<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      type="topic" style="task"
      id="privacy-purge">

  <info>
    <link type="guide" xref="privacy"/>
    <link type="guide" xref="files#more-file-tasks"/>

    <revision pkgversion="3.10" date="2013-09-29" status="review"/>
    <revision pkgversion="3.12" date="2014-03-23" status="candidate"/>
    <revision pkgversion="3.14" date="2014-10-12" status="candidate"/>
    <revision pkgversion="3.18" date="2015-09-30" status="candidate"/>
    <revision pkgversion="3.33.3" date="2019-07-21" status="candidate"/>
    <revision pkgversion="3.38.1" date="2020-11-22" status="candidate"/>
    <revision pkgversion="3.38.4" date="2021-03-07" status="candidate"/>
    <revision version="gnome:46" status="candidate" date="2024-03-02"/>

    <credit type="author">
      <name>Jim Campbell</name>
      <email>[email protected]</email>
    </credit>
    <credit type="editor">
      <name>Michael Hill</name>
      <email>[email protected]</email>
    </credit>
    <credit type="editor">
      <name>Shaun McCance</name>
      <email>[email protected]</email>
      <years>2015</years>
    </credit>

    <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>

    <desc>Set how often your trash and temporary files will be cleared
    from your computer.</desc>
  </info>

  <title>Purge trash &amp; temporary files</title>

  <p>Clearing out your trash and temporary files removes
  unwanted and unneeded files from your computer, and also frees up more
  space on your hard drive. You can manually empty your trash and clear
  your temporary files, but you can also set your computer to automatically
  do this for you.</p>

  <p>Temporary files are files created automatically by applications in the
  background. They can increase performance by providing a copy of data that
  was downloaded or computed.</p>

  <steps>
    <title>Automatically empty your trash and clear temporary files</title>
    <item>
      <p>Open the <gui xref="shell-introduction#activities">Activities</gui> overview and
      start typing <gui>Privacy &amp; Security</gui>.</p>
    </item>
    <item>
      <p>Select <guiseq><gui>Settings</gui><gui>Privacy &amp; Security</gui></guiseq> from the
      results. This will open the <gui>Privacy &amp; Security</gui> panel.</p>
    </item>
    <item>
      <p>Click on <gui>File History &amp; Trash</gui> to open the panel.</p>
    </item>
    <item>
      <p>Switch on one or both of <gui>Automatically Delete Trash Content</gui>
      or <gui>Automatically Delete Temporary Files</gui>.</p>
    </item>
    <item>
      <p>Set how often you would like your <em>Trash</em>  and
      <em>Temporary Files</em> to be purged by changing the
      <gui>Automatically Delete Period</gui> value.</p>
    </item>
    <item>
      <p>Use the <gui>Empty Trash…</gui> or <gui>Delete Temporary Files…</gui>
      buttons to perform these actions immediately.</p>
    </item>
  </steps>

  <note style="tip">
    <p>You can delete files immediately and permanently without using the Trash.
    See <link xref="files-delete#permanent"/> for information.</p>
  </note>

</page>