Prevent local files from being deleted immediately

Mar 22, '06 05:27:00AM

Contributed by: cryptonomicon

Recently when I went to delete a file in the Finder, I was prompted with a dialog box warning me that the file would be deleted immediately. It appeared that this was only the case when I went to delete a file stored in my FileVault protected home directory. Deleting other files resulted in them being placed in the trash, as should normally be the case.

As it turns out, this was a result of a directory by the name of .Trash not being present in my home directory. To fix this:

  1. Open Terminal.
  2. Type cd ~ (i.e. go to your home directory if not there already).
  3. Type mkdir .Trash (you may need to use sudo to accomplish this).
  4. Make sure the owner is set to your user name.
  5. The permissions should be 700 (i.e. full permissions for you, no permissions for anyone else).
Once I had recreated the .Trash directory, files I attempted to delete were properly placed in the trash can, and not forced to be deleted immediately.

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