Hasan Setiawan

Write, write, write give your wings on code!

Follow me on GitHub

Show hidden files in Mac finder

Show/Hide Hidden Files the Long Way

The long way to show hidden Mac OS X files is as follows:

  1. Open Terminal found in Finder > Applications > Utilities
  2. In Terminal, paste the following:
    defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
  3. Press return
  4. Hold the ‘Option/alt’ key, then right click on the Finder icon in the dock and click Relaunch.
  5. Relaunch Finder by right clicking the Finder Icon whilst holding the `option/alt` key


This will show all hidden files. To hide them again, follow the same steps but replace the Terminal command with:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

It’s not the longest set of instructions or the biggest command to commit to memory but if you’re doing this a lot, it’s worth spending a few minutes now to save yourself a lot more time in the future.