Secrets lurk in your Mac drives—most of them are files and folders which are hidden in regular Finder views as a result of they’re associated to low-level system functions you don’t want to deal, with except you’re troubleshooting an issue or are a system administrator.
How to reveal hidden files
You can reveal these hidden system files with a lesser-known keyboard shortcut. In the Finder, press Command-Shift-period (that’s the “.” or interval key). This toggles the hidden-files state, and in any Finder window, you will note any files marked to be invisible as showing in a grayed-out state. (If you didn’t know this shortcut, you’re not alone: I discovered of it simply days in the past, and in a ballot I did on Twitter, most individuals who responded have been unaware of it, too.)
How to hide a file
If you need to hide a file or folder (hear, you already know your causes higher than I do), you’ll be able to handle this throughout the Terminal. The simplest way is dragging and dropping the merchandise into the Terminal window in the steps under, as that mechanically fills in the Unix-style path to the file or folder. Here’s how to hide an merchandise:
- Launch Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
- Enter
chflags hiddenand sort an area after that. - Drag the merchandise in query into the Terminal window after that area. Alternatively, you’ll be able to sort in the total path, like
'/Users/glenn/Documents/Secret Hidden Thing Shhh Shhh/' - Press Return_.
To reveal that merchandise, simply change hidden in step 2 to nohidden.
In each hiding and revealing files and folders, the change doesn’t seem instantly in a Finder window that’s show the merchandise you’ve modified. Instead, you want to swap away from the view and return to it, similar to going up a layer in the folder hierarchy and again down.
This Mac 911 article is in response to a query submitted by Macworld reader Lucy.
- Launch Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
- Enter
chflags hiddenand sort an area after that. - Drag the merchandise in query into the Terminal window after that area. Alternatively, you’ll be able to sort in the total path, like
'/Users/glenn/Documents/Secret Hidden Thing Shhh Shhh/' - Press Return_.
To reveal that merchandise, simply change hidden in step 2 to nohidden.
In each hiding and revealing files and folders, the change doesn’t seem instantly in a Finder window that’s show the merchandise you’ve modified. Instead, you want to swap away from the view and return to it, similar to going up a layer in the folder hierarchy and again down.
This Mac 911 article is in response to a query submitted by Macworld reader Lucy.
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