Using Ubuntu 11.10, I accidentally deleted a file that was approximately 700 MB. I tried to find it in the in following locations, but couldn't:
/home/user/.local/share
/home/user/ <-- there was no folder .Trash
/home/user/Desktop/ <-- there was no folder .Trash
So where did .Trash go in Ubuntu 11.10 onward? I use the Gnome environment.
Your trash directory is most likely at:
/home/$USER/.local/share/Trash
If you deleted something as root (e.g. deleted a file using Nautilus invoked via gksu), it is at:
/root/.local/share/Trash
(In general, according to Freedesktop.org specifications[1][2], the "home trash" directory is at $XDG_DATA_HOME/Trash, and $XDG_DATA_HOME in turn defaults to $HOME/.local/share.)
To see .local in your home folder using the file manager, select Show Hidden Files from the View menu or just type Ctrl+H.
The Trash directory is first created when a user deletes a file. Within Trash there are three subdirectories:
files, where the deleted files are stored until the trash is emptiedinfo, which stores information on where the files once were and when they were deletedexpunged, to which files are briefly moved when the trash is emptied (but may contain some owned by other users from directories you deleted). Note that using the rm command in a terminal or the Shift+Delete key combination in the file manager will permanently delete your file instead of moving it to the trash.
The trash folder is located at .local/share/Trash in your home directory.
Additionally, on other disk partitions or on removable media it will be a directory .Trash-uid where uid is the uid of the user who moved the item to the trash.
On ubuntu 22.04 to recover Trash folder on Desktop, enter command
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.ding show-trash true
To hide the icon again, run the command below to reset the key:
gsettings reset org.gnome.shell.extensions.ding show-trash
