Deleting and recovering files

Delete files and folders

If you do not want a file or folder any more, you can delete it. When you delete an item it is moved to the Trash folder, where it is stored until you empty the trash. You can restore items in the Trash folder to their original location if you decide you need them, or if they were accidentally deleted.

To send a file to the trash:

Select the item you want to place in the trash by clicking it once.
Press Delete on your keyboard. Alternatively, drag the item to the Trash in the sidebar.

The file will be moved to the trash, and you’ll be presented with an option to Undo the deletion. The Undo button will appear for a few seconds. If you select Undo, the file will be restored to its original location.

To delete files permanently, and free up disk space on your computer, you need to empty the trash. To empty the trash, right-click Trash in the sidebar and select Empty Trash.

Permanently delete a file

You can immediately delete a file permanently, without having to send it to the trash first.

To permanently delete a file:

Select the item you want to delete.
Press and hold the Shift key, then press the Delete key on your keyboard.
Because you cannot undo this, you will be asked to confirm that you want to delete the file or folder.

Purge trash & temporary files

Clearing out your trash and temporary files removes unwanted and unneeded files from your computer, and also frees up more space on your hard drive. You can manually empty your trash and clear your temporary files, but you can also set your computer to automatically do this for you.

Temporary files are files created automatically by applications in the background. They can increase performance by providing a copy of data that was downloaded or computed.

Automatically empty your trash and clear temporary files:

Open the Applications Menu and click on Settings.
Click on Privacy to open the panel.
Select Purge Trash & Temporary Files.
Set one or both of the Automatically empty Trash or Automatically purge Temporary Files switches to ON.
Set how often you would like your Trash and Temporary Files to be purged by changing the Purge After value.
Use the Empty Trash or Purge Temporary Files buttons to perform these actions immediately.

Recover a file from the Trash

If you delete a file with the file manager, the file is normally placed into the Trash, and should be able to be restored.

To restore a file from the Trash:

Open the Application Menu and search for files.
Click on Files to open the file manager.
Click Trash in the sidebar.
If your deleted file is there, click on it and select Restore. It will be restored to the folder from where it was deleted.

If you deleted the file by pressing Shift+Delete , or by using the command line, the file has been permanently deleted. Files that have been permanently deleted can’t be recovered from the Trash.

There are a number of recovery tools available that are sometimes able to recover files that were permanently deleted. These tools are generally not very easy to use, however. If you accidentally permanently deleted a file, it’s probably best to ask for advice on a support forum to see if you can recover it.