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Easy And Quick Methods To Show Hidden Files On MacOS

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How To Show Hidden Files On MacOS is today’s topic Apple has to provide its customer World’s best Gadgets MacOS is one of these. However, if you are new to Mac or want to see hidden files in your Mac, This is not an easy task to show hidden files on your Mac, But you don’t need to worry about that. We are here to solve your difficulty regarding How to Show Hidden Files On MacOS. Simple computers arch-rival Windows has a very easy solution for unhiding files or folders which can be done in a few clicks and No keyboard required But in case of Macbook its not an easy task. But you don’t need to worry, we will guide you regarding each your problem. In this article, you will find all the ways on How to show Hidden files On Mac OS in extreme simple steps, And you will be able to see your hidden files at different locations in your Mac.

If you are new to Mac and want to see your hidden files then you can follow our simple step by step demonstration to solve your problem. Fun Fact- Mac is similar to Android as both are Unix based operating system, well strictly speaking Android is based on Linux operating system. But, Linux is also Unix based operating system. Maybe you are wondering what this has got to do with your problem. Well, they all behave similarly but are not the same as they have got few things in common. Did you know that to hide a file in Unix you have to add “.” dot before the name of the file in your system. For example,   access is the name of a file which is hidden because it has a dot as the first character of the file name. Same goes for Android or Linux and also for MacOS system

“So to hide the private files you just have to add a dot before file name and Voila! its invisible from the computer”.

This file is still here in your system but we would not recommend this method for securing your files as anyone with some computer skills can access hidden files And can cause problems. For that purpose, you can use password protected software or cloud-based storage like iCloud. But showing hidden files on Mac is not as simple as hiding so You should follow these steps.

Hidden Files On MacOS:

“Hidden files” are not deleted files nor they get relocated to the dark side of your hard disk. To recover deleted files on Mac use Recovery software provided by MacOS. In Mac operating system, A huge number of files are safe for different purposes.

These files are system files and this is done to protect your files, the files from accidental deletion or any other procedures that end with the nonproper functioning of your Mac. Files can be hidden manually on your Mac as mentioned in the above section. And the following method is to unhide the hidden files in your Mac

Third-party applications are available to unhide files in Mac. We have provided you already one of the best application that is freely available to download here in this article with the easy procedures to use it for your Mac. But our recommendation is to follow the steps mentioned below as there is no need to waste your precious needless to mention limited memory by installing another application on your Mac.

These simple steps will help you to save your time as well as your hard work. One more thing before we go forward when you unhide a hidden file in Mac all the subsequent hidden files will get unhidden. So you can easily locate other hidden files too.

Without Using Terminal How to Show Hidden Files On Your MacOS

Following is the simplest way to show hidden files in Mac OS  or later versions.  These steps will prove as helpful for you to unhide the hidden files without using Keyboard. These steps are:

  1. First Go to ‘Finder’ and locate the folder in which your hidden files are located. If you are not sure about location, Then open any folder with files in it, when you unhide files all hidden files are shown.
  2. Press Cmd + Shift + . (Dot) from your Mac ’s keyboard. This will show all the hidden files on your Mac.
  3. To hide the files again hold Cmd + Shift +. (Dot)  on your keyboard. “ Press the mentioned combination of keys once to unhide and again to hide the files.” This will be much helpful for our users

These  all methodologies are for new versions of Mac But for new versions following steps are available:

How to Show Hidden Files On MacOS by using Terminal

Above section was about the hidden file showing without using terminal now we will discuss how to unhide files by using the terminal. Now, you have to write just one line in the Terminal that’s it and all folders and files will be unhidden. This is simply the magic of Terminal and also it is hoped will be supported on all versions of Mac. You should follow these steps:

  1. First Open “Terminal Search” Terminal in Finder and then click on the result.
  2. Type or paste the following command in the terminal “defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder” and press Enter or Return next.

The above methods will helpful for you to show hidden files on MacOS and you should see all the hidden files on your Mac.

Important point “There is some difference in command mentioned in step 2 and in the image above. But both these will help regarding your issue”

Furthermore, the above command both shows the hidden files and refreshes the Finder so your hidden file appears.

How to show Hidden Files on Mac using Terminal Aliases:

Terminal Aliases is a type of shortcut, key or any other command. Using an easy way to remember alias, We can satisfy the above-mentioned steps. An alias can be made temporarily but just for the use of only one terminal session or permanently. As we want this as a shortcut used now and in the future, let’s how we can make it permanent:

  1. First Open Terminal found in Finder > Applications > Utilities
  2. In Terminal, Paste the following: sudo nano ~/.bash_profile
  3. Enter your Mac’s administration password if required, Then hit return
  4. At the bottom of the open .bash_profile file, Paste the following: alias showFiles=’ defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES; killall Finder /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app’
  5. Below that, Paste the following: alias hideFiles=’ defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO; killall Finder /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app’
  6. Press Ctrl + O and hit return to save the file
  7. Press Ctrl + X to exit the file and return to the command line
  8. In Terminal, paste the following: source ~/.bash_profileto refresh your profile and make the aliases available.

Now when you want to show hidden Mac files, All you need to type in Terminal is showFiles, Then hide files when you want to hide them.

If you want to modify the behavior or alias names, Let’s take a closer look at the commands you just added:

alias showFiles=’defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES;

killall Finder /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app’

Alias tells Terminal we’re adding a new alias.

ShowFiles is the name of the alias. Change this to what you wish.

We then give the alias two commands. The first being:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES;

This is the command to show hidden files and is ended with a semi-colon; So we can then use the second command:

killall Finder /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app

This will relaunch the Finder (to replicate the step of holding the ‘Option/alt’ key then right-clicking the Finder icon in the dock).

How to Hide Files on Mac

To again hide the files and folders, just open terminal and type or paste this one-liner ” defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE; killall Finder  ”

That’s all the procedure.

Software availability to Unhide Folders on your Mac

‘FUNTER‘ application can use to find hidden files or folders. This application is also available for download free of cost for your  Mac.

It is loaded with many features such as a search option so that you can enter your file’s name and click to find it.

It will search for both hidden and normal files and display the results in no time. It provides a nice interface to manage files and plenty of other important features.

Final Take

In this article, we have given you all possible ways to show your hidden files in your Mac. We have given you a keyboard shortcut to unhide folders and files, we have mentioned the simple terminal line and then we also gave you free software to unhide and hide folders on Mac. We hope now you are able to fix your hidden files not showing on your Mac.

If you follow all above mentioned steps in a systematic order then you are able now to fix the not showing hidden files error in your Mac. You could also write a program and add the second step terminal command to it. So every time when you want to unhide files, simply follow these steps carefully. We suggest to use Applescript, you can just find it on Google.

Always hide the files or your folders after use as it may result in accidental modification and deletion of system files which can be critical. For further queries read our articles, if you have any question regarding  How To Show Hidden Files On MacOS, you can ask in the comments section below.