Viewing Items in Trash

adamraoadamrao
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Can anyone explain why you can't view items when they're in the Trash? I wish this could be turned off since I often put things in the Trash and then later when I'm ready to empty it have no idea what 0001_txasdflkj.pdf is and would like to simply open it to remind myself and then trash it or restore it as the case may be. Instead, Mac OS X kindly notifies me that I have to move it out of the trash, view it, then trash it again if that's what needs to be done. Annoying to me. Ideas?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Can't be done. This is a safety net to prevent you from deleting a file out from under an application while the app has it open.



    What you can do is quickly drag it to the Desktop and double-click it, then if you want to trash it anyway, drag it back. Slightly annoying, but quick.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    endymionendymion Posts: 375member
    If the app that opens the document is in the dock you can drag and drop it on the app there and it will open even though it's still in the trash.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    adamraoadamrao Posts: 175member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Endymion

    If the app that opens the document is in the dock you can drag and drop it on the app there and it will open even though it's still in the trash.



    Perfect! That helps out a lot! Thanks for the information!
  • Reply 4 of 8
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    *blink*



    Well holy crap, you're right. I wonder when that changed? (Yeah, yeah, probably when the Dock showed up, and I never knew it... )
  • Reply 5 of 8
    danosaurdanosaur Posts: 258member
    If you use column view, why can't you see a preview of what's in the trash? How is that a security feature?
  • Reply 6 of 8
    mr beardsleymr beardsley Posts: 365member
    It's not a security feature, it's to prevent you from deleting files out from under an application. If you open files that are in the trash, then empty it, what happens to the application that has those files open?
  • Reply 7 of 8
    endymionendymion Posts: 375member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mr Beardsley

    It's not a security feature, it's to prevent you from deleting files out from under an application. If you open files that are in the trash, then empty it, what happens to the application that has those files open?



    It throws up an alert saying the file is in use and stops the trash from being emptied. The same thing happens whether you open a file first and drag in to the trash or open a file within the trash. So, not really a problem here.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    Quote:

    Can anyone explain why you can't view items when they're in the Trash?



    I don't know the reason, but I do remember that there was a dot-release of I think either OS 6.x.x or OS 7.x.x where trying to do anything with items in the Trash would crash the OS. Apple's "fix" was to add the dialog saying that doing things to items in the Trash was not allowed.
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