#HIDDEN FILES MAC HOW TO#
#HIDDEN FILES MAC MAC#

open ~/.config will open the hidden folder.This same method works to open hidden folders in Finder, too. not_visible, assuming there’s an app associated with it. If you need this file or folder opened in the GUI, you can accomplish that using the open command. Just replace ~/.config with the folder you want to view.If you want to execute this on a different folder, that’s easy. It tells the list command to display all files. It’s the -a flag that makes the difference here. You’ll see all of the files in your present directory, including hidden files and folders.You do this using the command ls, list, appropriately enough. If you don’t need or want to change how Finder displays your hidden files, you can list them in the Terminal. Quickly and Temporarily Show Hidden Files in Terminal You can use the Terminal commands above to show it again, just to be sure. That will hide your file or folder from view. The file or folder name will appear at the end of your chflags command.Drag the file or folder you want to hide from Finder to the Terminal window.In Terminal, type chflags hidden, followed by a space, but don’t press Enter.Open Finder to the directory with the files you want to hide.To pull this off, here’s what you need to do.

#HIDDEN FILES MAC MAC#

However, Terminal can be great if you have files and folders on your Mac that aren’t hidden, but you want them to be. You might think this is less helpful than just doing everything in Finder. Those hidden files will once again be hidden from view. defaults write AppleShowAllFiles falseĪgain, Finder will quit and relaunch. When you want to hide them again, you repeat the commands, replacing the value true with false. After that, you’ll be able to see all of your hidden files in Finder, along with any temporary files saved on your desktop. You’ll probably see your desktop icons disappear and then reappear. The Finder app will quit and relaunch itself. Once those commands have run, a couple of things will happen. Just type the following commands: defaults write AppleShowAllFiles true If you prefer working in Terminal, you can enable showing hidden files there.

#HIDDEN FILES MAC HOW TO#

How to Show Hidden Files on Mac Using Terminal Click that, and your Mac’s ~/Library folder opens in a new Finder window. Hold down the Option key, and a new Library option shows up. At first, you won’t see Library listed at all.You don’t need to navigate through all of your computer’s folders to get there. Now, let’s say you just need to access your Mac’s Library folder, ~/Library. This same key combination will work no matter what folder you have opened in Finder. Press the same key combination, and those files and folders will disappear again.You’ll see a number of additional files and folders, slightly grayed out to mark them as being hidden. You won’t see much there when you first open it, so press Command + Shift + Period.Under Locations, click on your hard drive folder, probably named Macintosh HD.If you prefer to work via point and click, you can show hidden files on macOS using the Finder app. There are a few ways you can show hidden files on Mac. If you know what you’re doing, that’s a good reason to unhide these files, at least temporarily. Perhaps you need to relocate a program directory, troubleshoot a misbehaving driver, or do something similar. This does have the unfortunate side effect of making things a bit of a challenge when you do need to access these files. Apple hides these files and folders so you don’t need to worry about ruining your Mac and having to restore everything. If you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s all too easy to render your Mac unbootable or otherwise unusable if you play around with these files. Mess something up, and you could find yourself forced to restore or complete a fresh macOS install. These include directories, libraries, and files that keep macOS running smoothly.

You could even go so far as to brick your Mac if you accidentally delete or change one of these files. Some files on macOS need to stay safely where they are-unaltered. We’ll explain how you can view hidden files on your Mac, but first, let’s cover a few important details.

Hidden files mac