My Mac Apps » Trash Buddy Plus

Summary and Features

Trash Buddy Plus greatly improves how you manage your Mac's Trash, offering a high-degree of customization and convenience. Make it your productivity sidekick today!

NOTE: Trash Buddy Plus is donation-ware: totally free to use and fully functional. If you find it useful, you're invited to donate a token amount after using it. Anyone who makes a donation gets a nag-free version as a thank you.

Reviews

Screenshots

Trash Buddy Plus'

Multiple Trash styles

Trash Buddy Plus supports a variety of different Trash styles

Trash Buddy Plus

Empty Trash with a custom shortcut

Use custom Trash can styles and inspect or empty the Trash using custom keyboard shortcuts

Trash Buddy Plus

Flexible layout

Freely position the Desktop Trash can on virtually any screen

Trash Buddy Plus Demo Video


MD5 Hash: e6ba2c10f6099fdf3dcdc38a103d5a4f

Experimental Install of Trash Buddy Plus via Homebrew


		curl -O https://widgetworx.com/homebrew/trash-buddy-plus.rb
		brew install --cask ./trash-buddy-plus.rb

Frequently Asked Questions

Trash Buddy Plus operates independently of the Dock’s Trash can to improve functionality. It’s designed as a replacement for macOS’ Trash, particularly when the "Show Trash on Desktop" option is enabled.

If you want Trash Buddy Plus to recognize files in the Trash, you can use the Inspect Trash option. Additionally, the Empty the Trash feature works seamlessly, no matter where the items were added—via the Dock’s Trash or the Desktop Trash icon.

NOTE: I even tried using an observer to sync the two Trashes. This worked though it would redraw the Desktop Trash each time a file was deleted, which caused a significant performance lag of many files are in the Trash. At some point, I'll try again with a different approach.

No, this feature is not currently supported. If you attempt to eject a drive this way, Trash Buddy Plus will detect it and show an error message. Think of the Desktop Trash icon as a convenient "portal" to your Mac's Trash, especially when working on large, high-resolution monitors.

Trash Buddy Plus counts folders as single items, regardless of their contents. This particuar design choice enhances performance and prevents delays when processing dozens or hundreds of nested folders.

Follow these steps:

  1. Quit Trash Buddy Plus if it’s running.
  2. Prepare two PNG images for the custom Trash icon:
    • custom_trash1.png for the empty Trash state.
    • custom_trash2.png for the full Trash state.
    Ensure both images are 256x256 pixels with transparent backgrounds.
  3. Place these files in your Mac’s Preferences folder.
  4. Relaunch Trash Buddy Plus.
  5. Open Trash Buddy Plus Preferences and select Custom Trash from the Desktop Trash Style menu.

If the images are not properly formatted, Trash Buddy Plus will default to macOS’ built-in Trash icon.

The Desktop Trash icon is a custom window that must be redrawn to reflect changes in the Trash’s status (full or empty). This redraw process can cause a brief flicker.