However, if you still want to view and access the hidden folders and files on your Mac, you should be extremely careful to avoid damaging your operating system. Keyboard shortcuts are probably the easiest way to display hidden files and folders in the Finder on a Mac. You can show hidden files by pressing the Command, Shift, and Period keys at the same time.
The above keyboard shortcut for showing hidden files on a Mac works in any folder in the Finder. One exception is the Library folder , which is usually hidden. It mainly contains system files and automatically saved copies of Microsoft Office documents.
Showing the Library folder is especially useful when you're looking for old Word documents and are unable to find them. If your computer crashes before you could save your data, you should look in the Library folder. You can access this folder using the following shortcut:. Since the Library automatically saves Microsoft Office documents as hidden files, you may see a large number of unorganized files in this folder. The Option key is one of the most useful and commonly used keys on a Mac.
Find out more about the Option key on a Mac and learn about its functions and commands. Instead of using keyboard shortcuts and the Finder, you can also use Terminal in conjunction with commands on your Mac to show hidden files and folders. Terminal is a built-in command-line interface included in the Mac operating system.
You can use commands in Terminal to replace sequences of multiple steps in the Finder and perform an action. To view hidden files and folders using Terminal, proceed as follows:. Then double-click the search result. Viewing hidden files and folders on a Mac using Terminal involves entering two commands and pressing the Enter key. Type the following into Terminal:. Now the hidden files and folders on your Mac are displayed in the Finder.
As mentioned above, the files appear transparent. The folders look slightly paler than folders that are not hidden. The command then looks like this:. Terminal is a helpful interface for performing basic and advanced support, repair, and maintenance tasks. Another standard tool that you can use to perform these tasks is the Mac Task Manager. You can use Terminal not only to show or hide the hidden folders on your Mac.
You can also use it to hide specific files from nosy users who may have access to your computer. To do this, proceed as follows:. You can use the same procedure if you want to show the hidden files and folders on your Mac as usual again. Get found with your own domain.
Build trust with your own email address. Reach visitors with your own website. Third-party file managers like Forklift offer an easy way of working with hidden files and folders on a Mac.
They allow you to show hidden files directly in the interface of the app , without having to use keyboard shortcuts or commands that can be somewhat daunting for less tech-savvy users. There are many different file managers available with a variety of features. The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say. Thought this was pretty interesting, so tried it to connect to my user Document folder using Camino, Firefox, and Safari.
Cheers, Juz [ Reply to This ]. At least Camino can do even simpler than that: just drag a folder icon from the desktop or any finder window into the browser window, and you get a directory listing with clickable links to all files and directories, including the hidden ones. Somebody shoot me! Search Advanced. From our Sponsor Latest Mountain Lion Hints Click here for complete coverage of Lion on Macworld. User Functions Username: Password:. What's New: Hints No new hints Comments last 2 days John believes that the best things in life are simple.
John says that his 1 pet peeve is phishing scams. Ironically, his favorite non-work related activity is fishing. Showing hidden files via Mac Finder The first and easiest method is using Mac Finder to show hidden files: Open the folder where you want to search hidden files.
The hidden files will show up as translucent in the folder. Alternatively, you can find it by clicking on Go in the menu bar, selecting Applications , scrolling down to Utilities, expanding the folder, and clicking on Terminal. Type in defaults write com. Type in killall Finder and press Enter again. When you're done, tuck away the files again by following these steps: Open Terminal. To obscure something from view on your Mac, follow these steps: Open Terminal.
Type in chflags hidden. Drag the files you want to hide into the Terminal window. Press Enter to hide the files.
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