I used to use a lot of hidden folders. I'm down to one but it's capacity is full. I need to increase the amount of data that can be put in that folder. I thought it was a disk app process, but apparently not. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 26.3
um, what magic did you use to Crete this 'hidden folder'?
...Because if its just a regular folder on your disk with hidden attribute, they are like a rubber bag. They don't run out of space ... until your disk is full, at which time your Mac stops being able to work AT ALL.
You have a backing file for a storage volume (a disk image) marked as hidden, or have the folder containing the backing file in a folder itself marked as hidden.
Given folders don’t have a capacity and disk images do, this is definitely involving a disk image volume.
Disk images:
https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/create-a-disk-image-dskutl11888/mac
Hidden folders:
https://support.apple.com/en-lk/102099
Depending on the overarching goal here, there are discussions around the ‘net of deniable storage where adversarial access may potentially be gained through coercive means, and this approach here is definitely not suitable for those environments.
What OmniDiskSweeper or GrandPerspective or other tooling might display here could be interesting, too.
Finder does not see any hidden files, That's the point of hidden. You can toggle the sense of show hidden Files in a finder window by typing:
Command-Shift->
But that is not a hidden File, or even a hidden FOLDER. That is a hidden Volume (similar to a DRIVE).
To mount a Volume that is separately encrypted, you typically have to use Disk Utility to explicitly Mount that volume and supply its password. to Mount it.
1 TB is remarkably large.
what sized drive did you place it on?
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I think you are doing backflips to use a setup that is private, but no longer working for you.
what sort of data are you putting in these hidden volumes/drives/folders and more importantly WHY are you hiding them? From whom?
if this is from other family members, each of them should have their OWN account. This automatically makes each account private and its files inaccessible from all other accounts. This is very easy to set up.
if you worry you will step away and leave you private data exposed, you can start a screensaver after nnn minutes of inactivity, and require password entry to clear the screensaver.
Yeah; that is a disk image file, as was mentioned above.
You can create one of these files using Disk Utility. Link above.
If you create it as a so-called sparse bundle within Disk Utility, it can grow as stuff is added.
Then hide it, or hide its directory, if you want. Link above.
I created it in Disk Utilities as an encrypted APFS which I hid using Terminal App "chflags hidden folder name." It could be that 1TB is the maximum, which is where I'm at. It's been years since I created the one I'm using. I've tried creating a new one, but it doesn't work like I remember. When I hide the file, it disappears, but then I can't open it. When I search for the folder in Finder nothing comes up. The folder still exists and shows in Disk Utilities but I can't open it from the finder. I have to go to Disk Utilities / show in finder. Works, but it's a pain in the butt which I don't have to go though when using the older folder.
Indeed! I've been using hidden folders for decades. The hidden folder doesn't show in the finder until you unhide it. When you do a search for files and folders The hidden folder referenced specifically will show and when double clicked the password prompt will appear. When the password is entered the hidden folder appears in the finder (FUTS) in this case. The old file works perfectly.
1TB is rather large, but not large enough, thus my attempt to create another which is easily done in disk utility app. The problem I'm having is that when I hide the folder (Terminal - chflags hidden [drag folder here]) it disappears from the Finder. It does show in the finder under the main heading (Bacon's MacBook Pro) thus it isn't really hidden it just isn't showing in the Finder sidebar, only in the main computer heading.
I just want to reproduce a functioning hidden folder like the one I already have.
Now we're talking! Thanks!!
How can I increase the capacity of my hidden folder?
