Did you know that your Mac has thousands of hidden files and folders? These files and folders are essential to the smooth running of your Mac, but they are not visible to the average user. In this tutorial, we will be showing you how to reveal hidden files on your Mac using Terminal.
Firstly, it is important to note that you should be careful when digging through hidden files. Unless you know exactly what you are looking for, you can damage your operating system. After all, these files are hidden for a reason.
There are several methods for making your user library folder visible. The simplest method is to click on the Finder in the dock to open a new window, navigate to your user or home folder, and click on the Go menu while holding down the option key. From there, you can click on the Library folder to make it visible.
Alternatively, you can click on the Go menu in the Finder and choose Go to Folder. Type “Tild Library” and hit Go to open the folder. You can then drag the Library folder to the Finder sidebar to keep it visible.
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To view hidden files using Finder, open up your Macintosh HD folder, or your startup drive if you have renamed it, and press Command + Shift + Dot to make your hidden files visible. Press the same shortcut keys to hide them again.
If you are a savvy Mac user already familiar with Terminal, you might prefer to run the following script to reveal your hidden files. Open Terminal from the Utilities folder in Applications, paste the command “defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles true” and press Return. Then paste the command “killall Finder” and hit Return again. To hide the files again, repeat the above steps, but replace “true” with “false” at the first command line, and enter “killall Finder” again to relaunch Finder.
To hide a file or folder using Terminal, launch Terminal and paste the command “chflags hidden” followed by a space, and drag the file or folder you want to hide from the Finder onto the Terminal window. You will see the path to the file or folder displayed in the Terminal. After the command you typed, hit Return to execute the command. The file or folder you dragged into the Terminal is now hidden. To make it visible again, follow the same steps but use another command instead, and don’t forget to put a space and paste a file’s path for the command to work.
In conclusion, knowing how to show and hide hidden files on your Mac using Terminal can be very useful, but it is important to be careful when working with hidden files. By following the steps outlined in this tutorial, you can easily reveal or hide hidden files and folders on your Mac.