Once you’ve backed up your data, open the Terminal app from the Applications > Utilities folder. Securely Wipe the Free Space on Your Mac Using the Command Lineīefore wiping the free space on your Mac using the command line, back up your data. Without it, your data remains encrypted and safe from unauthorized access. You need a password to access anything on the drive. FileVault encrypts your whole drive so all your files are protected. Whether you have an SSD or an HDD, you should use FileVault to protect your data. These options are not needed for an SSD drive because a standard erase makes it difficult to recover data from an SSD.

With an SSD drive, Secure Erase and Erasing Free Space are not available in Disk Utility. When you erase files normally on an SSD, it’s difficult to recover that data.Īpple explained that you don’t need to securely erase your Mac’s SSD in their online knowledgebase: Because most Macs now come with Solid State Drives (SSDs) instead of regular hard disks, Apple feels there is no need for the feature.

Modern versions of macOS, and later versions of OS X, like El Capitan, don’t include the Secure Erase Free Space feature in Disk Utility. The feature allowed you to overwrite the free space on a drive to prevent deleted files from being recovered. The Secure Erase Free Space feature in Disk Utility on your Mac added a layer of privacy and security to file deletion. What Happened to Secure Erase Free Space in macOS? Today we’ll discuss what happened to the Secure Erase Free Space feature in Disk Utility on your Mac and how to securely wipe the free space on your Mac’s HDD without that feature. If your Mac has an SSD, you do not need to securely wipe the free space and you shouldn’t. If you have a regular spinning hard drive (HDD) in your Mac, you can securely wipe the free space on your Mac, preventing recovery of any files that were not securely deleted. If you didn’t already securely delete your files, it’s not too late. However, anyone who gets a hold of your Mac, and who has intermediate computer skills, might be able to recover deleted files from your drive.

How to clear disk space on macbook