

Drag a file that you want to delete into the Terminal window you’ll see that Terminal adds its file path. For example, you can use a command called srm, which can “securely remove files or directories.” To do this, open Terminal (go to Finder > Applications > Utilities) it’s in the Utilities folder in your Applications folder, and then type the following: There are still a couple of ways you can securely delete files in El Capitan.
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How to securely delete files in El Capitan Where is Secure Empty Trash in OS X El Capitan? Here’s the Equivalent But since El Capitan, Apple has cut the feature because it is can not work on flash storage, such as SSD (which is adopted by Apple to its new Mac/MacBook models.) Therefore, if your Mac/MacBook are running on El Capitan or later, youll need other ways to empty the Trash securely. The secure empty trash feature used to be available on OS X Yosemite and earlier. Thats why you need secure empty trash feature, which make the files unrecoverable by writing a series of meaningless ones and zeroes over deleted files.
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If someone use a recovery software on your Mac before the files are overwritten, they could scan out the deleted files.


When you simply empty the Trash, the files and folders in the Trash are not totally erased but still remain in your Mac until they are overwritten by new data. This piece will cover how to secure empty the Trash on macOS Sierra, El Capitan and the earlier version. So how to protect the confidential files and personal information on the Mac from falling into wrong hand? You need to securely clean up the Trash. With powerful recovery software, there is still chance to recover the deleted files from your Mac. Emptying the Trash doesnt mean that your files have been gone for good.
