You open the iPhone, search a little and say But where is the trash? A curious question for those of us who have been on the platform for a long time, but almost existential for newcomers. A question that also has an answer in different parts, let’s talk about it all.
No recycle bin, but several bins throughout the system
During my training I usually get this question, based on the familiarity of seeing the Recycle Bin on Windows computers or Macs. The truth is that on the iPhone, like on the iPad, there is no centralized trash can, but yes there are plenty of small bins where some of the items we have deleted are stored.
In the Mail app, for example, we find the trash mailbox, which protects all deleted emails, in case we change our mind. Something similar happens in the Photos app, where the section is Deleted which saves the photos and videos that we have deleted over a period of 30 days, that is, one month.
The final disposal after one month in the trash This is something that is repeated in many of the different iPhone trash cans. This happens, for example, in the Notes app, where the oldest notes permanently disappear. The same thing happens in Elements deleted of the Voice Notes application.
Other apps don’t have a trash can itself, so once a content is removed, it disappears completely. In this list we find Albums and Lists from Music app, Shared albums from Photos app, iMessage conversations, Safari bookmarks, Maps collections and locations, Calendar events, Contacts, reminders and books from the Books app.
Meanwhile, in the section Just deleted From the Files app, we will find all the deleted files. This trash can, which syncs with Mac via iCloud, it does not delete the oldest files after 30 days. Additionally, it has deleted files from apps like Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, so it’s a good place to look if we are missing a document or, on the contrary, want to clean up.
By virtue of their vocation to the simplicity typical of the post-pc concept, iPhones and iPads manage the information that we dispose of in a fairly autonomous way. Although the vast majority of apps and services have a section that we usually call Elements deleted the Just deleted it only keeps the information for one month. The idea is that if we miss an item, we know how to find it, while if we do not know the existence of this section, the system will purge the space to avoid missing.
Overall, the answer to the question of where our iPhone’s recycle bin is is: everywhere. Most apps have one, individual, and those that don’t clearly warn, usually in red, before removing anything, so we shouldn’t have to resort to it.
