Showing hidden files and folders on a Mac

Many files and folders are hidden on a Mac. There’s a good reason for this: Hiding files and folders prevents users from accidentally damaging the operating system. Nevertheless, sometimes you may need to access these files and folders. We’ll show you various options for viewing hidden files and folders on a Mac. However, use extreme caution: If you change or damage system files, it can have serious consequences for your operating system.

There are good reasons for hiding files and folders in operating systems. Computer manufacturers and administrators hide files to prevent users from accidentally deleting or damaging system-related files and folders. Other times, your employer may hide files and folders that are essential for the smooth exchange of data with customers and business partners. In most cases, you won't notice these files at all, even though they perform important tasks.

However, if you still want to view and access the hidden folders and files on your Mac, you should be extremely careful to avoid damaging your operating system.

Keyboard shortcuts are probably the easiest way to display hidden files and folders in the Finder on a Mac. You can show hidden files by pressing the Command, Shift, and Period keys at the same time.

Since the Library automatically saves Microsoft Office documents as hidden files, you may see a large number of unorganized files in this folder.

Instead of using keyboard shortcuts and the Finder, you can also use Terminal in conjunction with commands on your Mac to show hidden files and folders. Terminal is a built-in command-line interface included in the Mac operating system. You can use commands in Terminal to replace sequences of multiple steps in the Finder and perform an action. To view hidden files and folders using Terminal, proceed as follows:

Alternatively, you can launch Terminal by double-clicking “Terminal” in the Utilities Window. You can find this option either under “Go” in the menu bar or under “Applications”, which you can select in the Dock at the bottom of the screen.

Viewing hidden files and folders on a Mac using Terminal involves entering two commands and pressing the Enter key. Type the following into Terminal:

Now the hidden files and folders on your Mac are displayed in the Finder. As mentioned above, the files appear transparent. The folders look slightly paler than folders that are not hidden.

You can hide the files again by replacing “true” with “false” in the command above. The command then looks like this:

You can use Terminal not only to show or hide the hidden folders on your Mac. You can also use it to hide specific files from nosy users who may have access to your computer. To do this, proceed as follows:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Type in the following code into Terminal:

You can use the same procedure if you want to show the hidden files and folders on your Mac as usual again. To do this, simply type “chflags nohidden” instead of “chflags hidden”.

There is also a button on the toolbar for showing and hiding files.

The advantage of using an app like CleanMyMac X to clean up your Mac is that it systematically deletes unneeded files. The app quickly frees up a lot more disk space than would be possible with manual methods.

No matter which of the above methods you choose to view and delete hidden files and folders on your Mac, you’ll learn a lot about how your Mac works in the background.