How to restore all the files from trash in Mac OS X?

I can put back the items one by one, but there are too many files, how could I restore all the files in the trash?

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5 Answers

MacOS keeps file meta information about deleted files in ~/.Trash/.DS_Store, which also contains records of the original locations. I've written a perl script that scans ~/.Trash/.DS_Store file and prints commands to move all files back to their original location. The output can be fed directly to shell.

Perl script:

To run, download script, start terminal and type perl restore_mac_trash.pl

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Here is another AppleScript like the one posted by user227282:

repeat tell application "Finder" close windows if items of trash is {} then return open trash activate end tell tell application "System Events" key code 125 -- down arrow key code 51 using command down -- command-delete end tell
end repeat

You can run the script by pasting it to AppleScript Editor and pressing command-R. I didn't need any delays.

If Finder shows a password dialog when it tries to put back some item, try adding something like this to the end of the tell application "System Events" block:

delay 1
if exists window 1 of process "SecurityAgent" then tell window 1 of process "SecurityAgent" set value of text field 2 of scroll area 1 of group 1 to "pa55word" click button 2 of group 2 end tell
end if
delay 1

If it is the last thing you did in the Finder, then using "Undo" would be the preferred method.

There is no built-in way within the GUI to perform the action you are discussing.

This is all assuming that you have not emptied the Trash.

'Put Back' multiple items in Trash

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Select all the files you want to put back - Apple Key+A for Select All, then right-click over an item and select Put Back. This will put back multiple items at a time.

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