Show Hidden Files in Mac OS X Finder
For any of you power-users moving from Windows to MacOS X behind me, another thing you’ll want to know is how to get the Finder to show hidden files (those that begin with a period).
Open a Terminal windows and type:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder
The first line changes the setting in Finder. The second line closes all open Finder windows, so that Finder will restart with the new configuration the next time you open a new window.
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Mike R wrote:
Thanks for the tip. Very useful to know. I am also a recent Windows convert…. Glad I made the ‘upgrade’
A point to raise is there will be loads of .DS_Store files displayed when you make this change. I doubt accidentally deleting .DS_Store files would cause an issue, however OSX would likely lose the relevant folder settings/ preferences. Not a big deal though I don’t suspect.
Is there a way to script this, such as creating a .sh file for instance, thus doing the equivallent of a Windows .bat file to automate things? I want to switch this feature on and off since I share my computer with another user.
For now I just copy and paste in this command to revert the change:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
Cheers,
Mike
Posted 13 Dec 2008 at 9:19 am ¶
Lee wrote:
Craig,
thanks for the info.
Mike,
Thanks for providing the information on how to put it back to normal after I changed settings without reading to see if there was a way back!
Posted 23 Jan 2009 at 7:04 pm ¶
Oris wrote:
Good freeware application for http://code.google.com/p/hide-unhide
Posted 24 Nov 2009 at 3:22 pm ¶
Garrett V wrote:
Sheesh, these two lines were what I needed but all these other sites out there had essays on garbage topics with no real help. Perfect example of KISS - keep it simple, stupid.
Thanks for your help!
Posted 07 Dec 2009 at 11:40 am ¶