Empty Trash instantly with a shortcut and no prompt

There's a single keystroke that empties the Trash and skips the "are you sure" dialog completely: Option+Shift+Cmd+Delete. You don't have to change any setting first, you don't have to open a menu, and you don't have to click anything. Hold those four keys anywhere in Finder and the Trash clears on the spot. Here's how it works, what the related shortcuts do, and how to make no-prompt emptying the default if you want it every time.

The instant shortcut

macOS has two Trash shortcuts, and the difference is one key:

• Shift+Cmd+Delete — Empty Trash. Shows the confirmation dialog (unless you've turned it off).
• Option+Shift+Cmd+Delete — Empty Trash immediately, with no dialog at all. The Option key is what suppresses the prompt.

The no-prompt version works even when the warning is switched on, so it's the fastest one-off route regardless of your settings. Just make sure Finder is the active app first — click the desktop or any Finder window, then press the keys. It behaves the same on macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia.

Getting the keys right

• The Delete in these shortcuts is the normal Delete (Backspace) key above Return — not Forward Delete.
• On a Magic Keyboard or MacBook, that's the key labelled delete at the top-right of the main block.
• Press and hold the three modifiers — Option, Shift, and Command — then tap Delete. The order you grab the modifiers doesn't matter, as long as they're all down when Delete goes.
• Nothing needs to be selected and the Trash doesn't need to be open — the shortcut acts on the whole Trash.

Make no-prompt emptying the default

If you never want the confirmation, you can turn it off so that even the plain Shift+Cmd+Delete — and the Dock and menu routes — empty without asking:

1. In Finder, press Cmd+, and open the Advanced tab.
2. Untick Show warning before emptying the Trash.

Or set the same preference from Terminal:

# Empty the Trash with no confirmation, everywhere
defaults write com.apple.finder WarnOnEmptyTrash -bool false
killall Finder
# Undo — restore the confirmation
defaults write com.apple.finder WarnOnEmptyTrash -bool true
killall Finder

With the warning off, Shift+Cmd+Delete becomes your instant empty and you can drop the Option key. Leave the warning on and keep Option+Shift+Cmd+Delete for a per-empty override — either way you've got a no-prompt keystroke.

If the shortcut does nothing

The empty-Trash keys only fire when Finder is the active app, and that's the usual reason they seem dead:

• Another app has focus. If you're in Mail, Photos, or a browser, the same keys mean "delete the selected message/photo/etc." Click the desktop or a Finder window first so the keystroke reaches Finder.
• The Trash is already empty. With nothing to remove, the shortcut simply does nothing — check the Dock icon, which shows whether the Trash has anything in it.
• A key is remapped. If you've swapped modifier keys in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Modifier Keys, press the keys in their remapped positions.

If you'd rather not use the keyboard at all in the moment, the Dock has a mouse-only equivalent: click and hold the Trash icon (or right-click it) and choose Empty Trash from the menu that appears. Hold Option as you pick it and the Trash empties with no dialog, mirroring the shortcut exactly.

More Finder shortcuts worth the muscle memory

The empty-Trash keys are one of a handful that pay off daily. See our roundup of essential Finder keyboard shortcuts for the moves that get you around files without touching the mouse.