When I delete files on a USB, it doesn't free up memory on the stik. I find I have to empty the entire stik, use Disk Utility to 'erase' it, then transfer back the files I removed to free up all the space on the stik. Is this the best practice?

It frustrates me that if I delete a file from a USB, it doesn't free up the memory on the stik. I have been removing all the files from the stik, opening Disk Utility and erasing the empty USB. That frees up the entire stik. Then I have been transferring back the files I removed from the stik. The result is that I have memory available to use again. It seems to me this is an unnecessarily complicated and time consuming way to get the result. Is there a shorter way to do this?

Hello Horst,
Thank you for the question.  Have you been emptying your trash after deleting the items?  For the item to be removed from your USB device, you will need to empty the trash on your MacBook Pro after you delete the items, as described in the featured discussion below.  Your USB device will still need to be connected when you do this:
Choose Empty Trash from the Finder menu. Unlike Windows, the trash needs to be emptied manually for any drive other than one mounted through the network.
Can't delete off my USB drive
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1946841
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

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