The Best Ways to Securely Delete Files From Your Mac Permanently

This means the operating system is free to overwrite the file with new data and will do so in the coming days, weeks or months. But it is worth emphasizing that until that happens, your ‘deleted’ data is still on the disk and can be recovered with the right tools.

If you want to delete a file forever, make sure it is overwritten immediately. That was the role of Secure Delete, a feature present in macOS 10.4–10.10 that enabled users to trash the selected files and then select Finder > Secure Empty Trash. With macOS 10.11 El Capitan, however, Apple removed this feature because it felt it could not guarantee secure deletion on the standard disk type used in modern Macs, SSDs. Security experts recommend encryption for flash drive users.

Data in the cloud

Permanently delete files using terminal commands

There is a very powerful command that Advanced Mac users can utilize to securely remove files, directories: srm. As you may have guessed, “srm” stands for ‘secure removal’ and is the secure version of the more common “rm” command. The srm command uses a 35-pass Gutmann algorithm by default, which means that the data is first removed, and then written over 35 times using random patterns.

Permanently removing a file with Terminal looks like this:

srm /path/to/file

In case of a directory:

srm -r /path/to/directory/

File shredders

We understand if you don’t want to type in commands you don’t understand into Terminal, so the second way is to use any of the free file shredders available. This type of software, such as the free app Permanent Eraser, will securely erase the content of Trash just by double-clicking on the app icon, but you can also select files and drag them into the app to securely erase them.

Mac optimization apps

If you care about your computer, the Application folder already has a Mac optimization tool. Some of them (such as CleanMyMac, MacBooster, MacKeeper, OnyX, etc.) include a module usually called “shredder” or “secure erase”. To permanently remove files just make use of these features, select the files and click the “Shred” or “Erase” button.