GNOME 3 – Delete Key Not Deleting/Working in Nautilus

In GNOME 3 it seems that the keyboard shortcut to delete a file in Nautilus is actually Ctrl+Delete, this is fine I guess if it’s trying to stop people accidentally deleting files or something but it’s pretty annoying.

To change the keyboard shortcut from Ctrl+Delete back to the usual Delete do the following:

Open a terminal and type:

dconf-editor

If you don’t have it, install it the usual way.

In the application that just opened, on the sidebar click:

org > gnome > desktop > interface

And check the box entitled: can-change-accels.

Now, leave this window open and open up Nautilus.

Select a file that you want deleting and then click on Edit in the Nautilus menu, hover over the Move To Trash button and here press the button you wish to assign to the action, so for example Delete. You may have to press it twice (the first time it will remove the old key-binding and the second will assign it the new one.)

Go back to dconf-editor and uncheck the can-change-accels option to stop any other keyboard shortcuts being changed and you’re all done!