How to Empty Trash in Joomla 3
When you Trash an article (or category) it does not get deleted immediately until it is explicitly emptied. It goes into the Joomla Trash from which it can be retrieved. But the problem is that it also takes up the alias that is assigned it, making it not possible for you to create another article with the same alias. Unless you empty the trash, that is.
To empty the trash in Joomla 3 …
1. Go to “Content -> Article Manager”
2. Click the Search Tools to expose the droplists…
3. In the “select status” droplist, select “Trashed”. This will list all the trashed articles.
4. Checkmark the article that you want to permanently delete. Or check the top checkbox to select all Trashed articles.
5. Click empty trash button.
6. Now no more Trashed articles will be listed. I like to change the droplist value from “Trashed” back to “select status” so that it list all articles again. This way you will not be surprise that no articles is listed the next time you come to Article Manager.
To empty the trash for categories, you do the same except you go to “Content -> Category Manager” instead.