HOW TO VIEW THE HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS OF MAC WITH TERMINAL?

With the help of terminal and commands, you can get your Mac’s hidden files and folders. In this article, we have discussed how to view hidden files and folders on Mac with Terminal.

Launch Terminal:

• You can launch Terminal via Spotlight.
  • Go to Finder bar and look for a magnifying glass like icon. Click on it to open Spotlight. 
  • Type Terminal, Spotlight will open a terminal. 
• You can also locate Terminal:
  • On OS X, open your Applications folder. 
  • Go to Utilities folder. 
  • Open the Terminal application. 

View Hidden Files and Folders by using commands:

• Open Terminal. 
• Type or copy/paste the following commands into the Terminal window:
  • “defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE” (This command tells the Finder to show all files, irrespective of the hidden flag setting ) 
  • “killall Finder” (This command will stop and restart Finder, so that the changes can take place)
• Press the return or enter key after you enter each line of text.
• These commands will allow you to use Finder to find all the hidden files on your Mac.

Once you execute these commands, you will be able to see a file named.DS_Store. The .DS_Store file consists of information about the folder, you are currently in. It includes the icon, the location of the window and other bits of information the system requires. Also, you get the access to the important hidden folders such as the Library folder inside your Home folder. The Library folder contains many files and folders which is related to a particular apps and services that you use on your Mac.

Hide The Files:

• Open Terminal
• Type the below commands into the Terminal window:
  • “defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE?”
  • “killall Finder” 
• Press return key or enter key to execute the command and done, the hidden files are hidden once again.

In this way, you can hide and show the hidden folders of Mac with the help of Terminal. Try it and let us know what worked for you.