permanently display hidden folders in finder

I also need help with this... I don't want to unhide every single file on my OS, I want to select a few files and unhide just those files. If I use this "Command+Shift+." , every file shows up. Also, if I use the common terminal command lines in terminal, every hidden file on the OS gets unhidden. Is there a way to just select a few files and unhide them?

I want to select a few files and unhide just those files.

That can be done, depending on how you actually hide the files. You can use the change flags command to add the hidden flag, and then use the same command to unhide them. However, that won’t work if the files are hidden by pretending the name with a period. You could unhide those by removing the period in the file name.

for the change, flags command,

chflags nohidden 

Leave a space after no hidden and drag the files into the terminal window. That will fill out the path to each of the files, then hit return.

If they were hidden with the hidden flag, they will no longer be hidden.

Are these folders you've hidden or were they originally hidden? If the latter they are probably system folders and can be changed except by the Shift+Command+, key combination which may reset itself upon a reboot.

Can you tell us which folders they are and where they are located?

It sounds like you just ended up with some hidden files, but if you want to hide and show files periodically, here are ways to make it a little easier.

You can wrap it into an Automator Quick Action so that you can select several files and either Hide or Show the files. To show the files, change "hidden" to "nohidden" in the shell script. However, you have to show hidden files in the Finder in order to select them and run the Quick Action.

Note that the Input is set to Files or Folders and "pass input:" in the Shell Script action is set to "as arguments."

Save each separately with different names such as, "Show Files," and "Hide Files."

If you have files you periodically want to hide and show, you could make an App instead and have it Get Specified Finder items instead of using the input of a Quick Action.

Exaccord wrote:

I also need help with this... I don't want to unhide every single file on my OS, I want to select a few files and unhide just those files. If I use this "Command+Shift+." , every file shows up. Also, if I use the common terminal command lines in terminal, every hidden file on the OS gets unhidden. Is there a way to just select a few files and unhide them?

You seem to be asking for a very different thing. The OP asked about showing hidden files in Finder.

This does NOT change the fact that the files are hidden - they still have the metadata saying they are hidden, the change is only on Finder settings - it makes Finder show hidden files (they appear greyed out, instead of not appearing at all).

You apparently are asking for ACTUALLY unhiding files - if not, please clarify.

You change the hidden status of files with the chflags command in Finder.

This is not something you should do unless you really understand what is happening, so please explain what are trying to achieve.

I have a handful of files (in this instance, JPEGs) that I want to unhide. In other words, when I go into the folder, I want them to appear there, instead of having to use the "Shift"+"Command"+"." command to unhide them. When I use that command, every single hidden file on the OS shows up, which I don't want to see all the time (which forces me to use that command again to hide every single file, after Im done with those JPEGs.) I would like to, however, like to see these specific files all the time, and for them to not be hidden. Hope that makes sense.

Exaccord wrote:

The chflags nohidden command works, thank you! I assume this is the best/only way to do this?

There are a few ways to hide files in Unix and Finder will hide certain things.

How they were hidden dictates how they can be unhidden. Since the chflags command worked, that’s how they were hidden.

There isn’t any GUI method built into the OS.

I’ve never heard of any image files being hidden by the OS. How did they come to be hidden?

Im not sure to be honest. When I unhide everything, I have a ton of files that come up as hidden. Word docs, excel files, etc, etc.

Conversely, what is the best way to hide a file, use "chflag hidden " command in terminal?

Exaccord wrote:

Im not sure to be honest. When I unhide everything, I have a ton of files that come up as hidden. Word docs, excel files, etc, etc.

Conversely, what is the best way to hide a file, use "chflag hidden " command in terminal?

The easiest way is to just add a period in front of the name in Finder.

If you do t want to rename, chflags hidden is the way.

Barney-15E wrote:

Exaccord wrote:

Im not sure to be honest. When I unhide everything, I have a ton of files that come up as hidden. Word docs, excel files, etc, etc.

Conversely, what is the best way to hide a file, use "chflag hidden " command in terminal?

The easiest way is to just add a period in front of the name in Finder.

If you do t want to rename, chflags hidden is the way.

Got it, thank you for all the help!

If you press command shift . hidden folders will be shown.

What have you been doing that isn’t permanent? I don’t know of any method that somehow changes.

The chflags nohidden command works, thank you! I assume this is the best/only way to do this?