How to Show and Hide Hidden Files on Mac OS X

Occasionally, you may need to locate a file that you just can't seem to find. Apple's Mac OS X operating system hides files from everyday users to prevent accidental deletion or altering. If you know what you're doing and you know you need to access some hidden files (which is also useful for recovering iPod data), you have to go through the Terminal to reveal those hidden files. Here is how to do it.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Apple Macintosh Computer running Mac OS X
• Terminal (comes with Mac OS X)

How to Show Hidden Files

1. 

   Launch the Terminal which is under Applications > Utilities > Terminal in Mac OS X Leopard.

2. 

   Type in "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true" (without the quotes, pay attention to the capital letters) at the command prompt, right after the dollar sign.

3. 

   Restart the Finder by typing in "killall Finder" minus the quotes and be sure to capitalize Finder. You can also restart the Mac OS X Finder by clicking the Apple on the upper left of the screen and selecting "Force Quit." Click on "Finder" and hit the "Relaunch" button.

4. 

   Open up a Finder window by going to the Dock and clicking on the Finder icon.

5. 

   See that there are now files with a dot (or period) in front of them like ".Trash" and others. You can also create hidden files yourself by naming them with a dot in front of the filename.

6. Log off Terminal by typing in "exit" at the prompt and quit the program.

How to Re-hide Hidden Files

7. Launch the Terminal if you haven't shut it down.

8. 

   Type in "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool false" (without the quotes, this is case sensitive) at the command prompt.

9. Relaunch the finder by typing in "killall Finder" without the quotes and remembering the case sensitivity.

10. Open a new Finder window. Those files that had the dot preceding the file name are hidden again.

Tips & Warnings

• You can also use a simple utility called "Show & Hide" to show and hide files without touching the Terminal (see Resources below for a link to download the program).
• DO NOT alter, delete or otherwise handle files with which you're not familiar. You can seriously damage the Mac OS X operating system by mistake.

Resources

• Show & Hide Mac OS X Utility

[showpup]

on 5/30/2008 Fabulous and how to re-hide as well. Cool.

[L1onherd]

on 5/30/2008 Great tips!!!!