How to Empty Your Trash Automatically in Mac

 From the time Apple launched macOS 10.12 Sierra, your Mac has a feature to automatically clear the Trash every month. This feature allows your Mac to automatically delete all files from Trash in every 30 days. In this way, you can keep the hard drive of your Mac in an optimal condition. Whenever you delete anything from your Mac, it moves to the Trash and allows you to undo your actions. Once you delete a file from Trash, there is no way to recover it. 

So, use this feature with caution as you might not be able to recover the files once your Mac automatically empties the Trash. In this article, we will tell you how to enable this feature or disable it when needed. 

Turning on the “Empty Trash Automatically” feature on Mac

Follow the instructions mentioned down here to promptly enable automatic empty trash on Mac:

1. First and foremost, go to Finder from the upper navigation menu on your Mac screen.
2. Press on the Preferences option from the drop-down menu that appears.
3. You will see the Finder Preferences screen, and you need to find and click the Advanced option.
4. Once you are in the Advanced window, find the “Remove Items from the Trash after 30 days” option. 
5. Make sure that it is ticked.
6. Now that you have enabled this option, you can close the current window.

From now on, your Mac will automatically empty the trash every 30 days repeatedly. Mac will do this every time without even alerting you. Once you enable it, you may need to be very careful about what you delete and if you leave the deleted file in Trash for more than 30 days; no chance is there for getting it back.

How to Turn Off Empty Trash Automatically on Mac

If you regret after enabling this setting and wish to turn it off, follow the steps given down here to quickly turn off the automatic trash emptying function:

1. First and foremost, go to Finder from the top menu.
2. Then click on the Preferences option in the drop-down that appears after that.
3. Now, go to Advanced.
4. In the Advanced window, locate the “Remove Items from the Trash after 30 days” option.
5. Please uncheck the box situated next to it. 
6. Once that completes, restart your Mac.

Now your Mac will not delete the items stored in Trash automatically no matter how long you wish to keep them.

How to Manually Empty Trash on Mac?

Follow the steps mentioned down here to manually empty the Mac Trash:

1. First and foremost, find the Trashcan icon inside the dock.
2. Then press and hold the Trash Can.
3. Once you see the popup, release the Trash icon. 
4. Now click on Empty Trash.  

Now that you have learned the primary ways of using Trash on Mac, you can keep your Mac’s storage performance-optimized.

source: https://ratelr.com/how-to-empty-your-trash-automatically-in-mac/