How To Find And Show Hidden Files On Mac

While there’s one very simple and easy way to toggle visibility on and off for hidden files and folders, you do have a couple of other options if you’d prefer. You can do it inside Finder itself:

To immediately reveal all hidden files and folders, press Shift + ⌘ (Command) + . (period) at the same time on the keyboard.If you want to make previously hidden files disappear again, press the same Shift + ⌘ (Command) + . (period) key combination a second time.

Or you can do it via the Terminal app:

Click the Search (magnifying glass) icon in the top-right corner of the screen, then search for “terminal” and either press Return or click the first result.In Terminal, run the script: $ defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles trueThen type in $ killall FinderTo hide everything again, enter the script but replace “true” with “false” before running it in Terminal.

Be aware that most of the hidden files in macOS aren’t made visible by default to prevent accidental deletion of anything vital to the system. So unless everyone who uses your Mac knows what to look out for, it might be best to set everything back to being hidden once you’ve finished what you initially set out to do.

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