Ubuntu Howto: How To Bypass The Trash And Delete A File Completely

By | January 9, 2008 |

The trash is just like a recycle bin in Windows. When you move file to trash, the file is not physically removed from your hard disk, instead, it is residing in the trash folder.

To bypass trash and delete file completely, you need to enable the ‘Delete’ command.

Go to Places -> Home Folder

At the top menu, choose Edit -> Preferences

Select the Behavior tab. Put a tick on the box that says “Include a Delete command that bypasses Trash”.

trash screenshot

Now right click on the file that you want to delete, you will see a ‘Delete‘ option just below the ‘Move to Trash‘. Clicking on it will now delete your file from the hard disk.



Print this pageSave as PDF

Damien Oh is the owner and chief editor of Make Tech Easier
  • http://tombuntu.com/ Tom

    You can also bypass trash by selecting a file and pressing the Shift-Delete keys.

  • http://tombuntu.com/ Tom

    You can also bypass trash by selecting a file and pressing the Shift-Delete keys.

  • http://tombuntu.com Tom

    You can also bypass trash by selecting a file and pressing the Shift-Delete keys.

  • http://maketecheasier.com/ Damien Oh

    @Tom: Yup, you are right. You can delete a file by pressing Shift+Delete. Thanks for pointing it out.

  • http://maketecheasier.com/ Damien Oh

    @Tom: Yup, you are right. You can delete a file by pressing Shift+Delete. Thanks for pointing it out.

  • http://maketecheasier.com Damien Oh

    @Tom: Yup, you are right. You can delete a file by pressing Shift+Delete. Thanks for pointing it out.

  • Phil Davies

    Thanks for this tip

  • Phil Davies

    Thanks for this tip

  • Phil Davies

    Thanks for this tip