After downloading a recovery software program, I noticed some anomalous files when I opened my hard drive screen. I do not know where they came from and they will not let me delete them. Please help me!
MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15
All of the displayed files/folders/aliases, are a normal part of macOS.
What "recovery software program" did you use, and why did you use it?
If you don't want to see the invisible files that make up the "guts" of MacOS, you can change the preference for "show all files". In most recent versions, it's a Finder preference (not to be confused with System Preferences).
Totally normal and usually hidden. Even if you could manage to trash them, MacOS would just rebuild the directories. This is normally all "under the hood".
All you should have to do, as Ferd II mentioned, is type this keyboard shortcut while Finder is the foreground app.
Command+Shift+.
The way I remember that shortcut is Command + > (which is shift period) to toggle whether more (greater than before) are shown.
GBA, did you intend to reply to my post? If so, I can't find that setting in the Catalina Finder preferences, but I can use (shift+command+.) to hide/display hidden files. I should have pointed out that keyboard shortcut to the OP.
Sorry, I seem too often to hit the nearest reply button, rather than the OP reply button.
Catalina is a special case, because some of those files are moved to their own read-only Volume. It did not look like Catalina to me.
My reply was intended to be generic, and if anyone wanted to pursue it, they could supply which MacOS version and the procedure could be looked up for that Version.
Now you have covered the Catalina version admirably.
Thank you for all of your help. I have tried to hide the files but they won't go away. I'm a bit of an OCD so it bugs me to see them, especially considering they weren't there before.
That works as a good way to remember it, too. The user is, after all, holding the shift key. So you're really typing a > , not a period.
Strange Files in Computer
