delete all the stuck files in my Trash bin. The developers deserve all the donations they can get!

After going absolutely nuts for nearly an hour when i ignorantly tried to trash almost six months of Time Machine backups in what I thought was a 'normal' way, I read about Trash It! on a Time Machine disaster thread. I downloaded the app and in less than ten minutes I'd been saved! Problem over, done, finito -- fantastic! I'd give the program SIX stars if I could, it is so amazing at solving one of the most vexing Mac problems I've had since first turning on a 128K Max in 1984. Great, great application, so get it "just in case."

Just amazing!! I am so grateful. Like some of you guys I had manually deleted files from my time machine. I know now this is a very bad idea - but thanks to this thread with info about Trash It I managed to get rid of more than 100.000 files!! It took all night, but Trash It made it! It is just fantastic. I am not a very experienced MAC user, so I was in deep shit when I found out what I previos had done wrong. I have made my donations! Indeed Trash It is worth it. :)

Amazing! I had over 7,000 files in the trash bin after recently helping a friend migrate files from an old laptop to my external drive, then to her new laptop. When I tried to clear the bin, only a few files had been deleted 15 minutes into it. I was freaked out.

Then I got the "you can't do that because you don't have permission, even though it's your hard drive" message and the "but what file can't I do that with, how am I supposed to figure that out with seven thousand files!!!?" was instantly bringing my head to near implosion point.

A quick search led me to Trash It! so I figured since it was here on MacUpdate, I'd trust it.

WOW. Click. Click. Password. Click. Done. Instant. Effortless. Saved my bacon!

If you don't already have this, go get it!

And send the dev a couple of bucks for his trouble if you can afford to miss out on that cup of coffee and muffin later in the week. (I have no financial or other commercial interest in the app or the dev's company – I just really like it :-) .)

Works like a charm !

Only thing this little gem needs is black/gray icon to match Yosemite's window Toolbar icons

I save so much time and frustration by using the Trash It! app - Apple's own OS (Yosemite) too frequently fails to do the job but using Trash It! keeps me moving through my work without any hassles. Thanks to the developer for making this fast and reliable solution available, easily worth whatever you're willing to donate to support his work.

This app completely rocks. I spent an hour with my department's IT guy and 2 hours and 15 minutes on the phone with Apple and we couldn't get rid of a locked file in the trash (you wouldn't believe all the stuff we tried). After escalating to a higher level support guy at Apple, he suggested I try this app and it worked immediately. Amazing.

Cleared my Trash of Folder and file that was stuck there in trash hell! suggested by MacGeek Gab Podcast. Great product and i don't have to screw around opening the Terminal!

ottimo programma. molto utile

I had a read me file inside a folder and both were locked. Using Get Info to unlock them appeared to work, but the trash would still not empty, claiming the files were still locked. I went to Macupdate, searched for a free "trash delete" app, found Trash It!, and it worked perfectly.

Thank you!!! You saved me an hour a day!!! Works like a charm!!!! Why doesn't Apple pay you for this?

It did not emptied the trash, the first time I've use it after I upgraded to OS X Yosemite. Anyone else with problems in OS X 10.10?

Excellent Application. When I need to trash something and the finder says something like this application is in use.When it obviously isn't .I get out Tashit and it does the job. I rely on it whenever the finder won't let me trash something. 5 stars for an outstanding application.

Reminds me of OS 9 and prior trash can. Too bad it can't also have the features of the app Bin-it. Meanwhile i will just donate to keep the developer going to improve it to the state of Bin-it.

The TrashIt server is frozen on october 12th 2014...

A simple and efficient app. Nothing to complain really, apart from the need to have its windows retina friendly.

TrashIt! does exactly what it's advertised to do, and it does it flawlessly. Don't waste time fiddling with all the "expert" advice in Apple's Support forums -- if you cannot get something out of OS X Trash, or you have a problem getting something into the trash and deleting it, use TrashIt!. It is reliable, trustworthy, and effective, and the developer is a gold-star help.. Leave a donation for the developer! Leave one every time you need this great utility.

Works like a charM!! thanks

Completely useless, does not do what it claims to do. I still most definitely have items in my trash I cannot delete... still screwed.

I've already rated this a 5-stars, but the developer's support site gets 0 stars. I'm sure if I could ever contact him he'd answer my question, but I tried the CAPTCHA form over 50 times..it never would let me leave my message. Kept telling me my response was incorrect.

Like everyone before me has said, this just works. Top rating script on my Mac.

Was getting the dreaded "unable to empty trash" error code -8003, found my way to this program via tons of support recommendations. Did exactly what it says it does, definitely deserving of the donation!

Fantastic application which resolved my problems with MacKeeper and got rid of over 2,000,000 hidden trash files. It did take about 9-10 hours but well worth it.

Exactly as with Quorum, I had files in Trash from this cloud backup provider that showed (nested deep in subfolders) as zero bytes but would not allow me to change permissions or force delete. I got there by a convoluted process not worth going into. Trashit got rid of them! YES!

Due to a problem caused by software from a leading backup service (I'll leave them nameless), I had several copies of a file in the Trash that OS X Mavericks thought were zero-byte applications, that were locked, and were flagged as "in use". There seemed to be no trick or technique to get those files to go away. I even reinstalled Mavericks. No joy. Then I read a mention of TrashIt! in some blog. I downloaded and tried TrashIt! and my problem was immediately solved. This app is terrific. Don't hesitate to send a donation to the author -- they deserve it.

I had transfer all my Movies from WMV to MP4 and my trash was really full. Being new to the Apple OS coming from Windows I selected to empty the trash. Literally 4 full days later the trash was just 10% empty. Then I found Trash It, wow installed the app click the link to empty and within 30 seconds my trash was empty. No issues the the OS or my Mac. Now I just use Trash It it dose the work fast and efficiently. More app should be as great and convenient as this app. I know is free, but a donation to show our appreciation should be made. I did. Rafael

Wow! ***Thank*** you! I've had trash stuck for a year - tried scripts all over the place. This solved it in *seconds*. Very slick. I wish I could have donated more than I did.

Love it! Please make next update retina display friendly :)

Simply put, it works! Tried a bunch of other programs before this one saved my sanity. Thank you. Made a dontation while I was at it.

The preeminent trash utilities! Been using it for years now, and it just gets better while remaining simple. The developer even rigged the end nag screen for convenience; the default is the "OK" button instead of the "Donate" button, so you just press "Enter/Return" and you are done. No file, no matter how stuck, has ever stopped it, so consider giving the developer a buck or too for this much convenience. It is certainly better that have to rig an automater script on your own for all possible contingencies with files stuck in the trash. Then again, since I use PathFinder and can delete almost any file directly when certain, Trash It! is just a back up for me... and worth it.

In getting rid of old Time Machine files, I find that if you turn off time machine application but keep on your time machine storage device, you can get rid of them after 20 minutes or so with no error message. I am giving Trashit the credit for this but it took a few days to work out the formula of Trashit/time machine/storage working together - It's wonderful to get out of that 8003 loop of frustration

Used this for the second time with great, fast results. Don't remember the exact problem the first time I downloaded this app but today I was getting the "“.Trash” can’t be opened right now because it’s being used by another task" error on both empty and secure empty commands. Great app!

Well, Trash It! did not work quite as described, but finally it did do what I needed - so THANKS and a donation is coming. I had the dreaded 8003 error message when trying to empty Trash on my iMac. Based on positive reviews, I downloaded Trash It! I double-clicked the TI icon and got encouraging messages indicating that my Trash can would shortly show empty (sorry, forget the actual wording), but the Trash stayed resolutely full with about 5000 items – both when I selected Fast and again when I later selected Really Stuck. I then started taking individual items from the Trash, putting them on Desktop, then dragging them onto the TI icon. Slow, but this worked, and I eventually got brave enough to remove hundreds of items at a time until I finally reached some magical point where I had removed some unknown offending item from the Trash can, after which the Finder's own Empty Trash did its job of emptying trash. Perhaps not elegant, but success in the end thanks to Trash It!.

I was shocked after 3 days of trying everything online to get my locked files to delete. Downloaded (and paid for) software, ran scary terminal codes, etc. This thing worked FIRST time, one click... BEAUTIFUL! Thanks a million, I was losing my mind ;-/

I recently experienced problems with the Trash on my Mac not emptying. When I googled, I found this is a very common problem. I contacted Mac Tech Support to try and fix it, and in the end, the Tech Support recommended downloading Trashit! which worked for me - then. Today, I've been experiencing problems with Trashit! - after several attempts, I've managed to get it to work. I'm a bit concerned that Trashit! is going to be problematic for me also. The instructions say you can drag and drop the items in Trash to the Trashit! icon and it will be cleared, but this didn't work for me either. I've decided to become a member of MacUpdate so that I can get support for this, if required. I'm also concerned that this issue may be more to do with my Mac than Trashit! Hope not!!

I tell you what Cowboys, "Trash It" is pure MAGIC!

it's just amazing!!!!!! Just try it!

After manually removing about six months worth of Time Machine backups, I was left with one file (boot.efi) in my Trash. I tried all the suggested solutions to expose the .Trash and Trashes folders in my Time Machine drive...they were empty. Nothing would allow me to remove this file until I tried Trash It. Bless the developer for making a one-trick pony that truly works!!

I had no idea that a situation could occur where I "did not have permission" to empty my own trash on my own computer! That REALLY sucks! I'm not much of a techie, so I googled my way to Trash It! It was super easy to install and use. One quick double-click and the trash was all gone. Thank you! Thank you! (One small problem with this site: I tried to skip giving a star rating for "Stability" since I haven't had enough experience with it to know. I wasn't allowed to continue, so I gave it 5 stars since I didn't want to downgrade a great experience so far.)

When you want to get rid of something that REFUSES to move to trash this comes in so handy it is indispensable and handy!

Works also with OS X 10.8. Great little helper. Thanks to the developer!

Trash It! works brilliantly and is easy to use. And Tom was available to respond to a question I had. Can't ask for more - it's even free! (Although I made a reasonable donation and you should too - he busted it on this one)

It quickly deleted the appearance of trash in the trash but did NOT delete them. I gained no space back using this product!!! I had over 120 Gigs I was trying to delete & gain space. It made them invisible. Not delete. And I do not know what to do now to remedy to get them back. If i have to erase & reinstall my Mac that will SUCK!!! any help? anyone? anyone?

excellent. Fast. effective. Worked first try

Problem....solved. And I was leery of the terminal options. Thank you!!

Had some stuff stuck in my trash, used it and now it is gone. Simple to use and the best is that this is a free app. one happy kitty.

I was super-stuck at getting some real old Entourage (.rge) files out of my trash and this handled it when Terminal and every other solution didn't.

Excellent little app. Kudos to the developer. Simple, effective, no-nonsense. Not sure why rating system won't let me give all 5's, but I tried!

Thank you. Thank You... THANK YOU!!!! Best little app ever -the mac's genius empty trash feature is absolute crap. Your software emptied my rubbish in 10 secs, you geniuses!!!! Thank you again =)

Hey, great piece of software :-)

I had a large number of files stuck in trash that were completely clogging my hard drive, variety of error messages suggested issues with file permissions but I had no success with a long list of supposed solutions, I have had this problem for nearly 6 months and I was on the verge of reformatting the machine when I found this tool. Trash It did exactly what it promised and there have been no issues with the machine since. Now at last the regular "empty trash" command is working properly again.

Trash It! worked like a charm. Thank goodness I found it.

What a great little app! Snow Leopard was taking forever to move some large files (>1GB) to the Trash. I downloaded Trash It!, dragged those big, fat files onto the app icon, and...BAM!!--they're gone! I gladly sent money.