Does Your Mac’s Trash Need To Be Smart?

What does Trash mean to a Mac user? It’s where we throw away those files, apps, images, documents, audio and video clips that we don’t want anymore, right? There’s your Mac’s Trash can, and then there’s a smart Trash can. Which do you have on your Mac?

All Trash Cans Should Be Smart(er)

Your Mac’s Trash can is smarter than you think. First, it’s just a can. Dump whatever you want into it every day for months at a time, and the Trash can holds what you give it.

Until you empty the trash.

Then, for the most part, all those files are gone, trashed forever (unless Herculean efforts are employed to dig through the now very invisible trash).

Apple makes it easy to really, truly, deeply delete the contents of Trash via the Secure Empty Trash… option in the Finder menu. Do that, and Trash is emptied, and emptied some more, making the trash can contents truly gone.

If you’ve ever deleted Trash contents, emptied the Trash, and wished you hadn’t, here’s an option. A Smart Trash can for your Mac. No, I’m not kidding. Smart Trash.

In reality, Trash is just a folder that holds files. When you select Empty Trash, your Mac deletes the folder’s contents. Smart Trash gives you one more option. Selective deletion of the Trash contents. It’s called Smart Delete.

How it works is simple. Whatever is in the Trash is listed in Smart Trash, so you can delete specific files, and keep others.

Easy enough, right? There’s even a button to Secure Delete files, so they’re really, really, gone. Just remember this about the selection process in Smart Trash. You’re still keeping undeleted files in the Trash, which makes it a holding queue for files you don’t really want anymore but you’re unwilling to delete them, and unwilling to move them anywhere else.

Frankly, that kind of behavior is a little strange.

Smart Trash also has useful keyboard shortcuts to open the Trash Can and delete specific items, and there’s an additional Menubar selection item to delete specific Trash cans, locally or on other connected Macs.

If only the paranoid survive, then there are probably plenty of potential customers for Smart Trash. For some Mac users, it may be the wonder savior of apps not yet accidentally deleted.