- Show Hidden Files On Mac
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- Show Hidden Files For Mac App
- Terminal Mac Show Hidden Files
- Show Hidden Files For Mac
Your Mac has a secret. Thousands of them in fact, in the form of hidden files and folders lurking on its hard drive or SSD. Don’t worry, though. These files and folders are all supposed to be there. In fact, many of them are essential.
There, in the ‘Advanced settings’ section, click on ‘Show Hidden Files, Folders or Drives’. Then, click on the OK. Now you can view the hidden files and folders. You can hide them again through the same process. How To View Hidden Files On A USB Or External Hard Drive In Mac. The Quickest Way to Show/Hide Hidden Files. Since the release of macOS Sierra, when in Finder, it is now possible to use the shortcut: CMD + SHIFT +. Press once to show hidden files and again to hide them. If you're using a version earlier than macOS Sierra, see Show/Hide Hidden Files using Terminal Aliases to setup a toggle command via terminal.
Many of these files are in your Mac’s main Library folder or in the ~/Library folder, which is in your User folder. Both these Library folders are hidden, but inside them are folders and files that hold things like preferences for apps.
Run Terminal on Mac OS X. Open Finder Applications Utilities, and you could find Terminal there.
In this article, we’ll tell you how you can view hidden files on your Mac and make your Library folder visible.
Aug 29, 2020 Security is the primary reason some files are hidden on your Mac. Moreover, the core data needs to stay intact for the system to run smoothly. Just like the compatible yet hidden external display. After all, these files are hidden for a reason! See hidden files on Mac via Finder. As mentioned above, it doesn’t take much to make the hidden files on your Mac visible. In fact, you can check out all of the hidden files on your Mac by following just three easy steps: In Finder, open up your Macintosh HD folder; Press Command+Shift+Dot.
What are the hidden files on Mac?
The hidden files are a throwback to macOS’ Unix roots. In fact, the convention of naming them starting with a “.” comes from Unix. For that reason, you can’t use a “.” at the start of a regular file name, otherwise OS X will hide it.
The files themselves contain data like access rights and privileges for files and folders, application support files, and preferences.
There are a number of reasons files and folders are hidden. Mostly, though, it’s because they contain data critical to the smooth running of your Mac and that you shouldn’t interfere with. In addition, there’s no real reason for most users to see or access them. Also, if they were all visible, your Mac would look horribly cluttered.
How to view hidden files on Mac
Before you make your Mac show hidden files, it’s important to remember they’ve been hidden for a reason. The data they contain could cause havoc if you delete or alter it and don’t know what you’re doing.
If your goal in viewing, for example ~/Library is so you can manually delete application support files for a program you’ve uninstalled, consider using a dedicated uninstaller like CleanMyMac X. Nikon wireless mobile utility. That will make it easy to remove all the files associated with an application with one click. You can download CleanMyMac X for free here.
CleanMyMac X will also allow you to get rid of all the hidden files you no longer need. Many of these files are created and used then not needed anymore. They just sit there clogging up your hard drive. CleanMyMac X scans your Mac, identifies this system junk and allows you to quickly and easily get rid of it, potentially several gigabytes of disk space.
If you still want to view hidden files on your Mac, you need to go to the Finder and do the following:
Show Hidden Files On Mac
- Open a new Finder window and click on the name of your Mac under ‘Devices’ in the sidebar.
- Click on Macintosh HD, or whatever you’ve called your startup drive if you’ve renamed it.
- Press Command-Shift-. (period). You should now see lots of files and folders who’s name starts with “.” become visible.
- To re-hide the files and folders, hold down Command-Shift-. again.
How to view your Mac’s ~/Library folder
There are a couple of methods for making your ~/Library folder visible. Here’s the simplest:
- Click on the Finder in the Dock.
- Open a new Finder window and navigate to your user folder (Tip: if it’s not in the sidebar, go to the Finder menu, choose Preferences, click Sidebar and check the box next to your Home folder)
- Click on the Go menu.
- Hold down the Option (Alt) key.
- You should see that in the dropdown menu, Library appears below Home. Click on it.
Alternatively, do this to view your Library folder:
- Click on the Finder in the Dock.
- Click on the Go menu and choose Go to Folder.
- In the window that opens, type “~/Library”
With both these methods, your Library folder will disappear again when you close the Finder window. It’s easy enough to run through the steps above again to make it visible again when you need to, but if you want it permanently accessible, there are a couple of ways to do it.
The quickest is to drag the Library folder to the Finder’s sidebar. That will create a shortcut to it that will persist. If you want to keep ~/Library visible but don’t want it clogging up the sidebar in Finder windows, do this:
- Click on the Finder in the Dock.
- Click on the View menu and choose Show View Options.
- Check the box labelled Show Library Folder at the bottom of the window.
How to make macOS show hidden files using Terminal
If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can use the Terminal command line interface to view hidden files and folders. Here’s how to do it:
![Hidden Hidden](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126362069/342052483.png)
- Open Terminal from the Utilities folder in Applications, or by searching for it using Spotlight. You can also use the Go menu in the Finder to go directly to the Utilities folder.
- Type, or copy and paste, this command: defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles true
- Press Return
- Type: killall Finder
To hide the files again, repeat the above steps, but replace ‘true’ with ‘false’ at the end of step 2.
How to hide any file or folder using Terminal
Now that you know how to view hidden files and folders on your Mac, you may be wondering how you can hide other files or folders, to keep them away from prying eyes. There are a number of third-party applications and utilities that offer to do this for you, but you can do it yourself in Terminal, like this:
If the Messages app is not an option, Apple’s support site has detailed instructions for in System Preferences and using alternative screen-sharing methods or iCloud’s (until Back to My Mac is in the next version of the operating system). How to remote into a mac.
- Launch Terminal.
- Type: chflags hidden
- Press the spacebar.
- Drag the file or folder you want to hide from the Finder onto the Terminal window.
- You’ll see the path to the file or folder displayed in Terminal after the command you typed.
- Hit Return to execute the command.
The file or folder you dragged onto the Terminal window will now be hidden. To see it again, use one of the methods described above to see hidden files.
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To make the file visible permanently again, use the steps above, but in step 2 type: chflags nohidden
As you can see, viewing hidden files and folders on your Mac is very straightforward. There are a number of ways to do it, and you can make them visible temporarily or permanently.
However, just because you can view hidden files, doesn’t mean you should — the files are usually hidden because accidentally deleting them or altering them could cause chaos on your Mac. So, while it’s fine to have a peek, don’t do anything with the hidden files unless you know what you’re doing.
If you want to declutter your Mac or uninstall applications, use a dedicated application like CleanMyMac X. It will safely remove all useless files, add-ons, broken login items, caches, large and old files you didn't know about. Most likely, you won't even need to look for hidden files — CleanMyMac will do all the job for you.
We also showed that many of those files are stored in Library folders, including the one in your User folder, ~/Library. That folder is hidden by default, but you can view it or make it permanently visible using the techniques described above.
These might also interest you:
While macOS allows users to see the majority of the files their Mac holds, not all files are immediately accessible in Finder, with some kept from view to prevent inadvertent changes or deletion. AppleInsider shows how to gain access to those hidden files and folders.
Operating systems typically have some form of file-hiding functionality built in, and macOS is no exception. Many files or folders are hidden all across the Mac's file system, with the main goal of preventing curious users from mistakenly deleting an important folder or changing a critical file that could cause major problems to macOS.
Not everything hidden by macOS is that hazardous, as apps are also using the feature to help preserve a user's work. For example, a word processor could create a temporary copy of a file currently being used, or a file to flag that another file in a folder needs to be protected from other activities while it is in use elsewhere.
For the adventurous, it is possible to gain access to the hidden files and folders, but the process will differ depending on the operating system, and if you want to have permanent access to said files.
Apple has included an easy way to see the files for those using macOS Sierra and newer releases. A keyboard shortcut can be used to toggle between making the files visible or hiding them again.
Open Finder and navigate to the folder you wish to use. Press the key combination Command-Shift-. (Period) to toggle between the two states.
Terminal
This method is meant for macOS versions older than Sierra, but will also work in both Sierra and High Sierra.
Open the Terminal. This can be found by opening the Finder, selecting Applications, then the Utilities folder.
Show Hidden Files For Mac App
Enter the following string into the terminal, then press enter:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles true; killall Finder
This string performs two tasks. The first section before 'true' alters a setting within macOS to automatically show all files. The second 'killall Finder' element effectively restarts the Finder, refreshing your view to show hidden files.
If you wish to reverse the setting, open Terminal and enter the same command, except changing 'true' to 'false' in this way:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles false; killall Finder
Terminal Mac Show Hidden Files
Further Thoughts
Show Hidden Files For Mac
The files and folders are typically hidden for a very good reason, namely to prevent anyone from accidentally meddling with their operating system and applications in a potentially catastrophic way. Generally speaking, it's best to leave these files alone unless there is a good reason to access them.
If you do feel the need to meddle with these hidden items without any constructive purpose, it is advised to avoid doing so on any mission-critical systems, and to make backups beforehand, just in case any data is lost.
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