The files and folders that are hidden typically will have a ‘.’ in front of their name, but other items can be hidden as well through chflags commands. Remember the Finder must relaunch to show hidden files and folders, they will appear as slightly translucent icons alongside the normal icons. Thankfully it’s just as easy to switch back.
With all the files visible a Finder window can look much busier than you may be accustomed to, and it’s not always desired to leave on constantly. This setting stays in place until it has been reversed or disabled, which would cause all files to become hidden again just as the default. This is how hidden files look when they’re visible in a modern version of Mac, like an macOS High Sierra, Sierra, OS X El Capitan or Yosemite Finder window, note the hidden folders and files are visible but have dimmed gray names:Īnd this is how the once invisible files show in prior releases of Mac OS X, highlighted here: Examples of how hidden files show up in the Finder are shown below.
“Hidden” files are now visible in Finder windows, but they will display as a dimmed version of their respective file icons, being slightly transparent. The Finder will refresh after you hit the Return key, which causes Finder to quit and relaunch itself for the changes to take effect, thus revealing hidden files on the Mac. Here is what the defaults command string which shows hidden files looks like in the Mac Terminal: Hit the Return key after the command is entered into the Terminal command prompt, that will execute the command and allow the hidden files to become visible in the file system of Mac OS.
How to Show Hidden Files & Folders on Mac