One of my few complaints about MacOS X is that at times I feel like it treats you with kids gloves– many options for power users either require some sort of hacking, or simply don’t exist. One such thing which is fixable is getting Finder to show hidden files. It’s a quick and easy process via the command line to fix this:
tobin:~ brandon$ defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE tobin:~ brandon$ killall Finder
Now you can actually see all of the directories which start with periods, etc. Enjoy!
31 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.
This is really handy when you create it as a shell script, wrap it an Automator plugin for Finder and can then access it from the context menu.
I found I needed it most when I was already in Finder and the effort to open a terminal window and do the typing wasn’t conducive to my desire to…not do either of those things.
Now I can right click, access the Automator submenu and select “Show Hidden Files” (the name I gave to the plugin). To invert, I select my “Hide Hidden Files” plugin.
Cool. I’ve wanted to know how to do that for a while. However, my finder icons, like a folder, now have a washed out look to them.
Sam,
Strange, that certainly didn’t happen for me. In fact I just rebooted and it still looks the same. If it bothers you more than having hidden files, you could always revert it by doing the following commands:
tobin:~ brandon$ defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
tobin:~ brandon$ killall Finder
I’m also getting the “washed” icon look. Undoing will bring them back to their normal state.
Its odd that this kind of functionality isn’t standard included in OSX. I’ve been working on OSX for about eight weeks now (due to work) and I definitely do not like the GUI of this OS. “I feel like it treats you with kids gloves” to me it feels more like I’m being treated like an idiot. Finder is definitely the most horrible piece of **** ever conceived. To me it seems like Apple only comes up with functionality to be “different” then the “others” instead of creating a great user experience.
I’ve worked on Windows and Linux desktops for years and even a Linux/Gnome desktop gives me a better user experience then OSX and the reason for this is that I’m free to adjust anything I want. Even Windows gives me more freedom than OSX. With OSX I constantly have the feeling that I’m forced into some else’s personal preferences. All in all, OSX should go straight into the bin…
You might find PathFinder useful. It’s a very good replacement for Finder. Among the slew of features it offers, the ability to toggle the visibility of various types of files is much more convenient than using the global default.
@Joseph
Yeah, I have PathFinder myself, though just a trial. I get tired of getting nickled and dimed to death for little apps to fix problems that should be part of the OS, so I’ve pretty much refused to buy it.
Hey guys, I also wrote a little OS X code to allow you to toggle between showing hidden files and not. If you access the following blog post you’ll get instructions on downloading my script and adding it to the Scripts menu so you can toggle hidden files view any time you want. It was built pre-Automater, but works well nonetheless.
http://www.trajiklyhip.com/blo.....les-on-Mac
Since we’re on the topic of hidden files, does anyone know how to get rid of those annoying hidden .DS_Store files?
@pan69
Just created an entry just for you:
http://devnulled.com/content/2.....ore-files/
FYI. The ‘defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE’ tip no longer works in OS X Leopard (10.5). I have not yet found a workaround.
@ Glenn
It still works for me in 10.5.1. The invisible files and folder icons now have this washed out look, the others look normal (more or less like in Windows I believe).
@ Glenn
it’s probably not working b/c the code you posted enables default behaviour ie. don’t show hidden files
change the FALSE to TRUE in the snippet you posted and you’ll be fine
well, this enables to see *several* hidden files in Finder.
however, I still can’t see my .bashrc file in my home and some other dot-files (like the .profile file or the .ssh folder).
anyone any idea how I can make those visible in Finder? (I’m on 10.5.1)
thx & greetings from Germany,
Stefan.
Another question about hidden files: Does anyone know if I can delete files in a hidden folder called “.Trash”? I have 4.5GB of files in this folder and they’re things I thought I deleted about two weeks ago.
Thanks for the Info…
I am a new MAC switcher from Windows and its really annoying that I cant have hidden files visible without spending money on some add-on software. I just want to open apache conf files and edit them and want to be able to browse to them in Finder. I could probably do this in some text editor but thats another story…no free text editor as well…atleast not to my knowledge. But obviously this should be part of the OS like others said.
You came up on Google number 2 for the search “how to see hidden files mac” fyi
this is awesome, thanks!
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
It works, I’m on 10.5.6. I had to do it two or three times before it took, but it works great.
For me it only works if I am not root. Thanks!
Just thanks a lot for your tip!!! It helps tons for me
Thanks, greatly appreciated.
(how about using openid for posting comments?)
Thanks. This is nice, but I’ve been looking for something slightly different but can’t seem to find anything: I’d like to be able to select a folder and have a script/app/whatever toggle the visibility bit of any invisible file WITHIN that folder. Any suggestions? Thanks. -
basically you CAN undo this by
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
And I AM in Leopard 10.5.6 …
I don’t know why somebody wrote anything else here, but it should work. It did also work from the first attempt, but you don’t need to forget to give the command
killal Finder
to get it back
Thanks so very much bro.
What a relief. Tot I was gonna loose my files forever.
Praise the Lord!
God bless you from Indonesia!
Where are the files from the emptied Trash folder?
I need to retrieve them without using software such as Stellar Phoenix which cost a fortune..
Please help guys. Thanks.
Please kindly email solution to me via:
Dv.Bernard@Yahoo.co.ID
Many thanks..
ancient history now, but washed out icons = invisible files ghosted out.
I am on 10.5.8 and it does not seem to work. I have tried it a couple times and it throws no errors, but does not make my hidden backup directory visible. I know it is there because I can access it command line but it is not showing in finder.
I honestly don’t know what the difference is but I got this to work with a slight variation to the command I found on another page that read: “defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean true”
I am not sure why, but when I used this one it worked.
Continuing the Discussion