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Files can't be moved to the Trash, must be deleted immediately

For the past few months, Finder always says that my files can't be moved to the Trash and must be deleted immediately when I try to move something to the Trash. It occurs to all files and folders on my Mac and external drive. If I wait for a while and retry, the files can be deleted normally. Why is this happening on my Mac?

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iBoysoft author Jenny Zeng

Jenny Zeng

Answered on Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Finder may have corrupted caches or preferences, rendering it unable to move files to the Trash as expected. I recommend you reset Finder's preference with the steps below:

  1. In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder in the menu bar.
  2. Search for ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist.
  3. Then delete it and empty the Trash.
  4. Right-click on the Finder icon on your Dock while pressing the Option key.
  5. Click Relaunch.

Besides, you can update your Mac to eliminate potential bugs.

 

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