On any operating system, there will always be several hidden files or folders. Generally, these files and folders are hidden from plain sight because the regular user has no reason to see or access those files or folders. This is because most of those hidden files and folders are related to the system. However, there will be times when you need to access the hidden files and folders or macOS to perform certain actions.
But unlike in Windows and Linux, macOS doesn’t provide any point and click solution to show hidden files and folders. That being said, it isn’t that hard to make your Mac show hidden files and folder. So, if you ever need to, here is how you can show hidden files and folder on macOS.
Show Hidden Files and Folders on macOS
As I said before, the Finder app in Mac doesn’t have any GUI (Graphical User Interface) to quickly show hidden files and folders. But you can use the terminal to achieve the same.
To do that, search for the terminal using the Launchpad or Spotlight and then open it.
Once the terminal has been opened, copy the below command and execute it.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
As soon as you execute the command, the Finder shows all the hidden files and folders system-wide. However, to see the changes, you either have to restart your system or the Finder app. You can use the below command to restart the Finder app.
killall Finder
After restarting, you can see all the hidden files and folders in Finder.
If you ever want to revert back, simply execute the below commands one after the other and your finder hides all the files and folders as before.
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE killall Finder
That’s all there is to do and it is that simple to show hidden files and folders on macOS.
Do comment below sharing your thoughts and experiences about using the above method to show hidden files and folders in macOS Finder.