Can You Delete Files In A Dmg Folder Mac

One of the aspects where Macs differ from Windows PCs the most is when it comes to installing applications. On Macs, you need mount a disk image and then unmount it and delete once the installation is finished, which can be a bit of a hassle, especially if you have to test many apps in a short amount of time.

Thinking of that, this time we’ll share a couple of neat little workflows that you can implement on your Mac using Automator. With any of them, every time you are done with an app installation on your Mac, you’ll be able to eject/unmount and delete the disk image in just a couple of clicks.

Aug 17, 2011  Once you have installed it you do not need the.dmg file. #3 The update is already installed so you can delete the dmg. And just for clarification, think of the.dmg as a discardable disk. You have to load it up (you see the drive on the desktop) and you can access the files on it. Removing these files is as easy as the installation process: select the file and drag it to the Trash. There are cases where the software is more complex, such as Adobe’s suite of programs or Mac optimization software OnyX’s installer files. If this is the situation, just open the disk image.

Let’s get started with how to set up these nice Automator workflows.

Delete DMG Files Automatically When You Eject Them

Step 1: Open Automator and choose to create a new document. From the available document types that show up on the dialog box, select Service.

Step 2: At the top of the right panel, make sure to choose from the dropdown menus the options ‘no input’ and ‘Finder’ respectively so that the end result is as the one pictured below.

Step 3: Next, on the left panel of Automator, search for the Run AppleScript action and drag it to the right panel. An AppleScript window will show up with some placeholder code in it.

Delete that code and instead copy and paste the following one in the script box:

tell application 'Finder'
set selection_list to selection
if (count selection_list) < 1 then
display dialog ¬
'Please select a volume mounted from a disk image.' with title ¬
'No Selection Found' with icon stop ¬
buttons ['OK'] default button 1
return
end if
set my_selection to item 1 of selection_list
set my_kind to kind of my_selection
set my_name to name of my_selection
if my_kind is not 'Volume' then
display dialog ¬
'Please select a volume mounted from a disk image file.' with title ¬
'Selection is not a Disk Image' with icon stop ¬
buttons ['OK'] default button 1
return
end if
set volume_list to paragraphs of (do shell script 'hdiutil info grep ^/dev/disk grep -o '/Volumes/.*')
set source_list to paragraphs of (do shell script 'hdiutil info grep ^image'-'alias grep -o '/.*')
set match_found to false
repeat with v from 1 to (count volume_list)
if '/Volumes/' & my_name = item v of volume_list then
set match_found to true
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
if match_found is not equal to true then
display dialog ¬
'The selected volume does not appear to be a Disk Image.' with title ¬
'Could not find Disk Image' with icon stop ¬
buttons ['OK'] default button 1
return
else
set my_source to POSIX file (item v of source_list) as alias
move my_source to the trash
eject my_selection
--reveal my_source
end if
end tell

Step 4: Now save this Automator service and give it a name that is easy to remember.

Step 5: Once this is done, every time you have a disk image mounted, all you have to do is select it and on the Finder menu select Services and then Eject and Delete (or whatever you named the service you just created) and the disk image file will be both unmounted and deleted with one click.

Now, let’s take a look at another Automator workflow that achieves the same objective doing exactly the opposite.

  • Jan 19, 2018 You can delete the original folder now, if you'd like. Just don't delete that.DMG file! And just like a folder, you can add items to your password-protected disk image before ejecting it.
  • Audio Transcript If you’ve got a lot of files and folders on your Mac, you want to clean up every once in a while to stay organized and make it easier to find specific items. First, locate any files or folders that you want to delete. You just click to highlight file and drag it.

Eject DMG Files Automatically When You Drag Them To the Trash

As you can see from the title, this Automator workflow allows you to achieve the same purpose, except that in reverse, so you can avoid this message every time you drag to the trash a mounted DMG file.

Here are the steps to create it.

Step 1: Create a new document in Automator and select Folder Action from the available document types.

Step 2: At the top of the right panel, select Other… from the dropdown menu. Then, on the dialog box that pops over, type ~/.Trash to work with that folder.

Step 3: Next, on the left panel, drag the Run Shell Script action to the right panel. On the two dropdown menus that show up, select /usr/bin/python and as arguments respectively.

Step 4: Replace the placeholder script in the script box with the following one:

import string, os, sys
lines = os.popen('hdiutil info').readlines()
should_eject = False
for line in lines:
if line.startswith('image-alias'):
path = line.split(':')[1]
image_path = path.lstrip().rstrip()
if image_path in sys.argv:
should_eject = True
elif line.startswith('/dev/') and should_eject is True:
os.popen('hdiutil eject %s' % line.split()[0])
should_eject = False
elif line.startswith('###'):
should_eject = False

Once done, save the Folder Action and quit Automator. Now, whenever a DMG file is mounted, all you’ll have to do is drag it to the Trash and it will be unmounted at the same time.

Cool Tip: You can also create keyboard shortcuts for these actions by following the instructions at the end of this tutorial.

And there you go. Two different workflows to enable a very convenient feature on your Mac. Now all left to do is just choose which one you find more convenient. And the best of all? In both cases you’ll learn a bit more about Automator. Enjoy!

Also See#automation #OS X

Did You Know

Does hayato's dmg go crazy at max default. In 1835, Thomas Davenport developed the first practical EV.

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Mac users often find their Downloads folder filled with disk images that they previously downloaded from the internet, files that – having already installed the apps – they forgot to delete after unmounting the image. As you may already know, installer files for macOS come with a DMG file extension – otherwise known as an Apple Disk Image – and are similar to ISO files.

To install an app – the majority of which just require dragging and dropping – users need to mount this .DMG file just as you might mount a CD when putting it into a CD drive, which makes its contents visible on the Mac. The required software is packed into a special bundle and carries an invisible “.APP” extension.

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Users tend to forget about the existence of these disk images after they install the software. The same is true for iOS installer files (IPSW), although using .IPSW to apply an iOS software update is considered to be a more advanced function and therefore more appropriate for tech-savvy users. Even so, it can still happen that even advanced users forget about these storage-hungry installer files.

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Having one or two installer files in the Downloads folder shouldn't cause any issues unless these files occupy gigabytes of space – Adobe Creative Suite installer packages, for example. But when you realize that your Mac is running out of free space, this is a good place to check for the remains of installer files to remove them and save space.

Removing these files is as easy as the installation process: select the file and drag it to the Trash. There are cases where the software is more complex, such as Adobe's suite of programs or Mac optimization software OnyX's installer files. If this is the situation, just open the disk image and look for an uninstaller file, or launch the app and find the uninstall options. The uninstall process may differ by app, but in most cases it is hassle-free.

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The drag and drop removal method, however, may leave some junk data behind since it doesn't remove the supporting files, which, if you frequently install and uninstall apps, may end up eating into your Mac's storage.

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Ever since macOS Sierra 10.12, Apple has provided users with the option to trash the installer as soon as its function is finished, a pretty handy feature considering the limited disk space on a 128GB MacBook Air.

Fortunately, Mac optimization apps such as CleanMyMac and others include a neat uninstaller utility that helps remove all files associated with the application and its temporary installation files. While this feature won’t remove the installation file, it does find the files associated with specific software after selecting the app(s) that you want removed.

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Installer files are easier to remove because they can be considered as .ZIP files. To move the installer to the Trash, however, you should first unmount it, otherwise it will display an error message. After unmounting it, locate the file (usually in the Downloads folder, the default location for files downloaded from the web), and simply press the Command + Backspace keys or drag it into the trash can.

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