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Check tutorial of How to Show Hidden Files on MacOS with a Keyboard Shortcut
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Modern versions of Mac OS provide a super fast and easy way to reveal invisible files on Mac, just use a keyboard shortcut. With a simple keystroke, you can instantly reveal hidden files on Mac, and with a new tap of the same shortcut, you can instantly hide hidden files again. This is by far the fastest way to show and hide invisible files on Mac. You don’t have to use the Defaults command to show hidden files (although it still works), just use the handy keyboard shortcut anywhere in the Finder or a file access dialog.
To use the hidden files shortcut, you need a modern version of Mac OS system software, including macOS Mojave, High Sierra and macOS Sierra, anything beyond 10.12 should support the invisible file swap shortcut.
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, hidden files and hidden folders on a Mac are usually system-level items, configuration data, or some other file or folder that is usually hidden from the average end user for some reason. Thus, revealing hidden files is usually only necessary for more advanced Mac users, be it viewing, editing or modifying a particular invisible file or folder, or its contents.
Using the Show Hidden Files keyboard shortcut is incredibly easy, here’s how it works:
- From the Mac OS Finder, navigate to a folder that may contain hidden files (for example, the Macintosh HD root folder or a user Home folder)
- Now press Command + Shift + Period to switch directly to show hidden files
Here is an example of what the Macintosh HD folder looks like after hidden files are unhidden, and after hidden files are made invisible again, this is demonstrated in animated GIF format so you can see the hidden files appear and disappear:
As you can see, the hidden files and folders become visible and invisible when the hotkey is pressed.
The hidden files and folders, often marked as hidden via the chflags, setfiles command or by a. dot as a prefix of the name, becomes immediately visible. The currently visible hidden files are displayed with slightly blurred names and icons, to provide a visual indication that the file or folder in question is mostly hidden.
Note that if hidden files are made visible, they will be visible in all folders on the Mac, just like what happens if you use the default settings command to show hidden files in Mac OS and Mac OS X. The big difference between modern Mac OS releases and earlier versions of system software is that now the keyboard shortcut Command + Shift + Period is available to show and hide invisible items in the Finder, whereas before that you had to use the standard write command in the Terminal to delete those files and folders show or hide. If for some reason you prefer the command line approach, it is still available for modern Mac OS releases.
And of course you can quickly switch to hide the hidden files again and no longer make them visible by using the same keyboard shortcut:
- Navigate anywhere in the Mac Finder and hit Command + Shift + Period again to hide invisible files
Switching the hidden file shortcut affects all folders on the Mac.
Just remember that pressing down Command + Shift + Period in the file system of Mac OS will hide or show invisible files.
The visual indicator of hidden files and folders is quite clear. Here is a folder (root Macintosh HD) with hidden invisible files, the default state:
And here is the same folder with hidden files made visible through the keyboard shortcut. As you can see, there are many more items in the same folder, but they are hidden from the user’s usual Finder view. Any hidden file or folder is represented by the faded, opaque icon and name:
If this keyboard shortcut sounds familiar to you and you’re a long-time Mac user, it’s probably because of the Command Shift Period trick has long worked to toggle the display of invisible items in the Open and Save dialog boxes, but now that same keyboard shortcut can also change the visibility of invisible items in the Mac OS general Finder.
As mentioned earlier, you can still show and hide hidden files in Mac OS with a standard command if you want, or you can enable them with a standard command and hide them again with the aforementioned keystroke, but the default string syntax is common no longer need to quickly access the hidden files.
Again, this shortcut trick only applies to modern macOS releases, earlier versions of system software will have to use the command line method instead.
Whether to show or hide invisible files on Mac is complete up for you, but generally making it visible is best suited for advanced Mac users who need to access the hidden folders or files scattered around Mac OS. Do not delete, modify or delete any hidden files without knowing what you are doing; many of them are configuration files for various apps, programs and functionalities, or are necessary components for Mac OS and software.
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How to Show Hidden Files on MacOS with a Keyboard Shortcut: FAQ
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