The Recycle Bin on a Mac is called the Trash

Why it happens

Files you delete on a Mac aren't gone yet. They wait in the Trash, the Mac's Recycle Bin, until you empty it. The Trash sits at the far end of the Dock, after all your apps, and its icon fills with paper when something is in it.

How to fix it

1. Look at the Dock along the bottom of the screen and click the Trash, the last icon on the right. If your Dock is on the side, it's the last icon at the bottom.

   Dock›Trash

2. Find your file in the Trash window. Switch to list view with Command-2 if you want to sort by name or by the date it was added.

3. Control-click the file, or click with two fingers on a trackpad, and choose Put Back. It goes straight back to the folder it was deleted from.

   Dock›Trash

4. Want it somewhere else instead? Drag it out of the Trash window onto the desktop or into any folder.

Still not fixed?

1. Just deleted it a moment ago? Press Command-Z in Finder to undo the delete.

2. Files deleted from a USB drive only show in the Trash while that drive is plugged in. Plug it back in and look again.

3. If the Trash was emptied, look in a backup. If you use Time Machine, open the folder the file was in and step back in time there. Files from iCloud Drive can also be found under Recently Deleted on iCloud.com for about 30 days.

4. Without a backup, files emptied from the Trash on your Mac's own built-in disk usually can't be got back. A data recovery shop may only be able to help with files that were on an external hard drive or a USB stick, so stop using that drive until they've looked at it.

5. Things can vanish from the Trash on their own when Remove items from the Trash after 30 days is ticked. Untick it in Finder, Settings…, Advanced if you'd rather empty it yourself.

   Finder›Settings…›Advanced

6. If the Trash won't open, or won't empty at all even after a restart, contact Apple Support.